 Free and “hand-made” site for creative teaching
Being a teacher means to distribute useful or urgent information both among learners and their parents. What is more, you need to provide a simple access to learning tools and interesting material as a boost of students’ interest often means a boost of their knowledge.
- Does a teacher really need a site?
- Can it be free and “hand-made”? for
- How can a site help you with your teaching practice?
- What tools can a teacher use?
This session considers these issues among others. Anastasia shares her experience in analysing teachers’ needs and working out a free personal site, friendly and flexible to your everyday needs.
Date: 30 June 2011
Presenter: Anastasia Tuzova
 Anastasia Tuzova is a Senior Teacher for the National University of Science and Technology MISiS. Having graduated the linguistic department of the Russian State Social University with honour, she has a particular interest in teaching student both to use and to enjoy the language. Due to her linguistic education and teaching practice at an engineering university, Anastasia deals with different aspects of the English language.
Being involved in the process of modernisation of Teaching English in MISiS, Anastasia pays a lot of attention to the modern learning technologies. She is a usual and active visitor of different seminars and conferences in the field.
Anastasia is an author of several articles, dealing with comparative linguistics, discourse analysis, prosody and intonation study.
The workshop focused on practical tips ans ideas how to prepare students to pass the exam successfully. A number of topics were explored, the participants were involved in writing process.
Date: 23 June 2011
Presenter: Tatyana Kuznetsova
 Tatyana Kuznetsova, teacher of English and teacher trainer, Honoured Teacher of Russia, member of the editorial board of the professional magazine "English at school". She is a coordinator of MELTA assosiation (CALL section) and Head methdologist of Khimki, Moscow Region. Tatyana has experience in course books writing for Russian National Exam.
Grammar is crucial to effective communication but too many learners have negative associations with grammar, finding it difficult and boring. The way to breaking down this barrier is to make grammar an active resource for learners which they see the value and benefit of. As demonstrated, grammar needs to presented and practised in an engaging and memorable way which has a positive impact both on learners' language resource and their general motivation.
Date: 16 June 2011
Presenter: Wayne Rimmer
In 2012 Britain will welcome up to a million visitors to the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London, ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
As Britain celebrates a new generation of monarchy with the royal wedding of ‘Kate and Wills’ (The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge), the session asked what kind of country will the visitors find in 2012? How are London and Britain changing and what are the key cultural issues that teachers need to take into account in preparing English classes?
The session discussed key cultural trends in Britain and demonstrate Olympic and international sports-themed lesson plans that teachers can use in the classroom at CEFR (Council of Europe Framework of Reference) levels A1 to B2.
Date: 31 May 2011
Presenter: Barry Tomalin
Barry Tomalin is Director of Cultural Training at International House, London and Director of the Business Cultural Trainers Certificate, which trains teachers to run cross-cultural business training seminars. He also runs the International Certificate Conference Certificate in Diversity Training, which trains teachers to plan and run seminars in diversity management.
Barry is also Visiting Lecturer in Cultural Awareness at the University of East Anglia, London Academy of Diplomacy and the author of several books on international cultures. He is currently developing lesson plans and educational materials for the Council to train students to learn English and communication skills with an international sports theme and recently wrote an interactive programme to support teachers taking part in the Connecting Classrooms initiative.
Joint seminar with Pearson - Longman
During the seminar we analyzed learners’ errors and mistakes, their types, origins and approaches on how to work with them. We also focused our attention on importance of language mistakes for language learning.
Date: 19 May 2011
Presenter: Anna Voronina
Joint seminar with Cambridge University Press
As teachers, we aim to ensure that our students learn things that will be useful and interesting to them now and in the future.
- What kind of knowledge can young learners acquire?
- What kind of things can we tell students of this age about the English language? What things should we train them to do or not do when taking the Cambridge ESOL YLE tests?
This session considered these issues among others. Anne shared her experiences of teaching, training and examining students for the Cambridge YLE tests and passed on some tips and activities for you to share with your students.
Date: 16 May 2011
Presenter: Anne Robinson
Anne Robinson is the Senior Presenter for Cambridge ESOL in Spain. She has extensive experience with learners of all ages and began teaching in Madrid, Spain in 1985. For eleven years, she was the Director of a large language school (International House Santander), also the Cambridge ESOL exams centre for the area.
