ELTMentor News
Here’s our weekly digest of forum comments, upcoming dates and other snippets of useful information.
The Forum
Don’t forget to go and say Hi to Michael in the forum and look at his amazing bio and introduction!
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.
I’ve been tearing my hair out a bit with passwords as they have changed the format a bit. If you are struggling with your password let me know. I know Michael had a problem I hope that that is now resolved.
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
On Wednesday evening we talked about Dyslexia and how to deal with it in the classroom. There were lots and lots of great links shared and a few people with first-hand experience (either they suffered with it or had children who did) wre there so we got some great insights. As Marisa was unable to make our last session in the end to discuss this I think this will make a fabulous addition to last months session.
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 found two interesting articles this week to share with you.
One of my interests in ELT and teaching generally, is why as a profession we have such low status given the amount of training and professional development that we engage in. I don’t know how many of you teach business English but this article from the Guardian seems to suggest one reason why low status is the norm – with respect in this case to Business English.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/nov/08/business-english-lacks-professionalism?newsfeed=true
This second article is interesting and looks at whether some activities we engage in in the classroom are in fact ways of hiding a lack of confidence.
The article is by Jamie Keddie – Scared to Teach
http://oupeltglobalblog.com/2011/11/10/scared-to-teach/
Gapfillers
You probably saw the email about the IELTS group on Gapfillers. If you know anybody who is preparing for the exam especially at bands 7 and 8 then let them know as we are going to have quite a lot of IELTS activity in the next 3 months.
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 November 21st 12.00 p.m. UK time – We’re now back on GMT
I’m really looking forward to this session and I hope that can all make it.
You should all have received your invitation from the WIZIQ site. Let me know if you haven’t
(Edith I hope you can you present your Presto)
November 28th is our normal monthly session so we’ll be meeting again and talking about teaching mixed level groups.
Then the final session of the year is our half-day workshop on the 4th December at the end of the week so 3 times in fast succession 🙂
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.
Previous Sessions
All the previous session are on WIZIQ. I have now worked out how to get them into Gapfillers so I’ll be moving them there too.
Please let me know if there are any that you can’t access. Elena helped me to make sure that you have access to everything (thanks Elena :-)) but it is possible that I haven’t added you to the relevant classes- so if that’s the case shout!! It will be a lot easier once I have transferred all to Gapfillers.
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.
Until next week
Berni