TeachingEnglish newsletter 26 October 2016

TeachingEnglish - the global home for teachers 26 October 2016 Welcome to the TeachingEnglish newsletter! This week we are pleased to announce the winner of our competition for the Teaching for Success Online Conference! For the classroom we have activities and lesson plans around the theme of Halloween, which is celebrated on 31 October in many countries around the world. Our featured recorded talk from our recent online conference this week is Gavin Dudeney's 'Integrating ICT: the case for mobile'.  We also announce a new publication by Anne Burns and Nur Kurtoğlu-Hooton - 'Using action research to explore technology in language teaching: international perspectives'. And finally, if you haven't already done so, don't forget to complete our survey on ideas for a new series of video tips for the website. We hope you find these resources useful. Deb TeachingEnglish team Teaching kids In this lesson, students will practise Halloween vocabulary, and sing a song or watch a story. Depending on stages chosen, they will then invent an animal skeleton, write a spooky story, play a Halloween game, or invent a magic potion. Finally, they will make a paper skeleton, then write and talk about it.  Go to the lesson Teaching teens Halloween is celebrated on 31st October and is becoming increasingly popular amongst teenagers across Europe. This lesson plan focuses on a series of activities designed to focus on different skills, all related to Halloween. The activities can be adapted, so choose the most suitable for your group, taking into account their language levels and interests. Go to the activities Teaching adults As Halloween approaches, why not try this creative writing activity - A dark and stormy night - with your adults learners? Although the main focus of the activity is on developing writing skills, it is also good for developing listening and reading skills and practising past tenses and descriptive vocabulary. Students use their imaginations to build up a character profile, and then work cooperatively to develop the storyline.  Go to the activity Development 'Using action research to explore technology in language teaching: international perspectives' is a new publication by Anne Burns and Nur Kurtoğlu-Hooton which provides an investigation of the processes and practices involved in conducting action research on the use of ICT and new technologies in the classroom as experienced by 12 teachers located across different international contexts, from Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Read more Events This week's featured talk from the Teaching for Success online conference is Gavin Dudeney's talk - Integrating ICT: the case for mobile. Gavin looks at ten reasons why mobile and handheld learning (mLearning) may have a greater chance of success than any other technology we have implemented in the past. Over the course of those ten points, he examines mLearning through an institutional lens, and through the lenses of both the learner and the teacher, in order to judge whether mLearning is, finally, the EdTech solution we have been waiting for. Go to the recording Magazine We are very pleased to announce that the winner of our competition for the Teaching for Success is Nitin Prabhune. Nitin attended our recent online conference and wins a place on our Starting E-moderating online teacher training course, which began on 20 October. Congratulations Nitin - we hope you get a lot of out of the course! 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 19 October 2016

