Another date for your calendar

Every week now I receive invitations to webinars.  Sometimes they fit in with my busy schedule and I can take part in them live.  At other times, I can't connect live because I'm out or just too busy.  That's not a problem because I can watch the recording afterwards.  It's fantastic!  

If you have an internet connection, teachers can take part in training no matter where they teach.

The latest webinar invitation I received is for:

Register link

I've signed up for the Monday session.  I might meet some of you online?

Online training opportunities

A few years ago, maybe it was difficult for some teachers to receive training and to find out about news and developments.

Nowadays, this is definitely not the case.  With the improvements in the availability and quality of internet connections, together with the range and variety of online materials and webinars on offer, there is no excuse for us to be underinformed or undertrained.  (Well, I suppose there is one problem - the number of hours in a day!!)

http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/remade/product/it-s-time-to-personalised-blackboard-clock

I've mentioned Cambridge English TV before.  Every time I look at the youtube channel, I find more stuff.
I like the English Language Learning Tips.

(A new one - Tenses Part 2 was added just 4 hours ago)

And I regularly sign up for webinars (if I'm free at the time they're taking place) or watch recordings of them if I can't take part in the live session.

There are 24 webinars right now in the Cambridge English TV youtube playlist.

There will soon be more!  Next Monday and Wednesday, you can sign up to find out about the changes  to the Cambridge English: First and Cambridge English: First for Schools that will be coming in from January 2015.  

To register for the webinar on Monday, click on this link.

For Wednesday, click here.

Busy week - listening, listening........

This week, I've signed up for two webinars on the subject of listening.  

Today, I'll be connecting my computer at 3pm to watch:

Then, on Wednesday at 4, I'll be online again to take part in another webinar on Listening:

It's a shame that they are taking place this week because last Friday, I was in San Sebastian, giving 2 seminars on ...... Listening!  For Cambridge English: First and Cambridge English:  Advanced in my case!

Maybe some of you will also be connecting today or Wednesday :·))

I'll be uploading some activities that I prepared for the Cambridge English: Advanced Listening session in my next post!

Cambridge English TV - speaking test videos, webinars and so much more!

As I said in my previous post, we Cambridge English Assessment: seminar presenters in Spain and Portugal are gearing up for a new season of seminars and conferences.  We're going to be giving more seminars in even more places.  Hope to meet some of you there!

I am starting to look at the sessions I'll be giving soon in Bilbao and San Sebastian and at the materials I'll be using.

I took a look at Cambridge English TV on youtube and found some great resources there.  Back in February, I mentioned the YLE Teaching Tips available on this Channel.  

Today, I found two speaking test videos - one for Cambridge English: Key for Schools

 and the other for Cambridge English: Preliminary for Schools.

Both show a complete sample speaking test and also provide a link to a pdf. document with comments on the Test and the candidates you see.

http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/149448-ket-for-schools-examiner-s-comments.pdf

http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/149446-pet-for-schools-examiner-s-comments.pdf

Teachers are always asking for examples of speaking tests to watch and to show their students.  Here you have two good examples!

Other brilliant resources on the Cambridge English TV channel are English Language Learning Tips, looking at various areas such as Tips for Listening and Speaking Tests, etc.  And recordings of webinars if you didn't catch them live.

Definitely worth a visit and saving to your playlists!

Interesting Cambridge English webinar

I have just signed up to 'attend' another Cambridge English Language Assessment webinar.

On Monday, 15th or Wednesday 17th April, Jill Buggey will lead a webinar

Practice makes perfect: creating your own exam materials for the classroom

The webinar will begin by identifying the specific skills tested in different exam tasks, such as multiple choice, gap fill and sentence completion. The presenter will show how different types of task are constructed in order to test these skills effectively, using examples from Reading, Listening and Use of English papers.

The presenter will explain how distraction is used in reading and listening tasks, and there will also be examples from Use of English tasks. The strategies students are expected to use in exam tasks are real-life skills, and at this point the presenter will give some practical hints on the most effective strategies for students to use when approaching different types of exam task.

