1. Here (below) is a useful one-page summary PDF of TeachingEnglish activity in December. Scan the QR code in the bottom right hand corner to subscribe to their newsletter for yourself, or sign up directly here https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/subscribe-our-newsletter

The TeachingEnglish team are also looking for speakers for their online events https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/call-speakers-2024-5 Don’t be shy now!

2. The final event in LanguageCert’s ‘Energise Your Classroom’ series of webinars, Using Music to Inspire Language Learners, is next Wednesday, 13^th December at 15:00 UK time. Registration here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/2516934794964/WN_vMlVl3ETSvSxTbcrYpOElg#/registration

3. I pinched this one from Timothy Shanahan’s blog, Shanahan on Literacy from The ELT Buzz News Report, Why Main Idea is Not the Main Idea – Or, How Best to Teach Reading Comprehension https://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/blog/why-main-idea-is-not-the-main-idea-or-how-best-to-teach-reading-comprehension

More Buzz here https://eltbuzz.substack.com/p/the-elt-buzz-news-report-741

4. The London Review of Books try quite hard to have you buy a subscription to their podcast, Close Readings. The good news is that you don’t have to! Info on the whole series, including the paid-for options, here https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/close-readings

Try Irina Dumitrescu & Mary Wellesley on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/close-readings/medieval-beginnings-sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight

or Mark Ford & Seamus Perry on Katherine Mansfield’s short stories https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/close-readings/the-long-and-short-katherine-mansfield-s-short-stories

5. My Hajj is an account which taught me a lot by Adnan Mahmutović from Stockholm of the haji trip he made earlier this year to Medina and Mecca https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2023/november/my-hajj-adnan-mahmutovic

6. And, finally, my favourite saxophonist, Jan Garbarek https://youtu.be/bLOlcYD3VkY?feature=shared