ELTMentor News
Here’s our weekly digest of forum comments, upcoming dates and other snippets of useful information.
The Forum
Thank you Katia for being the most prolific forum user this week!
Do use the forum for sharing ideas, asking for help or posting successes!
Start your own thread choose whatever it is that you are passionate about and let’s get discussing it.
Can anybody who hasn’t yet please post up a short bio? We can’t wait to find out all about you 🙂
Here’s the link again:
If you haven’t managed to find the forum yet let me know.
#eltmentor
There are a few things under this hashtag. Go and check it out to see what’s there. It’s an easier way of sharing stuff than #eltchat which moves very fast!
If you are still struggling with twitter just let me know and I can go through it with you.
(Sign up to twitter, then sign up to tweetdeck and post a comment there).
#eltchat
I do urge you to have a go at #eltchat you don’t have to join in you can just observe using tweetchat. You will be amazed at what you can learn and you will also find the people there who have similar interests or a similar teaching environment to you. I’ve seen some great collaborations take place with teachers who met on twitter and got their classes together online – food for thought.
Check everything out on the #eltchat site.
For those of you who would like to follow #eltchat but haven’t signed up to twitter and would prefer to ‘lurk’ and observe before taking the plunge, you can observe #eltchat on Tweetchat.com. Here is the link:
When you get to the site add eltchat to the # box. You can then sit back and watch the action! If you want to contribute you can sign in but this is really the best place for smart lurking :-0
#eltchat is held on Wednesdays at 12.00 and 21.00 UK time – but the # is in use at all times so you can check in anytime to see what is going on.
To find out more about eltchat here is a link to the site – even if you don’t attend the chat you can get great information and links to resources via this site:
Useful articles
I am sharing some short articles on mixed level classes this week.
They mostly say the same sorts of things, as will I in the webinar tomorrow, but there are different ideas and practical suggestions in the articles so I think they are a valuable resource.
http://www.englishonline.org.cn/en/teachers/workshops/mixed-abilities/articles/strategies-one#
http://www.englishonline.org.cn/en/teachers/workshops/mixed-abilities/articles/strategies-two#
http://eltnotebook.blogspot.com/2007/05/teaching-mixed-ability-groups-solution.html
http://eltchat.com/2011/03/01/how-do-you-deal-with-mixed-ability-classes-summary/
http://www.pearsonlongman.com/teaching-tips/mixed-ability-classes.html
Gapfillers
Don’t forget to give me feedback if you use the site for yourself or with students. Also if you have suggestions they’re always welcome 🙂
If you have any students interested then just tell them to contact me mentioning you and I’ll sort everything out for them.
Just a reminder that we do offer a school licence so if your school has advanced students (if wants to use it for teachers) this is possible – just let me know.
We can also syndicate content which means we can deliver straight to your school site or intranet.
Next Session tomorrow November 28th 12.00 p.m. UK time – We’re now back on GMT
We’re looking at teaching mixed level classes.
You should all have received an invitation, but just in case here is the link:
http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/675381-teaching-mixed-level-classes
Then the final session of the year is our half-day workshop on the 4th December.
I’ve posted a thread on the forum about this session and if any of you have any ideas about what you’d like to do on this day then let me know there. I already have some ideas which I’ve shared in the post but I’m sure you will have too – I want it to be a fun event.
Do go along and make some suggestions or email them to me.
I’ll also need your Pecha Kucha slides so I can upload them to the site. I hope that these are going ok let me know if you need any help.
Edith
I’m sure you all join me in wishing Edith a speedy recovery after her accident. We’ve missed you Edith and we all look forward to seeing you at ELTMentor sessions again.
Need help with anything?
If anybody else needs help with anything just post in the forum, or on twitter or email me or send a message in Gapfillers. I am really pleased that you are using the forum – let’s get more things posted to discuss.
Don’t forget to put any suggestions in the forum, this is your space to share ideas or experiences and to ask questions.
I hope to see some of you tomorrow 🙂
Until next week
Berni