1. Here’s another free-access piece from the next issue of ELTJ, Decentring ELT: teacher associations as agents of change by Darío Luis Banegas, Deborah Bullock, Richard Kiely, Harry Kuchah Kuchah, Amol Padwad, Richard Smith and Martin Wedell https://academic.oup.com/eltj/advance-article/doi/10.1093/elt/ccab090/6491225
Some interesting thoughts on what exactly constitutes ‘the centre’ from which one would wish to ‘decentre’ oneself. PDF below.
2. Is decentring the same as decolonialising, I wonder? Probably not quite. Decolonial perspectives on English language teaching with Lorena Bustos from the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogota and Katalin Egri Ku-Mesu from the University of Leicester is the title of an IATEFL ESPSIG event at 18:00 next Monday, 17th January. More info and registration here https://www.iatefl.org/events/298
More free IATEFL events here https://www.iatefl.org/events
3. The first Eaquals webinar of 2022 is at 10:00 UK time next Tuesday, 18th January and is also concerned with where things should be centred: Gillian Davidson & David Byrne will be talking about Visible learning: Putting teachers at the centre of their development. More info and registration here https://www.eaquals.org/eaquals-events/event/visible-learning-putting-teachers-at-the-centre-of-their-development/
4. Which three of the following things do most teachers in the UK take with them to school at the beginning of a new school term: a plant for the classroom; a supply of painkillers; a supply of coffee or tea; some spare clothes? Find out here https://www.teachertapp.co.uk/what-are-teachers-must-have-items-at-the-start-of-term-this-and-other-findings/
5. Have you tried Wordle yet? https://www.powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle/ A new word at midnight UK time every day, and it’s now keeping me up a little later than I might like on a regular basis … NB! American English spelling – was ‘favor’ on Tuesday!
6. And, finally, the shape of your supermarket shopping trolley handles affects how much you buy, according to a recent study of more than 2,000 supermarket customers, says the German business paper, Handelsblatt. Carts with wheelbarrow-style handles prompt an average spend of 25% more than the traditional horizontal bar, because wheelbarrow handles activate your biceps, which are psychologically associated with pulling things you want towards you. The bars of traditional trolleys activate your triceps, associated with pushing away things you don’t want.
Here’s a link to the original (you’ll need to register) https://www.handelsblatt.com/meinung/gastbeitraege/pruefers-kolumne-wer-einen-einkaufswagen-mit-griffen-schiebt-der-kauft-mehr/27950858.html
So why don’t more supermarkets have wheelbarrow-style trolleys, I wonder?
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