TeachingEnglish newsletter 25 November 2015

TeachingEnglish - the global home for teachers 25 November 2015 Welcome to the latest newsletter from TeachingEnglish! This week we have winter activities for kids, a fun writing activity for teens, and an idea for integrating digital technology to revise past tenses with adults. The next EnglishAgenda professional development webinar is with Bríd Ní Chatháin, who will discuss how to improve reading comprehension for learners with dyslexia. Our featured professional development activity this week is one of our Video tips - 'Presentation for teachers'. And finally, we have an interesting blog by David Petrie outlining a series of activities, lessons and ideas that you can use to help your learners develop digital literacy skills. We hope you find these resources useful. Deb TeachingEnglish team Teaching kids Are you looking for winter activities? How about making a snowflake finger puppet and using it to say a rhyme? Or make a Santa-shaped advent calendar while learning numbers. There are also activities on feeding the birds, snowmen and of course Christmas. Go to the activities Teaching teens A dark and stormy night - the main focus of this activity is on developing writing skills, but it's also good for developing listening speaking and reading skills and also for practising past tenses, descriptive vocabulary and generally having fun. Go to the activity Teaching adults Integrating digital technology in the language classroom may be at times frustrating and challenging. However, by mixing approaches, one can achieve elements of higher engagement by giving learners the opportunity to learn, analyze and create. Take a look at this example for revision of the Simple Past by Ana Cristina Pratas.  Read more Development Have you looked at our Video tips - a series of short videos exploring different areas of teaching? Why not take a look at 'Presentation for teachers'? Watch and listen to Tony's ideas about colours, fonts and grouping when using a board or preparing a presentation.  Watch video Events Join the EnglishAgenda series of free continuing professional development webinars on a variety of thought-provoking themes. On 15 December at 10.00 UK time, Bríd Ní Chatháin will discuss how to improve reading comprehension for learners with dyslexia. She will explore some of the difficulties and suggest practical strategies and techniques for teachers who want to support struggling readers. Find out more Magazine David Petrie: Clickbait, Memes and sharing the truth - activities for digital literacies. One of Gavin Dudeney's recent articles on this site explores the ideas of digital literacies and emphasises the importance of incorporating them into your teaching. This article presents a series of activities, lessons and ideas that you can take away and use with your classes to help them develop some of these key skills. Some of them you can make a part of your regular teaching practice, others work better as standalone lessons. Read more You have received this newsletter because you registered on our website or previously showed interest in British Council news. If you wish to opt out of future newsletters please unsubscribe here.

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TeachingEnglish newsletter 18 November 2015

TeachingEnglish - the global home for teachers 18 November 2015 Welcome to the latest newsletter from TeachingEnglish! This week we have news of the Innovate ELT conference 2016 - don't miss out on the limited number of Discounted Early Bird tickets! For the classroom we have a range of activities for younger learners on the theme of food with cross-curricular links to nutrition, a lesson plan for teens on the theme of social media, and a fun way for your adult students to discuss controversial topics. Our featured professional development course this week is Communicative Assessment, a short, online self-study course for those of you interested in new approaches to assessment. And finally, we have an upcoming webinar by Sandy Mourão - 'Integrating English into pre-primary education: the use of learning areas'. We hope you find these resources useful. Deb TeachingEnglish team Teaching kids 'Fruit and Vegetables' offers a range of activities for younger learners on the theme of food with cross-curricular links to nutrition. Role play, stories, make your own books, and alphabet scavenger hunt are just some of the activities you can try.  Go to the activities Teaching teens This lesson plan - Facebook and social networking - is suitable for teenagers and adults at level B1 and above and explores the theme of social media. It takes a look at trends in online social networking and gives students chance to create an imaginary online 'wall' where they can interact with each other. Go to the lesson plan Teaching adults The 'Tap-In Debate' is a fun way for students to discuss controversial topics. It is excellent for speaking and listening practice. What's good about the activity is it involves all the students and they can't afford to sleep on the back seats because they know they will wreck the lesson if they do! Go to the activity Development Take a look at our Communicative Assessment course. This is a short 20-hour online self-study course for busy teachers and examiners of English who are interested in exploring new approaches to assessment and testing. It is a general course suitable for teachers and examiners working in the secondary, tertiary or the private ELT sector. Open for enrolment now. Communicative Assessment course     Events After the success of last year, Oxford TEFL and ELT Jam have announced important dates and information for next year's Innovate ELT conference. The 2016 conference will include interactive workshops, talks, observations of sample lessons from prominent speakers and discussions. This time, the conference will also be celebrating action research, activism and entrepreneurship. There will also be some time to network with guests and speakers, enjoy tapas and listen to live music! Discounted Early Bird tickets (limited number) deadline is 01/12/2015. Find out more Magazine On 19 November we invite you to join Sandy Mourão for 'Integrating English into pre-primary education: the use of learning areas'. This webinar looks at the teaching of English as a Foreign language in pre-primary education and shares the results of an ELTRA project which investigated the effectiveness of incorporating an English learning area into the children's play options. Read more and register for the event You have received this newsletter because you registered on our website or previously showed interest in British Council news. If you wish to opt out of future newsletters please unsubscribe here.

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TeachingEnglish newsletter 11 November 2015

TeachingEnglish - the global home for teachers 11 November 2015 Welcome to the latest newsletter from TeachingEnglish! This week we have news of the British Council Services for International Education Marketing Conference 2015 - register now for this unmissable event. For the classroom we have a lesson plan for kids - Numbers, and an integrated skills lesson for teens - Natural disasters. We also have an informatve article on NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming). Our featured professional development resource this week is our Teaching knowledge database - an alphabetical list of ELT terms. And finally, we have new blog topics and articles for November on the theme of Promoting 21st century skills. We hope you find these resources useful. Deb TeachingEnglish team Teaching kids Help your young learners talk about numbers and do some simple maths in English with this lesson at A2 level - Numbers. Students play a maths game, listen to and read a story, then play a board game. Go to the lesson plan Teaching teens  Natural disasters are constantly in the news and provide a good topic of conversation for your students, as they will all have some knowledge of the subject. This lesson for B1+ learners includes a drawing dictation, a simple sentence completion activity, a reading task and a group role play. Go to the lesson plan Teaching adults NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) has been around in language teaching longer than we may realise. Those teachers who incorporate elements of suggestopedia, community language learning, music, drama and body language into their lessons are already drawing on NLP as it stood twenty years ago. Find out more about the roots of NLP, NLP and language learning, and NLP in the classroom in this informative article. Go to the article Development Do you know what a 'Jumble activity' is? Or a 'Glottal stop'? Take a look at our Teaching knowledge database. The database contains a long list of ELT terms arranged alphabetically. To find the term you are looking for, browse using the alphabetical list or use the search box in the top right hand corner of the screen. Teaching knowledge database     Events The British Council Services for International Education Marketing Conference is returning to the Edinburgh International Conference Centre for this year's event on 10-11 December 2015. Edinburgh is a fantastic destination and we hope you will join us, and over 550 delegates, for an action-packed two days. This is an unmissable market insight event for professionals from the English language sector and registration is now open. Find out more   Magazine NEW blog topics for November focus on Promoting 21st century skills. But what exactly are 21st Century skills and are they the same as digital literacies? Read two recent articles written by Gavin Dudeney which explore the four key digital literacies: focus on connections, on language, on information and on (re)design. He also looks at the distinction between these and 21st century skills, and then get blogging! Read more You have received this newsletter because you registered on our website or previously showed interest in British Council news. If you wish to opt out of future newsletters please unsubscribe here.

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