I'm sure the webinar will be enlightening and useful.  I've used materials prepared by Jill Buggey in seminars and they are always very practical.

To find out more, click here:

Webinars this week

I have signed up for two webinars this week.

The first, today, Monday.  I'll be connecting to the Cambridge English Language Assessment's site to attend the Webinar below:

The webinar will also take place on Wednesday morning.

From seminars, I know that correcting writing is a subject that raises a lot of discussion and interest, so I'm sure that a lot of people will be online like me.

If you can't make either of these dates or times, there is always the chance to watch a recording of the webinar and to download the slides too.

On Thursday, I'll be connecting to the Cambridge English Teacher website and the webinar by Johanna Stirling on Joined-up Listening.

See you online!  (Or in person in San Sebastian on Friday!)

Great source for examples of answering questions

I have spent most of the day looking at some different web tools and pages.  One of the things on my 'to do' list for this academic year is to start using some new tools and applications with my students.

I was revisiting a favourite of mine - Nik's Daily English Activities.

I mentioned Nik back in a post in January this year.  I had been watching a recording of a webinar Nik gave and had really enjoyed it.

Anyway, today, I clicked on Nik's link to VYou.  

First, I watched the questions asked by Oprah Winfrey, then I looked at some other questions and answers on the site.

I thought that it would be a great page to use with students preparing to take the Cambridge English: First, Advanced and Proficiency exams, in particular when preparing them for the first and final parts of the Speaking Tests.

For example, someone out there has set the following question:

If a book has been made into a movie, which do you prefer to do first, see the movie or read the book? Why?

http://www.odcpl.com/index.php?p=1_81_Books-into-Movies

As I write this post, 4 people have recorded their answer with a video camera.  You can watch them here.

I think that this and similar questions and answers could be a great source for discussion in (or outside) class.
Students could be asked to 'give marks' using the criteria that Speaking Examiners use:

- Grammar and Vocabulary
- Discourse Management
- Pronunciation

(It's a bit difficult to evaluate the answerers' interactive communication because they are monologues!!!)

And I also think that the site could provide us teachers with some interesting discussion and opinion questions to put to our students (or they could each choose a question to ask the teacher and/or their classmates!)

And if you're feeling brave, they could also record their own answers and share them!

(Note:  Some of the questions (and answers!) might not be suitable for sharing with your students, especially with teenagers, so I suggest you choose the ones you can use carefully! )

Interesting webinar

Just a quick post to pass on some information that I received by email yesterday.  I thought the topic was particularly interesting, and the seminars that the Spanish seminar team give on Writing and Marking are always popular, so I thought I'd pass the information onto you asap.

New Webinar - How are Cambridge English Writing papers marked? Dear Anne Cambridge ESOL invites you to join us for our new webinar - How are Cambridge English Writing papers marked? The first the in our new programme of webinars for 2012-13. Most Cambridge English Writing papers are marked using a unified mark scheme that covers different aspects of writing ability. In this webinar, we look at the assessment criteria and other features of this mark scheme, show how it is applied to marking scripts and consider how it can inform teachers’ teaching. To register for this webinar, click on your preferred date and time: Monday 17 September, 14.00 - 15.00 (UK time) Wednesday 19 September, 10.00 - 11.00 (UK time) I won't, unfortunately, be able to 'attend' either of these webinars live but not to worry - I can catch up on them later online: If you have missed any of our previous webinars, you can watch recordings and download the slides from our Teacher Support site. Topics include the revised Cambridge English: Proficiency, Cambridge English: First for Schools, Cambridge English: Key for Schools and Cambridge English: Advanced Speaking.

Preparing teenagers for the PET exam

I have met Emma Heyderman several times in San Sebastian and in Bilbao.

Photo:  http://ylandtsig.ning.com/profile/EmmaHeyderman

I have never been in the live audience at her seminars, but she has been part of my audiences at seminars, and I hold a lot of respect for her and her publications.