Anne has been involved in the Cambridge ESOL YLE tests since before their launch in 1997, piloting the Tests and administering them in numerous venues in her region each year. She has also written seminars and web material for Cambridge ESOL. Anne is an Oral Examiner for all levels of the Cambridge ESOL exams.
Anne is the author of Fun for Starters, Movers and Flyers First Edition (CUP) and co-author of the Second Edition of Fun for Starters, Movers and Flyers with Karen Saxby. She is a regular speaker at Spanish and international conferences and enjoys the contact with teachers and their feedback on her materials and ideas.
Joint seminar with Pearson - Longman
The problem of how to teach English to adults was discussed during this session. We looked at how to help adult learners to develop practical communicative skills using materials taken from such course books as Language Leader, Speak Out and Lifestyle.
Date: 12 May 2011
Presenter: Anna Voronina
Joint event with Cambridge University Press, BKC-IH
Joint seminar with Pearson - Longman
During the seminar we tried to answer the question why learner’s autonomy and critical thinking are important. We examined the approaches used in English language teaching for developing such skills among learners. The samples of training course materials gave an opportunity practice these approaches. The sample materials were taken from the textbooks for learners of different ages.
Date: 14 April 2011
Presenter: Anna Voronina
The interactive whiteboard (IWB) is an easy-to-use tool that can help teachers make learning more effective. With an IWB you can bring together different resources (text, audio, images) in one place in the classroom. Learners can then interact with these resources via the IWB. IWBs can help you make your lesson more effective and more fun. This workshop demonstrated two key factors: how to increase student participation without increasing your preparation time.
Date: 11 April 2011, 10:00-12:00
Presenter: Graham Bradford
Graham Bradford is a learning technologies teacher trainer based in Italy. After teaching English in several pacific rim countries Graham moved into the area of multimedia materials production and online course development. He developed the British Council's suite of online English language courses and is the author of the interactive exercises that accompany Black Cat's digital readers.
This seminar examined what is really meant by the term ‘Communicative Language Teaching.’ We examined the connection between theory and practice and evaluated a number of practical activities in terms of their ability to promote language learning in a communicative context
Date: 11 April 2011, 14:00-17:45
Presenter: Tim Herdon
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Tim Herdon is a teacher, teacher trainer and has authored EFL teacher training materials. He has taught English in England, Spain and Japan, working in both the private and public education. As a teacher trainer, Tim has extensive experience in delivering talks to primary, secondary and language school teachers on a wide range of topics. |
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During the seminar we explored the most efficient ways of how TPR (total physical response) and visuals can be used in the primary classroom.
Date: 7 April 2011
Presenter: Raymond Kerr, British Council
Raymond has been working as an EFL teacher and trainer over 30 years. His professional interests are learning technologies in the EFL classroom, teaching young learners, motivation and classroom and management issues.
Joint seminar with Cambridge University Press
If you’re teaching ‘experienced’ adults, you know they need both core language presentation and review as well as opportunities to explore ‘real’ global English–plus extra practice, preferably electronically. We looked at examples from English Unlimited, the new course for teaching adults from Cambridge ELT, which offers a range of ways to meet these challenges: lessons designed around communicative goals as defined by the Common European Framework; corpus-informed vocabulary; a focus on pronunciation; authentic video, audio and reading material from international sources; and DVD-ROMs and Classware for both the teacher and the students plus an e-Portfolio. This workshop suggested practical ways to enable your adult learners to achieve real-life outcomes in class and prepare to communicate confidently outside class in the real world.
Date: 22 March 2011
Presenter: Gary Anderson, International Teacher Trainer
Gary obtained his M.A. in English at Boston University in the United States and then the Cambridge RSA Diploma in Teaching English as a Foreign Language in France. While Pedagogical Director of the language program of the former American Centre in Paris, he taught and co-ordinated classes for all ages of learners and presented at TESOL International. He was President-elect of TESOL France when he joined Cambridge University Press in 1996. Based in Paris as Cambridge ELT International Teacher Trainer for Eurasia, he has given workshops in over 50 countries on five continents, including several times in Russia.
Joint seminar with Oxford University Press
Supporting Speaking in Primary Classrooms
How can we help young learners to try out new phrases and words so they speak with confidence, fluency and accuracy? It’s a tall order to achieve this in a busy classroom when we have a curriculum to complete. In this session looked at how materials can help children to integrate speaking naturally in their general language work – with the help of Family & Friends.
