1. Here’s a piece by Johanna Alonso from Inside Higher Ed (IHE), The Handwriting Revolution https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/curriculum/2025/06/17/amid-ai-plagiarism-more-professors-turn-handwritten-work

Five semesters after ChatGPT changed education forever, some professors are taking their classes back to the pre-internet era.

A free account with IHE allows you five free articles a month. I’ve got a nervous twitch in my right hand just at the thought of having to write an examination paper ….

2. You can sign up now for two TeachingEnglish courses that start on 1^st July:

Helping teachers to learn, which is a course for teacher trainers and educators https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/training/teachingenglish-helping-teachers-learn

Teaching English through literature, which is a course for teachers of English at all levels https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/training/teaching-english-through-literature

I’ve attached the handbook for each course to give you a better idea of what they’re about.

3. Not everyone’s into testing and assessment, I realise, but if you are, here’s a real treasure trove, the full archive of the Cambridge journal, Studies in Language Testing (SiLT) https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/english-research-group/published-research/silt/

Volume 38 is one of the more accessible volumes for the general reader and traces the history of Cambridge’s own exams back to 1858

Examiners in those days travelled in academic dress, carrying a locked box containing the question papers. They were paid about one pound four shillings, the equivalent of about £50 at today’s (2013) prices. The records show that the exam markers were paid, per pound, 9 shillings and sixpence for Arithmetic (about £20 now), 12 shillings and 6 pence (about £26 now) for History and 18 shillings (£37 now) for Classics papers – per pound in weight of papers, that is!

4. Also from Cambridge, a webinar with Rosemary Bradley & Jiří Horak on Developing oracy in the primary classroom. Two sessions: one at 10:00 UK time next Tuesday, 24^th June, and a second at 16:00 UK time a week today, Thursday 26^th June https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/teaching-english/resources-for-teachers/webinars/developing-oracy-in-the-primary-classroom/

Teaching oracy skills helps children become effective collaborators and communicators. In this webinar, we’ll explore the Oracy Skills Framework and how you can apply it to your primary classroom. We’ll look at a range of practical ways oracy can be incorporated to help young learners interact confidently, develop ideas together and build essential communication skills for life.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary – and in the interests of Oxbridge balance – oracy is the ability to express oneself fluently and grammatically in speech.

5. And, finally and (possibly, if the word exists) staminally, Mark Kermode has been posting a weekly review of a classic film for very nearly ten years. They’re all collected here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXvkgGofjDzhx-h7eexfVbH3WslWrBXE9

Remind yourself what Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon https://youtu.be/KOjrn3trcuI

or Aguirre, Wrath of God was about https://youtu.be/D36Zy9fXRg4