Author Archives: roycross

1. Launched yesterday here in Harrogate, the British Council’s new research exploring “the key themes shaping the future of the English language and its role in our world”, The Future of English: Global Perspectives. Get your free copy here https://www.britishcouncil.org/future-of-english … Continue reading →

1. I was chatting with a university teacher friend the other day about the implications for their work of essay factories, ChatGPT, etc. and learnt that the guys who will write your essays for you (for a fee) are also … Continue reading →

1. Thanks to Robin Skipsey for this one in response to the piece in last Thursday’s message comparing newly qualified teachers with their more experienced colleagues. Teacher quality: What it is, why it matters, and how to get more of … Continue reading →

1. Following on from John Hattie’s new book on Tuesday, here’s a report in The Conversation on some more classroom research from down under, New teachers perform just as well in the classroom as their more experienced colleagues https://theconversation.com/our-study-found-new-teachers-perform-just-as-well-in-the-classroom-as-their-more-experienced-colleagues-200649 The … Continue reading →

1. John Hattie has just published Visible Learning: The Sequel, the sequel (yup!) to his hugely influential 2008 book, Visible Learning: here’s a good piece about the book from The Conversation https://theconversation.com/education-expert-john-hatties-new-book-draws-on-more-than-130-000-studies-to-find-out-what-helps-students-learn-201952 and here’s Hattie himself talking about the new … Continue reading →

1. Visible Thinking Routines in the English Language Classroom​ is the intriguing title of the National Geographic Learning webinar with Alex Warren at 09:00 and 17:00 UK time on Wednesday, 5th April. As the event blurb has it, “the role … Continue reading →

1. Landgeist maps are fun, and you can easily lose an hour or two exploring their site: https://landgeist.com/maps/ Which country in Europe drinks the most coffee? Not Italy … https://landgeist.com/2022/04/19/coffee-consumption-in-europe/ And which country consumes the most cheese? Not France … … Continue reading →

1. The first of two webinars early next week is an exciting-sounding National Geographic event at 16:00 UK time on Tuesday 28th March with explorer and tropical biologist Carmen Chavez, who’ll be talking about her work using camera traps to … Continue reading →

1. There’s been a lot of discussion here in the UK recently about ‘updating’ books to reflect current sensitivities and sensibilities, in particular Roald Dahl’s. Ed Cumming and his team in The Daily Telegraph broke the story, but here’s the … Continue reading →

1. Voices of the First World War is a remarkable podcast series from the Imperial War Museum in London, based on their large, rich archive of recordings with survivors of that war from both sides https://www.iwm.org.uk/VoicesOfTheFirstWorldWar Start at the beginning … Continue reading →