Roy Cross's Blog

1. The LanguageCert ‘Energise your Classroom‘ webinar series, which “aims to introduce you to new perspectives, tools, and useful ideas to empower your teaching and enhance your students’ learning experience”, continues at 15:00 UK time next Wednesday, 22^nd November with Chantelle Walsh on Mindfulness as a tool to manage exams. More info and registration here https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/1516934794185/WN_-Al8OUFJQjKNO1OCgbPZ7w#/registration

2. It’s Word of the Year time again, for some publishers at least: the Cambridge word is hallucinate https://dictionary.cambridge.org/editorial/woty and the Collins ‘word’ is AI https://www.collinsdictionary.com/woty

3. Continuing that AI theme, here’s an account of its positive contribution to forecasting the weather, AI outperforms conventional weather forecasting for the first time: Google study https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/11/ai-outperforms-conventional-weather-forecasting-for-the-first-time-google-study/

4. Ploughing the AI furrow still more deeply, here’s a recording of a recent discussion between Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Sir Nigel Shadbolt, who jointly founded the Open Data Institute https://theodi.org/, State of the Data Nation https://vimeo.com/882144926 Much more accessible than one might fear!

5. And, finally, something completely different and wacky, Jeff Bezos Rowing Boat by Bobby Fingers https://youtu.be/VGhcSupkNs8?feature=shared

1. Here’s a new resource from Teachers Without Borders https://teacherswithoutborders.org/ on Design Thinking, which they explain is “a human-centered, iterative problem-solving methodology that places empathy, ideation, prototyping, and testing at its core. Originally pioneered in the realm of product design, this approach has rapidly gained traction in education due to its adaptability and effectiveness in cultivating a mindset of collaboration, resilience, and innovative thinking”. It includes a great list of resources on the topic, so give it the benefit of the doubt, even if your instinctive response to their description, like mine, is one of uncertainty!

2. Planning effective Continuing Professional Development programmes for teachers – ten key principles is a splendid summary by Simon Borg https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/professional-development/teacher-educators/planning-learning/articles/planning-effective-continuing of the September 2023 British Council webinar for teacher educators of the same name, recorded here https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/news-and-events/webinars/webinars-teacher-educator/planning-effective-continuing-professional

3. The T. S. Eliot Prize has been described by Andrew Motion as “the prize poets most want to win”, and this year’s competition is approaching its denouement. You’ll get a good sense of where modern poetry is at from this year’s shortlist https://tseliot.com/prize/the-t-s-eliot-prize-2023/shortlist/ and here’s a bit more general information on the prize, which was first won by Ciaran Carson in 1993 https://tseliot.com/prize/ In due course, you will find helpful readers’ notes on all ten of this year’s shortlisted poets on the shortlist page, and you’ll find PDFs of the notes for the first five poets below

4. The whole of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick is read aloud here by the likes of Tilda Swinton, Roger Allam, David Attenborough, A. L. Kennedy and – wait for it! – the new UK Foreign Secretary (and Brexit criminal-in chief), David Cameron https://www.mobydickbigread.com/ and you’ll find a very handy online annotated version to read as you listen here http://www.powermobydick.com/

5. And, finally, a short film from The New Yorker, “The Night Doctrine”, by Mauricio Rodríguez Pons and Almudena Toral,which offers two perspectives on one tragic raid in Afghanistan https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-documentary/two-perspectives-on-one-tragic-raid-in-afghanistan

1. This post is late – and solitary and longer! – this week because I’ve been attending a colloquium on Regional and minority languages within a plurilingual context at the ECML (European Centre for Modern Languages) in Graz in Southern Austria https://www.ecml.at/ECML-Programme/ECML-ECCooperation/participants/tabid/5784/language/en-GB/Default.aspx

Here’s the recording of the first two sessions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE-4nu2BcLA

and here’s the programme, to guide your viewing https://www.ecml.at/Portals/1/documents/events/ECML-EC%20Colloquium_7Nov2023_RML_Final%20agenda_EN.pdf PDF below.

2. One language discussed in Graz was Romansh, and Lia Rumantscha is the umbrella organisation for all Romansh-speaking individuals and organisations. Take a peek at their website https://www.liarumantscha.ch/rm which I think you’ll find more intelligible than you might have been expecting.

3. Here’s the ECML’s Multilingual Joke Book https://edl.ecml.at/Portals/33/documents/jokebook-2023.pdf Groans guaranteed; PDF below!

4. Here’s the latest issue of the ECML’s European Language Gazette

https://www.ecml.at/News/Newsletter/Gazette66/tabid/5678/language/en-GB/Default.aspx

5. Lots of good advice from Nik Peachey in this talk for Oxford ELT, How to plan and present ELT workshops https://oxfordtefl.com/blog/how-to-plan-and-present-elt-workshops/ Not just for ELT-wallahs, I suggest!