What texts can teach our students
Students first need to be motivated to work with texts. They need to be challenged – not just linguistically, but in terms of content and ideas so they are stimulated to want to respond (in speech or writing). But in all this they also need to be guided in the language they need to use to express their ideas, and offered activities through which they can interact and exchange in a socially supportive way. In this session we learnt how Matrix for Russia can lead the way.
Date: 18 march 2011
Presenter: Sarah Villiers, TEFL Consultant and Teacher Trainer
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Dr Sarah Villiers is a TEFL Consultant and Teacher Trainer with over 30 years of teaching, lecturing, research and training experience in the UK, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Dr Villiers’ key publications include several works on language development and classroom techniques for teachers. |
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This seminar examined what is really meant by the term "Communicative Language Teaching." We examined the connection between theory and practice and evaluated a number of practical activities in terms of their ability to promote language learning in a communicative context. We also considered how successfully the principles of CLT are applied in published material, and gave examples from the New English File.
Participants learnt about the iPack, a new, easy-to-use, digital resource which has the potential to revolutionise the way we use coursebooks in class. Both the technological and pedagogical aspects of this talk are intended to demonstrate the benefits of an interactive approach to language teaching and learning, and participants will have the opportunity to try out and evaluate the activities.
Date: 11 February 2011, 14.30-18.15
Presenter: Paul Seligson
Pol has been teaching EFL since 1978. He has an MA in TEFL, and is co-author of English File Levels 1 and 2, published by Oxford University Press.He now works freelance, dividing his time between writing, training, and travelling.
The FunSongs Method is an organized way of presenting, teaching and acquiring new language using action songs. Combining melody and mime, rhythm and rhyme will help you to teach children English fast and effectively.
Date: 26 January 2011
Presenter: Charles Goodger
Charles Goodger is an English teacher, text-book writer (his course books include World Friends and the bestseller The Language of Travel, Mondadori) and teacher trainer. Charles is also a pianist, guitarist and songwriter.
FunSongs web site nominated for British Council award ELTons 2011.
Date: 9 December 2010, 16.00
Presenters: Simon Brooks (BKC-International House) “Assessing Academic English: why IELTS?”
Ludmila Gorodetskaya (Cambridge University Press) “Preparation for IELTS: challenges and solutions”
The workshop participants received certificates of attendance.
Skype is an application that helps people communicate, work and study together. In this session we will offer a simple crash-course on Skype features and services, an overview of the ways Skype is being used today in the education world, and an interactive workshop on developing ideas for Skype integration in the teaching process and everyday life of a teacher.
Date: 2 December 2010, 16:00
Presenter: Arseniy Rastorguev
Arseniy works for Grayling consulting company and is Skype's spokesman in Russia.
Can testing be teaching? What do we test, how do we test and what are the ways of dealing with mistakes? Material is based on Longman coursebooks for primary school learners.
Date: 25 November 2010, 16:00
Presenter: Anna Voronina, Pearson Longman teacher trainer
Date: 24 November 2010, 16:00-18:00
Presenter: Brendan Wightman, Commissioning Editor, e-Learning, Cambridge ELT
Date: 23 November 2010, 19.00
Presenters: Rupert Haigh, Sergey Krechetov
Rupert Haigh, internationally recognized Legal English specialist and managing partner of Forum Legal. With Ultimate Business Consulting Ltd since 2009. Rupert holds an MA (1996) in English from Cambridge University and an LLM (2001) from Helsinki University. He completed the Common Professional Examination in Law at Bournemouth University and obtained the Diploma of Legal Practice at the Oxford Institute of Legal Practice. He qualified as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales in 1997. Rupert has three years’ experience as a practising solicitor in England. He holds a TEFL certificate and has been training legal professionals both in Finland and in other European countries since 2002. Rupert Haigh is the author of books on legal English, including the Oxford Handbook of Legal Correspondence (OUP, 2006), and Legal English (Cavendish-Routledge 2004, second edition 2009).
Sergey Krechetov, executive director with Ultimate Business Consulting Ltd since 2007. Experienced manager, graduated from MGIMO (International relations, 2000) and RUDN (History, 1999). He holds FCE (2003). With Marketing and Management Department of MAEL since 2008 (course on International business communication). Sergey is also an author of the Writing Words that Sell workshop and a book on email writing for Russian managers (to be published in 2011). Associated member of British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies (BASEES) and Study Group on Eighteenth-Century Russia (SGECR) since 2007.
