Nipping it in the bud

Soon our summer courses will be finished, teachers will gradually slip away into holiday bliss and classrooms will rest for a while. On these summer courses for pre-teens and teens, we've often had teacher chats about keeping them in line without losing the fun, enjoyable element of a summer course and the old chestnut of...

After the drought. Back to being observed.

I've just had my 2nd observation this academic year. It was a kids' class, it was a Saturday afternoon and it was far from perfect. That's why it was so great. After about 6 years of being told I didn't "need" an observation, I have really, honestly, thoroughly enjoyed going through the process. The assumptions...

15 minutes for research

A short while ago there was quite a bit of online debate on the fact teachers just don't have the time to read about research and I've been thinking about it ever since. I believe the skills and research we touch on when on teacher training courses can be extensively developed through reflective experience and...

Creative Classroom Culture in the Primary classroom

Last month I gave a seminar at a LEND (Lingua e Nuova Didattica) event for Italian state school (Primary) teachers which was called 'Creative Minds in Primary Classrooms'. I'd been reading a bit about the importance of creativity for learning and about how dialogue plays an important part in creating the right learning environment (see...

A Comprehensive Guide to GroupZap – An Online Post-it Board

Excellent guide to a collaborative tool with great flexibility from Nathan Hall.

Reflections on using Titan pad for exam preparation (writing)

This year, I'm preparing a group of high school students for CAE (Certificate of Advanced English) and, as most exam courses do, I have to provide lots of writing practice of various kinds. As they are high schoolers, it's not always easy to motivate them into writing, never mind squeeze some formal English constructions out...

E-moderation and beyond!

I just signed up for my first e-moderation course (this one) and really looking forward to it. What is e-moderation and why am I interested in it? Well, as training and development continue to expand to include on-line options, there seems to be an increase in requests for tutors and teachers to guide the learning...

Are you blogging comfortably?

I've been thinking about writing this for quite a while now, but was finally inspired to do so by @deanshareski after reading his wonderful post this morning on his 10 year blogging anniversary here. I'm not very good at blogging. There. I said it. I am not a writer. I am not someone who blogs...

Language for development: dialogue in mentoring

In a recent mentoring session (part of my in-house training) there was a section which focused on the dialogue between mentors and mentees. As mentoring is a developmental relationship in which reflection is a key element, the language we use when encouraging this reflection to take place is of major importance. I have been fascinated...

Blogging with YLs: An example using Padlet

So, I was introduced to Padlet a couple of years ago in a training session given by our ICT coordinator (@marionodell). Since then, I've seen it used for vocabulary practice (brainstorming, mind maps, categorising, class dictionaries), for writing practice (description of photos, short stories, summaries) and as an on-line hub for learning links and resources...