As so often happens these days, I was looking up something else (well, actually - I think I was preparing the previous post for this blog come to think of it!), when I came across a selection of videos featuring Emma on the Cambridge University Press ELT Youtube channel.

Take for example this one:
Preparing teenagers for the PET exam: Listening.

Emma demonstrates just how important it is for students to listen carefully to the whole of the listening texts and not to choose an answer too quickly.

As well as this video, you can find other clips looking at the other skills tested on Cambridge English: Preliminary.

So now, running up to the main examining period of the year and for us Cambridge ESOL presenters, coming to the end of our live sessions for 2011-2012, watch Emma's tips to gain some advice and ideas for your candidates.

British Council Seminar on choosing and using resources

Yesterday, I received my weekly newsletter from British Council Teaching English.  (Another site I'm subscribed to).

If I have time, I look through the areas mentioned in the newsletter as soon as it arrives and click on the links to find out more about them.  (If not, the email gets transferred to my 'subscriptions' folder

and stays there till I have time to look at it properly!)

I decided to have a look at the email this morning when I switched on my computer and clicked on the link to

Choosing and using resources with ESOL learners Dot Powell, manager of the British Council's project to create a portal for ESOL teachers and learners, looks at criteria we use to make judgements about ESOL materials.

This took me to the Seminars section of the Teaching English website.  I clicked on:

I then watched Dot Powell, Project Manager for ESOL Nexus in a seminar with teachers discussing the criteria we need to apply when we are choosing and/or preparing resources for students.

Dot then provided examples of resources and applied the criteria with the teachers at the seminar.


The seminar lasts just under 20 minutes, but I found it so interesting and well-presented, that the time just flew by.

I then paid a quick visit to the ESOL Nexus website.

The site is targeted at a particular group of ESOL learners:

ESOL Nexus Welcome to the ESOL Nexus page for learners. The materials here have been specially designed and identified for learners who are working and making their home in the UK. We are sure you will find lots of interesting and motivating activities here which will help you to improve your English in lots of different ways, understand more about UK culture and learn more about UK society and work.

But I have just tried out a couple of activities from the site and I think that many of them would be useful and relevant to our students.
There are many listening activities and the Magazine articles seem interesting.
I liked the several of the poems in the Poems and Stories section.  I hadn't come across the No poem before!

I hope you will visit the Nexus site too and find it useful.  (Most of the stuff there is for higher level learners.

In a few minutes, I will look at the teachers section of the site - maybe for a future post......?


The British Council has lots more seminars on its website.  Here is the direct link to the start up page.

I must share this with you! Thanks Nik Peachey!

Yesterday morning, I received an email about a webinar taking place yesterday evening:

Hello everyone

The YLTSIG with EVO 2012 is really pleased to invite you to join us
online with Nik Peachey today (Tuesday 24th January) at 20:00 gmt.
Nik will talking about Technology & Teens and we're looking forward to the
discussion!

Follow this link to find out more about Nik and tonight's session:
http://yltsigevo2012.wordpress.com/

Really looking forward to seeing you online with us tonight!

cheers

I have read several articles (including Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers) and blog entries by and about Nik Peachey,

so I was very attracted by this invitation.


Unfortunately, I wasn't able to log in and attend the session live, but I have just spent the past hour watching the recording of Nik's presentation.

(My original intention was to pay a quick visit to see how it had gone - not to watch it all in one go!)


 I found it so interesting and useful for me as a teacher and a presenter (especially since I will probably be giving webinars myself shortly!!), that I couldn't stop watching it and will definitely rewatch parts of it!  My collection of webtool bookmarks grew enormously while I was watching and trying out the links.

So, thank you Nik and

for organising this session.

Here's the comment I left for Nik.

Hello Nik  I couldn’t connect live yesterday evening, but I have just watched your presentation now and it was so fascinating that I watched it all the way through! There are some fantastic links and ideas here and I will try and set aside some time to try them out! I also loved the way you calmly handled the bad sound problems! Well done!

Once again, I hope that you will try out the links and share similar links with the rest of us!