This Sunday (the 15th of August) at 11 am GMT, we will be joined by friend of the shop Matthew Noble for a session titled ‘Reconsidering Reflection’. You can check what time the session will be in your local time zone here. The session is free and easy to join. To take part, complete the form at the bottom of this page. We’ll send a Zoom invite one day and one hour before the session starts.

Matthew is a university instructor and teacher trainer based in Bangkok, Thailand. He is interested in minimalist materials, collegial cooperative development, and music in and out of the classroom. A serious interest in pursuing the contemplative life of a Buddhist monk led him into teaching English abroad in 2004 – so it’s little wonder reflective practice has always been his primary touchstone as a developing teacher. Currently, under strict lockdown and working fully online, he is focused on issues of how to maximize the “human touch” in tech-mediated class dynamics.

Here’s Matthew’s abstract for the session:

Reconsidering Reflection

[The] reflective emphasis in teacher education [implies that] teachers have not been reflective and they should be taught, using academic models, as to how they can reflect. The first assumption is wrong, while the second one is problematic in principle. (Akbari, 2007)

When I first read the paper in which the above quote appears…my mind was blown. There was I, a proudly active “reflective practitioner” teacher and teacher-trainer, both partaking in and recommending the very practices Akbari describes. But his assessment rang LOUD with truth for me. Why?

In this workshop I’d like to share with you some of the reasons why. We’ll explore an evolving understanding of the role of Reflective Practice for teachers in ELT. And of course, participants will be invited to “reconsider reflection” together in collegial dialogue.

Looking back

One of the generally under-discussed issues mentioned here is unpaid planning time.  We discussed this in our monthly ‘What’s going on with you these days’ session with Maria Glazunova. It certainly warrants more discussion, both in terms of how we can secure pay for teachers’ extra work and how we can spend less time planning. This issue, among others, is mentioned in this piece by will takes a look at some of the issues facing English language teachers globally.

This guide to taking task based language teaching online is packed full of ideas and theory. One of the big takeaways for Tim from this article was the importance of ‘gaps’ when planning tasks. In many traditional textbook activities, there isn’t any meaningful information that needs to be shared. The article has an extremely useful list of ways of creating gaps that help make conversations meaningful.

We thoroughly enjoyed having Maria Glazunova come to chat with us about burnout and other things. One of the things we talked about was how avoiding burnout required a mindset shift instead of a shift in tactics. Maria said that one of the reasons teachers work too hard is a kind of insecurity about not being good at their job. For example, teachers might spend extra time planning a class they are worried about. She also argued that there’s a mindset that burnout just is a part of teaching life. We strongly recommend taking a look at her new book, it’s not expensive and may save you some stress.

Alice Sunmi Kim, an English for academic purposes instructor is someone we enjoy following on Twitter. Of course, we were interested in this podcast where she takes a look at her experiences during the pandemic. One thing that jumped out was just how context-dependent good practice can be in English language teaching. In the pod, Alice describes having to deal with time zones and Chinese internet censorship and how she had to adapt her classes to deal with that.

Finally, Tim released a new podcast on English as a medium of instruction. This is based on an MA essay and is more research-focused than usual, so let us know what you think of the new format.

Looking forward

On the 15th, we will be joined by Matthew Noble who will be talking to us about reflection. He’ll be looking at traditional models of reflection and issues with them. We weren’t going to include his abstract here, but it’s so curiosity inducing, we had to:

Reconsidering reflection

“[The] reflective emphasis in teacher education [implies] that teachers have not been reflective and they should be taught, using academic models, as to how they can reflect. The first assumption is wrong, while the second one is problematic in principle. (Akbari, 2007)

“When I first read the paper in which the above quote appears…my mind was blown. There was I, a proudly active “reflective practitioner” teacher and teacher-trainer, both partaking in and recommending the very practices Akbari describes. But his assessment rang LOUD with truth for me. Why?

“In this workshop, I’d like to share with you some of the reasons why. We’ll explore an evolving understanding of the role of Reflective Practice for teachers in ELT. And of course, participants will be invited to “reconsider reflection” together in collegial dialogue.”

Tim is looking forward to going to and terrified of presenting at the BAAL conference in September. While it is slightly more expensive than the conferences we usually recommend, it’s 3 days long which might make a difference. It looks like there will be a broad range of topics and a good set of speakers, so it’s well worth taking a look at.

Culture

This month it has, inexplicably, been ska month at ELTW headquarters. While feeling older than usual, Mike enjoyed wandering through an oral history of the making of Sublime’s third album.  Mike could not imagine summing up the article any better than the author Jeff Weiss did. So, what is the piece about?

“Twenty-five years ago, Sublime released their third album, a sprawling magnum opus of sunburned ska, punk, reggae, and stoner anthems that turned three kids from Southern California and a Dalmatian into legends. This is the story of how it came together, the tragic end of the band, and why the songs still live on.”

Meanwhile, Tim has been listening to an artist called Jeff Rosentock recently. His album ‘Ska Dream’ covers his 2020 release ‘No Dream’. but in a ska style. It was announced for a 4/20 release date on April fool’s day this year. This sounds like it should either be a prank or a recipe for disaster, but it’s far better than it has any business being and maybe even better than the original.

