1. Two blog posts from Pearson to start us off today:
first, one that does exactly what it says on the tin from Joanna Wiseman, 6 practical online teaching tips to kickstart the new school year https://www.english.com/blog/6-%EF%BF%BConline-teaching-tips-new-school-year/
and second, one about family life and routine from Donatella Fitzgerald, 4 steps to make sure the transition back to school goes well https://www.english.com/blog/4-steps-transition-back-to-school/
2. The second pair of webinars from my East Asia colleagues in their Teacher Takeaways series take place next week:
Robin Skipsey from British Council Japan on Teaching Listening at 09:00 UK time on Tuesday, 7th October
and Davide Gilmartin from British Council Vietnam on Teaching Writing at 09:00 UK time on Thursday, 9th October
More info here https://www.britishcouncil.cn/en/teach/2021webinar and flyers for both events and a PDF of the whole programme below – you’ll also find recordings and handouts from the two earlier events in the series on the site.
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3. If you missed William Dalrymple’s historical perspective on what’s happening in Afghanistan at present for the Asia Scotland Institute, Afghanistan – Doomed to repeat the mistakes of past wars, you can find the recording here https://youtu.be/h9mpotnFTSc I thought it was good.
4. A number of interesting observations on the ELT and education businesses from Alexander Broich, one of the top people at Cengage, in this interview with Rupert Barclay from the Cairneagle education consultancy.
The page is nicely laid out, with both the whole interview and a series of interview extracts on specific themes https://www.cairneagle.com/cairneagle-in-conversation-with-alexander-broich/
On the impact of Covid, for example, Alexander observes, “If you think about a rock concert or cruise ship experience, the replacement in COVID was not great. So I expect people to go back on cruise ships and back to rock concerts. But if you are a professional nurse and you want to take a course which has to fit around your schedule, to sit in a classroom at a given time with a commute of an hour back and forth was not the greatest setting pre-COVID.”
5. An ‘enhanced index’ is not a term I’m familiar with, but the Contemporary African Poets enhanced index is a marvel, searchable by poet, country and region https://africanpoetics.unl.edu/contemporarypoets
It’s now part of a bigger project, the African Poetry Digital Portal; here’s more info on that https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/stories/AfricanPoetryPortal
6. And, finally, Fajer from the Syrian London Ensemble, eight musicians and graduates from Syria’s renowned Damascus Conservatoire https://youtu.be/mjbdxYLaBjk I think fajer might mean dawn in English?
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