The session covered those websites and applications which help to develop students' autonomy, such as on-line dictionaries with audio support, on-line training exercises where an incorrect answer is impossible and the like. Age of the learners' under discussion - 7 and above. Seminar presentation
Date: 18 November 2010, 16:00
Presenter: Vera Bobkova
Practical apprroaches for successful language learning in the primary classroom. Material is based on FlyHigh.
Date: 11 November 2010, 16:00
Presenter: Anna Voronina, Pearson Longman teacher trainer
All learners appreciate fun and humour so jokes and anecdotes supply memorable and authentic learning material which is rich in linguistic content. As demonstrated in this session, there are many ways jokes and anecdotes can be exploited in the classroom to provide affective and effective learning.
Date: 28 October 2010, 16:00
Presenter: Wayne Rimmer
Teachers can help learners to identify the most challenging exam areas and support students in developing strategies for exam pass. Material is based on Longman Exam Maximiser and Activate B2. Seminar presentation.
Date: 21 October 2010, 16:00
Presenter: Anna Voronina, Pearson Longman teacher trainer
In this session we looked at blogs as tools for teacher development and reflection as well as blogs for student production and practice. Seminar presentation.
Date: 19 October 2010, 16:00
Presenter: Gavin Dudeney, The Consultants-E
Gavin has worked in education for the past 20 years, as a teacher, materials developer, IT manager and web/user interface designer. Until the end of 2003 he held two posts: the first as Head of the New Technologies Department at International House Barcelona and the second was Lead Developer for the online training centre Net Languages. In 2003 Gavin set up The Consultants-E with Nicky Hockly. He is a past coordinator of the IATEFL Learning Technologies Special Interest Group and also past editor of the SIG newsletter. In 2007 he was elected Honorary Secretary of IATEFL.
An exploration of the themes of childhood, innocence and experience in the lyrics and music of Pink Floyd. We shall be tracing childhood themes in Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here and The Wall back to the English Romantic tradition, with special reference to William Blake and Wordsworth.
Date: 18 October 2010, 16:00
Presenter: James Banner, International Officer, University of Kent, UK
James Banner directed the RSA Diploma in Teaching Foreign Languages to Adults, and a Certificate Programme in TFLA for Hilderstone College in conjunction with Kent Adult Education and the University of Kent. He has wide experience of teaching and training at all levels both in Britain and abroad and has published articles on language teaching and cultural issues. He is author of the Langenscheidt-Longman language corner on www.youandmelink.com
Date: 14 October 2010
Presenter: Adrian Doff. Seminar presentation.
Adrian Doff has taught English and trained teachers in Finland, Yugoslavia, Lebanon, Egypt, Germany and the UK. He has written many books for Cambridge University Press, including the coursebooks Meanings into Words and Language in Use, the teacher training book Teach English, the listening skills books in the Cambridge Skills for Fluency series, and the self-study reference series Language Links. He is course consultant for the new Cambridge adult course English Unlimited and author of the Starter and Advanced levels. He is currently living in Germany and working as a free-lance writer, teacher and teacher trainer.
"100 exam tips" - ways of developing communicative skills with exam taking strategies in mind in the secondary classroom. Material is based on Longman Exam Activator and Activate! A2 Seminar presentation
Date: 7 October 2010
Presenter: Anna Voronina, Pearson Longman teacher trainer
The IWB is a technology with great potential to transform the classroom experience. The question is how to make it a cutting edge tool in teaching practice?
New learning opportunities at your students’ fingertips- experience an EFL lesson in the ActivClassroom!
Date: 6 October 2010
Presenter: Inna Stevens, Teaching and Learning Consultant, Promethean.
During the seminar, the participants explored the website from the position of learners. They did some exciting tasks, listened to educational songs, took part in contests, tried to answer the quizzes and so on. After that, the participants looked at the website from a teacher's point of view and discussed the strategies of using LearnEnglishKids in their teaching.
Date: 30 September 2010
Presenter: Vera Bobkova.
Her area of interest is using Web 2.0 in language teaching and distance teacher education. She is a PhD student at the Department of Foreign Languages, Moscow State University.
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