Hello Workshoppers, 

On Wednesday, the 23rd of June, we are going to be joined by Teresa Bestwick for a ‘What’s going on with you these days?’ session. In these laid-back hangouts, we invite a guest to bring thoughts and questions based on whatever is going on with them these days. We then use these thoughts as a jumping-off point for a conversation in breakout rooms. The vibe will, as always, be ‘a virtual staffroom full of some of our favourite teachers.’

Our guest this month is regular Talking Shop attendee Teresa Bestwick. Here’s how she introduced herself:  

Teresa is a teacher trainer and ELT author based in southern Spain. She’s the co-founder of the TEFL Development Hub, a global community of ELT professionals offering weekly live events and regular content to put the ‘C’ back into CPD. When not in front of her computer, she enjoys running, craft beer and watching sci-fi.

The session will be starting at 1pm UTC. You can check what time that will be in your local time zone here. If you haven’t yet, sign up to our mailing list below. We will send out Zoom links to the session one day and one hour before it starts.

May was a busy month here at the ELT Workshop with two sessions and a new book to work on. Let’s take a look at some of what went on, what’s coming up and some of our cultural highlights from the last month. 

Looking back

We came up with an idea for a new book in late May and it quickly took on a life of its own. The concept is a book of Workshopping categories. For the uninitiated, Workshopping is a brainstorming game we play in our online sessions where we try to come up with ideas based on a specific category. We have already created a good list of categories that we think would make great warmers for any kind of meeting of teachers. 

We’d love to get your ideas for additional categories we can include in the book. You can find out more about it and submit your ideas here. All proceeds from the book will go to the Hands up Project, helping English learners in Palestine. 

If you’d like to find out more about the Hands Up Project, this article provides an overview of what they do and why their work is so needed. 

Events last month

On the 16th of May, we were (finally!) joined by Mike for his session on beliefs around online learning. Mike’s workshop went through a series of statements about teaching online which led to some great discussion. One that has had Tim thinking a lot is ‘The best use of synchronous time is not in a lesson but rather quick check-ins or casual discussions.’ You can take a look at the full list of statements here.

We were also joined by Elizabeth Coleman for a ‘What’s going on with you these days, ______?’ session. We might have ended up being quite off-topic in our discussion (Sorry!), but we had a really good time. Thanks to Elizabeth for taking the time to come hang out!

Return of the WTF

In another event that might be responded to with a ‘finally!’ Tim brought back his ELT WTF podcast. This episode is an interview with Dr Heath Rose which covers English as a medium of instruction, language learning strategies and the relationship between teachers and researchers. Click here to take a listen or just search for ‘ELT WTF’ wherever you get your pods.

Looking forward

On Sunday June 13th, we’ll be joined by Zhenya Polosatova for a webinar on how to practice reflective practice. Zhenya’s last session with us was a big hit and we’re expecting this one to be great too. Click here to find out more about the session.

We will also be hosting a ‘What’s going on with you these days, ______?’ session with Teresa Bestwick. Stay tuned for more details about that soon.

Content consumer corner

Ever the early adapter, Mike finally started (to a cry of ‘How has this not happened already?’ from Tim) listening to Tiny Desk Concerts on Youtube. He was impressed with the different artists and styles there and the concerts were rated as pretty good music to work by. He also enjoyed the banter between songs.  Some of the concerts that caught his attention were Alicia Keys, August Greene, Big Daddy Kane, Billie Eilish, DJ Premier & The Badder Band (please note the bass player having the time of his life),  Wyclef, Rakim and The Roots featuring Bilal. 

Mike would also like to state for the record that he listened to the Wu-Tang Clan one when it came out. He’d also add that he listened to the recommendation of Nick Hakim by friend of the Shop Matthew Noble sometime between when the recommendation was made and now. 

After overcoming his shock that Mike hadn’t gotten into Tiny Desk already, Tim would like to add that his favourites are the aforementioned Wu Tang one, Julien Baker, Tyler the Creator and Freddie Gibbs And Madlib.

On Sunday the 13th, we’ll be joined by the wonderful Zhenya Polosatova for a session on reflective practice. 

Zhenya is a teacher trainer based in Ukraine. She runs one of our favourite ELT blogs: Wednesday Seminars. In her previous session, we learned so much that we immediately told her she can come back any time. We’re very happy that she decided to take us up on the offer. 

Here’s Zhenya’s abstract for the session:

How to Practice Reflective Practice

This topic can be a bit tricky for a webinar, as we can’t offer a magic recipe to practice reflective skills. Learning to think reflectively takes time, and it can be hard to get started without seeing the ‘bigger picture,” or the reason for doing it.

In this session, we will think about the following questions:

 

• What are some obstacles and challenges to practicing reflection on a regular basis? (and do all those challenges have some solutions?)
• How (else) can teachers practice reflection?
• What can teachers reflect on?
• What are (y)our favorite reflective practice tools?
• (and what are your questions about reflective practice?)

