1. At 10:00 UK time tomorrow, Thursday 8th July, The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education https://www.obhe.org/ presents the first in a series of ‘Borderless Conversations’ with Perry Hobson from Sunway University & Mushtak Al-Atabi from the Kuala Lumpur branch of Heriot Watt University talking to Kate Cooper from the Institute of Leadership & Management about their experiences of the impact of the pandemic on blended learning at their own institutions and ‘getting the blend right’ https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/borderlessconversations-with-the-obhe-1-getting-the-blend-right-tickets-160940626747?keep_tld=1

I met Mushtak a few years back and thought his total commitment to the best possible student experience and the influence his campus had on the Heriot-Watt mother ship back in Edinburgh was unusual and impressive.

2. Two posts on the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) blog from Caroline Bilton:

one on the teaching of reading https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/news/eef-blog-reading-comprehension-simple-and-brilliantly-complex/

and a second on maximising the impact of feedback https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/news/eef-blog-maximising-the-impact-of-feedback-in-literacy/

3. Gail Ellis and Tatia Gruenbaum from the PEPELT project https://pepelt21.com/ will be discussing Using picturebook video read-alouds in primary ELT next Monday, 12^th July at 12:00 UK time. More info and registration here https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/using-picturebook-video-read-alouds-primary-elt

4. In advance of England’s hour-and-a-half of destiny at 20:00 UK time this evening, here’s What all of us can learn from Gareth Southgate: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-57698821 Worth reading even if you’ve no idea who Gareth Southgate is.

5. And, finally, this week’s phobia is atychiphobia, which may be more widespread than usual this evening here in UK.