1. The UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) is held on 3^rd December each year. This Friday, December 2^nd, the TeachingEnglish team are holding an online event in support of IDPD on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities in English Language Teaching, comprising four webinars and a panel discussion. More info about topics and speakers and registration here https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/online-event-special-educational-needs-and-disabilities-english-language-teaching

More info on the IDPD, including two short videos, here https://www.un.org/en/observances/day-of-persons-with-disabilities

2. The IATEFL Global Issues SIG (Special Interest Group) is convening a panel discussion on Teacher Activism in Times of Adversity with Akemi Iwasa, Margarita Kosior and Laszlo Hajba at 15:00 UK time on Saturday, 3rd December. Registration here https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc_ewEPr7ZTiuTm3UAHDFHNqVKPCu2lH_7ggVNYa8z-MRFeNQ/viewform?fbclid=IwAR0sftq9odtY6sen0qQfecRFthq9C0LpwZ3xtXZI0K2ER4vcTpOgLkVZo_o

3. Dave Reay from Edinburgh University offers his analysis of the Successes and failures of COP27 here https://www.climatexchange.org.uk/blog/successes-and-failures-of-cop27/ If you’d rather listen – or want to set a homework task? – there’s a video version at the bottom of the page.

The bald one-sentence summary of Dave’s piece is that “a fund for loss and damage is good news from COP27, but the goal of limiting warming to 1.5C is lost and that of 2C is badly damaged”.

4. I’ve just discovered and much enjoy the Something Rhymes with Purple podcast about words and their origin by Susie Dent and Gyles Brandreth – Brandreth is a bit Marmite, but Dent manages him well! https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/something-rhymes-with-purple/id1456772823 or https://open.spotify.com/show/7ntItPoYGVgBKzFOYnQgbR

Here’s the Macmillan Dictionary explanation of what we mean when we say a person’s ‘a bit Marmite’ https://www.macmillandictionary.com/buzzword/entries/marmite.html

5. A quick reminder that it’s the ELTons tomorrow! https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/eltons-innovation-awards-2022-live-stream

6. And, finally and whimsically, I’ve just discovered that it’s simply a fib that there’s one single shortest day each year. There are no fewer than seven days here in Cambridge of equal (short) length this year, the whole of the week beginning Sunday 18th December, when the days will all be seven hours and forty-four minutes long http://www.happyzebra.com/timezones-worldclock/sunrisesunset.php?city=Cambridge And the Cambridge shortest day is a whopping twenty-four minutes longer than the Richmond shortest day, of which there are five, beginning Tuesday 20th December.