E V O L V E S C H O O L: TeachingEnglish newsletter 14 October 2020

TeachingEnglish newsletter

14 October 2020

Welcome to the latest edition of the TeachingEnglish newsletter!

The British Council is committed to supporting teachers and teacher educators during the Covid-19 crisis.

First, we are pleased to announce three upcoming events: the ELTons Innovation Awards are going ahead online this Thursday, 15 October; on 21 October we have our next webinar - Evidence-based reflection and teacher development; and on14 October ELT Footprint are holding a series of talks on climate change.

For the classroom this week we have a new lesson plan for secondary students about the impact of Covid-19 on the environment and a range of activities to use with your students whatever their age or level.

If you weren't one of the 3,000+ professionals who took part in last week's World Teachers' Day web conference, you can catch up with all the talks by accessing the recordings.

And finally, don't miss the fourth in our series Conversations of out time - The future of work on Thursday, 15 October.

We hope you find these resources useful.

The TeachingEnglish team

ELTons Innovation Awards 2020: Live online

Watch the international awards that celebrate excellence in innovation in English language teaching and learning live, this Thursday 15 October, 15.00-16.30 UK time. For the very first time, the awards’ ceremony will be held completely online. It’s our aim to keep the anticipation and sense of community through the awards, despite the fact we can’t meet in person. So, we’ve created an exciting, virtual ELTons and we invite you to join us! Find out more.

World Teachers' Day Web Conference

On Saturday 03 October we partnered with IATEFL to provide a full day of online talks and discussion related to the UNESCO theme 'Teachers: Leading in crisis, reimagining the future'. Over 3,000 participants attended ten talks and discussion panels, each one looking at some of the key issues and challenges facing teachers and teacher educators during this extraordinary year. If you missed out, don't worry, you can catch up with all the recordings here.

Life after Covid-19

Use this lesson plan in face-to-face classrooms to help your secondary students consider the impact of Covid-19 on the environment. They begin by watching a clever animated cartoon showing how the planet healed while humans were in lockdown. Next, they will study some useful compound nouns and apply these to examples of life before and during the pandemic. The focus from here on is about the future, including a discussion and a video from Friends of the Earth. Finally, students will send some ideas to the United Nations in the form of a simple manifesto, with photos and hopes for the future.

Panel discussion - The future of education

This panel discussion looks at different challenges that schools, teachers, and learners have faced around the world in the past six months, as well as exploring how education systems and learning is changing in response to these challenges. We discuss how the current changes may eventually inform longer-term strategies for schools and language learning in the future. Find out more and watch a recording here.

The seasons - activities for primary

The majority of the activities included here are based on TBL (Task Based Learning) where you give your group a problem or situation and they work together to find a solution. This requires a certain level of language for it to be successful so most of the activities are aimed at older primary. Within each mini-subject there is at least one activity though that can be adapted for younger primary. Many of these activities also draw from other subjects across the curricular. Read more.

Evidence-based reflection and teacher development

Join us on 21 October at 12.00pm UK time for a one-hour webinar with Steve Walsh from Newcastle University, looking at evidence-based reflection and teacher development. During the webinar, a number of tools and procedures are presented with the aim of helping English language teachers to reflect on and improve their practice. In particular, I will use an app (SETTVEO) to demonstrate how professional development is enhanced when reflections are evidence-based by giving teachers something to reflect on and something to reflect with.

People, rooms, lives

This activity can be used at any level from elementary up. The aim of the activity is to get students talking about people's lives and homes using pictures as prompts. At lower levels it can be used to practise present simple in the third person. For higher levels it can be used to practise expressions for giving opinions or for using modal verbs for deduction. It can be used at any level to teach or revise a wide range of vocabulary or just as a warmer to get students talking.

ELT Footprint - TEDx Countdown

ELT Footprint's mission is to promote environmental responsibility in UK English language teaching, and on Wednesday 14 October they are holding a TEDx Countdown virtual Zoom event with talks from leading thinkers on climate change, proposing ways for UK English Language Teaching to help play its part in tackling the climate and ecological crisis. Find out more and register.