This mini-series of short posts sketch out some of the ideas that I would like to explore at the upcoming TDSIG Unplugged Conference in Barcelona on 21 May 2011. If any of them chime with you and you would like to explore them as well – or if you would like to work on completely different […]
TDSIG Unplugged Countdown: Ignition
The Gathering The IATEFL Teacher Development Special Interest Group (TDSIG) is holding a one-day Unplugged Conference in Barcelona on Saturday 21 May – in other words, one week tomorrow. The term conference is perhaps a little misleading, as the event is being held in Open Space, which consciously rejects preset agendas or predetermined content. Instead, […]
Every Dogme Has Its Day (Part 2)
Since I posted part one of this mini-series, several other bloggers have also covered the events at the Dogme Symposium at IATEFL 2011 in Brighton. In doing so, they also described more or less all of the issues that were raised during the Q&A session and gave their own responses to them. I’d like to […]
Every Dogme Has Its Day (Part 1)
On Monday 18 April 2011, on the penultimate day of the IATEFL Annual Conference in Brighton, England, approximately 250 people crammed into a hot and sweaty room. Four speakers, three hours, one moderator, and no powerpoint. The next few posts will attempt to summarize a rich and often heated event. Scott Thornbury opened proceedings and […]
The Road to Brighton Pier (is paved with good intentions…)
I am sitting on a coach at the moment, being chauffeured down to Brighton for the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL) Conference, which is due to start tomorrow with the Special Interest Group (SIG) Pre-Conference Events (PCEs) – if there is one thing that our profession isn’t short of, […]
Thank you for your generosity!
Coming up on a week ago I posted an appeal for lesson ideas that would work in a lo-/no-materials context, in response to a call for help on another discussion forum by a teacher in Christchurch, New Zealand. Your response has been amazing: almost 300 visitors have visited and many of you have left useful […]
KEEP CHRISTCHURCH TEACHING
STOP PRESS 2:10pm 1 March: DELTA PUBLISHING HAVE AGREED TO DONATE COPIES OF TEACHING UNPLUGGED TO THE SCHOOL IN NEED I WRITE ABOUT IN THIS POST – GREAT TO SEE SOCIAL NETWORKING WORKING FOR SOCIAL GOOD! THANK YOU ALL AT DELTA PUBLISHING!!! You have probably heard about the recent earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand and […]
What learning teachers do… (Part 1)
We started a new CELTA course last Monday and I am currently swapping between this blog page and a Facebook Group that the trainees started off their own bat. I’m chatting with a couple of them there about their ideas for their next lessons. I am struck by the fact that such social networks are […]
Welcome to Teacher Training Unplugged 2011
First of all, let me say sorry to those of you who have visited here over the last few months only to be rewarded with inactivity. This blog has been decidedly quiet since mid-year 2010 and there is nothing to do but apologise. In my defence, I suppose I could say that the following things […]
Unplugging day three: exploiting anecdotes
On our current CELTA course day three started like this… Anthony told the trainees that something had happened to him the previous evening on his way home and that he was unsure about how he dealt with it. He told them that he wanted to tell them what happened and would like them to say […]