It may happen that you will leave the session not having the answers to all the questions. Or even with new questions to think about.

The session will be starting at 11 a.m. UTC. You can check what time that will be in your local time zone here. To sign-up for the session, fill out the form below. We’ll send out an email with details of how to join one day and one hour before the session starts. 

If you’ve ever attended one of our ‘What’s going on with you these days…’ sessions, you’ll know the ‘game’ of Workshopping that we play at the start of each session. If your not has very simple, and not very gamelike, rules:

• Before the session we think of a category. These range from the silly (and often pun- based) to the more serious.
• Mike, Tim and the guest each come up with three ideas that meet this category.
• We take turns sharing our ideas.
• We discuss aspects of the answers and how they relate to the field and our experiences.
• We declare the guest the winner.

We enjoy this game as a warm-up for our sessions. Because it’s slightly ridiculous, it creates a good atmosphere. Watching your hosts brainstorm ELT figures if they were rappers and hearing ideas like “The Postmethod Man” is a bit silly and helps set a good mood to talk openly.

Last week, Mike made a passing comment about how we should make a book on Workshopping. While this started out at least 90% as a joke, we quickly workshopped (very meta) this idea into a plan to publish a book. The categories would be useful for anyone running a teacher training workshop, teacher meetup or staffroom meeting. As Mike wrote: “OMG, sometimes the best ideas are patently ridiculous.”

After somehow taking this idea seriously we decided to:

• Publish it for charity because that’s a) a nice thing to do and b) the book was too ridiculous to launch for profit.
• Donate the money to the Hands Up Project, a charity for language and drama education for Palestinian children.
• Solicit ideas for workshopping categories from the wider ELT community.

As a result, we’re asking you for your ideas that we can include in a book of workshopping categories. If you want to take part, you can complete this Google form to submit them. If you have more than one idea, feel free to complete the form more than once. Please also let us know if you’d like us to include your name with your submission. Keep in mind that we might change the wording of your idea around (in other words, we might workshop your idea).

To help you think of ideas, here are some of our favourite categories so far:

• Authentic materials that sound cool but would be frowned upon.
• Teaching resolutions you should stick to but probably won’t.
• ELT Christmas puns.
• ELT personages as rappers.

Let us know if you have any questions. We’re looking forward to seeing your ideas.

On Wednesday the 26th of May, we will be back for another ‘What’s going on with you these days?’ session. For these informal chats, we invite a guest to come armed with some thoughts and questions based on whatever is going on with them these days. We will then use these thoughts and questions as a jumping-off point for a conversation. The vibe will, as always, be ‘a virtual staffroom full of some of our favourite teachers.’

This month, we are are very excited to be joined by Elizabeth Coleman. Here’s how she introduced herself: 

Elizabeth is originally from the UK, although she hasn’t lived there since 2007, when she left for South Korea. Currently, she can be found in Istanbul, Turkey where she teaches academic English and medical ESP at a private university. Additionally, she is a teacher trainer and the CPD supervisor at her institution. A firm believer in education as a transformative and developmental tool, Elizabeth is engaged in research around social constructions, gender, and the representation of minorities in education, and she frequently presents on these topics.

The session will be starting at noon UTC. You can check what time that will be in your local time zone here. To attend, make sure you are signed up for our mailing list by filling in the form below. We’ll send out links to the Zoom room a day and an hour before the session.

On Sunday the 16th, we’ll be joined by Mike for his long-awaited workshop on beliefs about online learning. With so many teachers thrown into online teaching in the past year, it is worth taking time to reflect on what we believe about it.

Mike, alongside being Editor-in-Chief here at the ‘Shop, is an online and offline teacher, teacher trainer and consultant. He has been teaching since the year 2000 and training teachers since 2009, including on the New School MATESOL program. He blogs at ELT Rants, Reviews and Reflections. 

Here’s Mike’s abstract for the session:

“Online classes must be synchronous” and “Students must show their faces at all times during online classes.” These are just two of the beliefs circulating (perhaps uncritically) in the current discourse in ELT worldwide about online teaching. Back in the previous century, in 1999, Kathleen Graves wrote, “Most teachers don’t have opportunities to make their beliefs explicit because the institutions in which they work do not generally ask them to articulate their beliefs nor do they place a value on such articulation.” This might be even more true in the current era and an aim of this session is to carve out a time and place for such articulations, in this case related to online teaching. 

Through considering and discussing a range of statements about online teaching and learning participants will have a chance to make their beliefs explicit and in doing so gain a deeper understanding of their own (perhaps unconscious) thinking about online teaching. By encountering and examining statements of belief topics such as homework, motivation, synchronous vs. asynchronous classes, rapport, teacher presence, grading, and teacher well-being participants will be able to uncover their own beliefs on these issues. Participants can expect to walk away with a clearer sense of their own beliefs along with some questions to consider about their beliefs in relation to online teaching practices.

The session will be starting at 1pm UTC. You can check what time that will be in your local time zone here.  The session is free and easy to join: sign up for our mailing list below and we’ll send you an invite link to the session one day and one hour before it starts.