Recap of Interesting Resources and Blog Posts – April 2014

          Compiled by Martina Bednáriková.

Spring greetings!

We are pleased to offer you a selection of interesting posts we have seen this month.

ELTForum News

• Registration is still ON! Check out this video from last year’s conference!
• Jump on the ELTBus! If you live in Presov or Kosice, we are organising a special bus that gets you to BA just in time for the conference and back home again afterwards. If you are interested, contact Martin Jelinek at jelo.martinez@me.com.
• You can find an interview of Beata Borošová, one of the speakers in June,  on the ELTForum blog: To Practice Perception of a Foreign Language Is the Best Way to Learn It.
• Also, Alex McNish: Adapting Lessons to the Students’ Needs, Part 1 and Part 2.

IATEFL News

One of the biggest ELT events around, the IATEFL Annual Conference, took place this month in Harrogate.

• You watch many of the sessions here.
• And this is the one that caused the most controversy, by Sugata Mitra. Fascinating.
• And then reactions to Mitra’s talk: Mike J Harrison, Graham Stanley,  David Petrie,   Lizzie Pinnard. And that is just the tip of the iceberg!
• Radical? “The process of learning is not about efficiency, one that can be reduced to test scores, but it is a human dynamic, one that takes time.” Thoughts on Kathleen Graves’s IATEFL plenary from Graham Stanley…
• “Which is better: IELTS or the TOEFL?” David Petrie gave a presentation on this at the IATEFL  conference. He’s posted his slides and even the text of his talk.

Something to think about

• Pernille Ripp writes about embracing failure in the classroom.
• The iTDi Assessment Issue is full of exciting stuff – read about peer assessment by Divya Madhavan.
• Great reminder about willpower – how it can help us thrive in even the most difficult situations. Learn 10 ways to teach perseverance.
• What can we do to get all students in class participating more all the time? Read Larry Ferlazzo’s thoughts on the matter here.
• Jeremy Harmer talks about reflecting on teaching and filming teachers.
• Does our school help students develop their character? Should school do it or should it stick to only teaching knowledge? Read Jordan Catapano’s reflections on these and other questions related to the introduction of character education in schools.
• How can we help our students to think critically? 6 critical questions that are always good to think about.
• We are all learners. We learn something new almost every day. But how retain it all? How can we make the most of our learning? Here is a simple but effective technique that can be useful for our students and ourselves.
• Have you ever felt frustrated when you heard “I don’t know” from your students in response to your question? Feel frustrated no more!  Here is an ingenious idea of how to turn a killer answer into a productive conversation!

ICT

• Here is a blog to follow for those of you who are into using visual the technological support in your classes. By David Mearns and Brentson Ramsey.
• Need a video for your lesson? Check out these three web resources.
• Great post by Amanda Dykes: Educators get connected: Twitter edition.
• Social Media in the classroom? Yes, please!
• We bet you have no idea what all you and your students can do with Google Drive. We just found out and think you’ll find it just as helpful as we do.
• What if I told you, you can create your own app?
• Do you ever gamify your lessons? A great summary of Karenne Sylvester’s IATEFL Harrogate session on the topic can be found here.
• How to use short animal videos for language development.

Lesson Materials

• Supplementary material exploiting the topic of ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION, by the US Government, for teachers of English for immigrants originally. We can also make good use of it. 3 levels, lesson plans, worksheets, flash fact cards, picture flashcards. 
Free, just print it.
• 20 wonderful ready-to-use critical thinking activities which you can use whenever you have a few minutes and you´d like to get your students speaking and thinking a bit differently! Plus they can make terrific writing prompts.
• Diagrams, timelines & tables: helping kids learn to ‘read’ & understand visual information. Via Reading Rockets.

Conferences

• Have you already registered for the 23rd IATEFL Poland Conference?
 It takes place on  2-14 September 2014 in Lublin, Poland. You need to submit your proposals by 10 May, and the Early Bird registration for participants runs until 10 July.