1. The shortest notice ever, sorry – this Hay Festival event with Francis Spufford starts at 19:00 UK time today, Tuesday: https://www.hayfestival.com/p-17398-francis-spufford-in-conversation-with-rebecca-watson.aspx

Here’s a review of his book to whet your appetite: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jan/24/light-perpetual-by-francis-spufford-review-a-brilliant-capacious-experiment-with-fiction And I very much hope there will be a recording ..

2. Amazon (Jeff Bezos) yesterday, today it’s Google’s turn – these small organisations need all the help they can get! Google’s Learning with Google event takes place on 17^th and 18^th February this year. More info and a registration link here: https://educationonair.withgoogle.com/events/learning-with-google-2021

I’m absolutely sure I’m not exploiting all of Google’s features, and I’m looking forward to learning what I’m missing next week. I’m also slightly worried that Google, on the other hand, are exploiting all of my features and not missing very much at all, given the accuracy of some of their advert placement!

3. Lots of short pieces on science for your students to engage with on the IFLScience! site, some appealingly wacky: https://www.iflscience.com/ Not quite sure about that acronym, though: the I in IFL = I, the L = love, the F = …?

4. And, finally, here’s Jon Burton, the Chief Executive of IATEFL’s reflections on thirty years, man and boy, in ELT: https://www.iatefl.org/news-views/30-years-english-language-teaching It brought back memories for me of trying – and usually failing – to stop/start the cassette recorder in the right place!