0. Oh dearie me! My colleague Mark has ever so gently pointed out that I got in a right muddle with my days of the week and dates for the webinars I mentioned on Friday.

The Eaquals https://www.eaquals.org/eaquals-events/event/nazan-gelbal-more-interactive-and-effective-lessons-with-less-tools-apps-how-to-coach-and-mentor-effectively-in-a-crisis/ and PIE https://www.crowdcast.io/e/the-pie-webinar–futureproofed/register events I got right – though ‘less tools’ has occasioned a little excitement among more traditional readers –

but the Bilingual English project silver jubilee event is on Friday 26^th February https://www.britishcouncil.es/en/events/25-years-mefp-british-council-bilingual-education-programme registration link here https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/8252118853419621900?source=EES+UK and the National Geographic Learning webinar is on Saturday 27^th February https://cengage.zoom.us/webinar/register/8016133931986/WN_5bSDhFnZQZyLrRE2tXRh6g. Sorry!

1. Also absolutely, totally, irrevocably definitely on Saturday 27^th February, at 10:00 UK time, is the next NATESOL webinar, on Comics & the Serious Art of Learning a Language: Using Comics & Graphic Novels for Multi-Layered Learning with Jess Poole of Leeds University. More details in the flyer attached below; register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSekN3wrai99R9a2yuvpv-0MJNe4Q64BdKq0Ucml5kReD3JvAg/viewform

2. Does everyone know what a ‘twofer’ is, I wonder? The term usually applies to bottles of shampoo and the like https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/twofer but today it refers to Dina Mehmedbegovic-Smith and Thomas H Bak’s dual blog post on a) International Mother Tongue Day and b) the Healthy Linguistic Diet (HLD) website’s fifth birthday: http://healthylinguisticdiet.com/international-mother-tongue-day-and-hld-5th-birthday/

You’ll find the HLD website, which has a wide range of different material, here http://healthylinguisticdiet.com/

3. The Race to Fix Virtual Meetings is the title of this New York Times piece which asks the rhetorical question, “Sick of boring grids of heads?” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/17/magazine/video-conference.html and describes life beyond – well beyond – Zoom.

Hands up if you’ve heard of Kumospace, Pluto, Gather.town,  Hopin and Run the World? I can think of one colleague who might have done …

4. Also sent me by my colleague Mark, to soften the day-date blow to my self-esteem: Paisley Book Festival https://paisleybookfest.com/events/

I fancy this one at 10:00 UK time on Saturday – that’s Saturday! – 27^th February: https://paisleybookfest.com/events/1173606787/ and hope to persuade my granddaughter to watch ‘with’ me.

5. And, finally, a bit of light relief: https://youtu.be/sDsn-RRmDXU