TeachingEnglish - the global home for teachers 19 October 2016 Welcome to the TeachingEnglish newsletter! This week we announce the winner of September's blog of the month award - Veronika Palovska's 'How to use blogs to help your students achieve fluency'. For the classroom we have a lesson for kids on the topic of 'seasons', a process writing lesson for teens, and another lesson for adults from the series Rants and Raves on the topic of reality TV. Our featured recorded talk from our recent online conference this week is Ian Clifford's 'Towards evidence and skills-based teacher development'. And finally, we are seeking your input on ideas for a new series of video tips for the website. Please take a couple of minutes to complete our survey and tell us what you think. We hope you find these resources useful. Deb TeachingEnglish team Teaching kids In this lesson, students will look at different features of the seasons. They will listen to and sing a song, and watch a story about the changing seasons. They will think about words and ideas connected to the different seasons, and then work together to produce a poster. Finally students can complete a craft activity or play a game. Go to the lesson plan Teaching teens This lesson for teens at level B1/B2 uses the School discipline resource from the 'UK Now' section of the LearnEnglish Teens website. The lesson is a process writing lesson, which gives learners a lot of support as they write, and follows a typical process writing procedure of four stages. Go to the lesson plan Teaching adults This activity from our 'Rants and Raves' series provides short listening practice based around a monologue regarding reality TV in the UK. In this lesson, students will listen to a monologue about a persons reflection of reality TV. They will put the monologue in order and answer comprehension questions. There  are also suggestions for developing the theme of reality TV to practise specific areas of grammar. Go to the activity Development TeachingEnglish is currently developing a series of video tips made by English teachers for English teachers. We would like your input to let us know which teaching issues you would most like to get some advice on, from grammar and vocabulary to teaching different skills, classroom management and activities. Please take a couple of minutes to complete our survey and tell us what you think. Complete the survey Events This week's featured talk from the Teaching for Success online conference is Ian Clifford's talk - Towards evidence and skills-based teacher development. Ian looks at some of the evidence for what teaching strategies are most effective, using video to demonstrate simple, effective strategies that can be used globally, including in the global south where there is a tradition of teachers being an authoritative figure using whole-class teaching with large classes. Go to the recording Magazine Our featured blog of the month award for September 2016 goes to Veronika Palovska and her post 'How to use blogs to help your students achieve fluency'. In this excellent post, Veronika shares her thoughts on how reading blogs can help students improve their fluency. This month's shortlist includes ideas on ending the lesson, a video-based lesson plan, tips on becoming an online teacher, a lesson plan about time management for advanced level students and strategies for planning a grammar lesson. 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 12 October 2016

TeachingEnglish - the global home for teachers 12 October 2016 Welcome to the TeachingEnglish newsletter! This week we bring you a brand new lesson plan for kids - My ideal teacher. We also have another lesson from the series Rants and Raves, this week on the topic of returning goods to a shop. Have you checked out our badge builders for teens yet? If not, take a look at our stylish designs for awards for good work to help motivate your students. We also feature a blog post which describes a low-prep, effective reading lesson format which you can use with any text or level, and remind you that The 6th International Conference on Teaching English as a Foreign Language is fast approaching. And finally, a big thank you to everyone who participated in our first online conference last week. The event was a huge success and don't worry if you weren't able to join us - you can watch recordings of all the talks online! We hope you find these resources useful. Deb TeachingEnglish team Teaching kids Our latest lesson plan for primary learners helps them think about the ideal teacher. Learners do a series of simple and supported vocabulary and grammar activities which lead to them writing about their ideal teacher. At the end of the lesson they draw pictures of their ideal teacher and they make a classroom display of their texts and pictures.  Go to the lesson plan Teaching teens Motivate your teenage learners with our badge builders. Encourage them to earn skills and behaviour badges with our four stylish designs. Once your students have chosen their blank badge builder from one of our four great designs, you can award them with 'badges' for good work in different categories at the end of a class or activity, and below each badge is a space for the student to write a short sentence to explain what the badge was awarded for. Find out more Teaching adults 'Rants and Raves - Returning goods to a shop' is an activity which provides short listening practice based around a conversation between a customer and sales person. Students listen and then make their own similar dialogues. There are also suggestions for developing the theme of shopping to practise specific areas of grammar. Go to the activity Development The Teaching for Success Online Conference, which took place between 5 and 9 October, has now finished but you can still watch recordings of over 60 talks online. Simply choose a day, click on a talk you're interested in and click on the link to the recorded talk at the top of the page.  Choose which recordings to watch Events The 6th International Conference on Teaching English as a Foreign Language will take place at Nova University, Lisbon, Portugal, 18 - 19 November, 2016. The issues to be discussed at the TEFL 6 conference consider the classroom context with learners in compulsory schooling in relation to communication, culture and creativity. Find out more Magazine If you're looking for an easy-to-use reading lesson format which you can use with any text or level of learner, then check out James Taylor's blog post - A Low Prep, Always Effective Reading Lesson. Read about how to engage your students with texts, giving them a sense of autonomy, and how to encourage them to investigate the language they are interested in. 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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