6. A cautionary debate from The Economist with Mustafa Suleyman & Yuval Noah Harari, What does the AI revolution mean for our future?

Highlights https://youtu.be/b2uEAgLeOzA?feature=shared

Full debate https://youtu.be/7JkPWHr7sTY?feature=shared

7. And, finally, here’s one definitely positive use to which AI has been put recently, a library of restored and AI-enhanced films https://www.youtube.com/@livinghistoryaienhanced

Try Soho in London in 1956 (a very good year) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bExnm7MZ53M

or Edinburgh in 1934 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98F2z8qh5Eo

1. I’ve quite often included UKFIET https://www.ukfiet.org/ blog posts. For a change, here are videos of the plenary talks from their recent joint conference in Oxford with BAICE https://baice.ac.uk/ (the British Association for International & Comparative Education) https://www.ukfiet.org/2023/plenary-videos-from-ukfiet-2023-conference/

This powerful performance by Basirat Razak-Shuaib of her own poem, ‘I ain’t no afterthought’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bxL0ZxMMsQ formed part of …

… the BAICE Presidential Address by  Nidhi Singal, Reimagining Inclusive Education: multiplicities of seeing, being and doing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceztT6nIdkk

and here’s brief summaries of many of the talks given at the conference https://www.ukfiet.org/cop/ukfiet-conferences/2023-ukifet-conference/

2. Here’s the Autumn 2023 issue of TTJ (Teacher Trainer Journal) https://edition.pilgrimsttj.com/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pubname=&edid=71a6c067-3831-46b6-bba0-13c4c6296ad0

Try the piece by Simon Borg and Daniel Xerri on p15, Supporting Teacher Educators: insights from the British Council’s work, that suggests more needs to be done to support those who support teachers. PDF below in case that’s easier.

You access the TTJ archives by clicking on the ‘archive’ icon in the menu bar for the current issue – in between the ‘download’ and the ‘share’ icons at the top on the right!

3. Take a look over the fence into the English school system with the latest weekly Teacher Tapp blog post. The two key current issues are budgets and student behaviour – sound familiar? https://teachertapp.co.uk/articles/voting-behaviour-budgets-and-if-you-could-fix-one-problem/

4. I trust The Conversation. Here’s a selection of recent pieces on the Israel-Hamas war (and I’m aware that term is itself very problematic) that I’m going to read over the weekend, starting with a podcast discussion between an Israeli professor of historical and cultural studies and a Palestinian professor of geography and urban planning:

Why the Israel-Gaza conflict is so hard to talk about https://theconversation.com/why-the-israel-gaza-conflict-is-so-hard-to-talk-about-216149

Israel-Gaza conflict: an expert Q&A on how it could change the Middle East’s political landscape https://theconversation.com/israel-gaza-conflict-how-could-it-change-the-middle-easts-political-landscape-expert-qanda-215473

Israel-Hamas war: hard experience says a land war won’t go well – and faltering international support suggests the world knows it https://theconversation.com/israel-hamas-war-hard-experience-says-a-land-war-wont-go-well-and-faltering-international-support-suggests-the-world-knows-it-216582

Israel-Hamas war: Lebanese peace plan reflects country’s lack of appetite for more conflict https://theconversation.com/israel-hamas-war-lebanese-peace-plan-reflects-countrys-lack-of-appetite-for-more-conflict-216850

Iran’s ‘axis of resistance’: how Hamas and Tehran are attempting to galvanise their allies against Israel https://theconversation.com/irans-axis-of-resistance-how-hamas-and-tehran-are-attempting-to-galvanise-their-allies-against-israel-216670

What the Israel Defence Forces can expect when they enter the ‘Gaza Metro’ tunnel system https://theconversation.com/what-the-israel-defence-forces-can-expect-when-they-enter-the-gaza-metro-tunnel-system-216767

How Israel underestimated Hamas’s intelligence capabilities – an expert reviews the evidence https://theconversation.com/how-israel-underestimated-hamass-intelligence-capabilities-an-expert-reviews-the-evidence-215646

Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership is questioned even as Israelis rally round the flag https://theconversation.com/benjamin-netanyahus-leadership-is-questioned-even-as-israelis-rally-round-the-flag-216844

5. And, finally, a list of ten books from Henry Tinker that I just stumbled across, 10 Books From My English Degree I Wish More People Knew About https://medium.com/@henrytinker/10-books-from-my-english-degree-i-wish-more-people-knew-about-e019f932a9f3 Henry’s English degree ranged much more widely than my own did!

1. I’m not quite sure why this Essex University research on accents has been all over the papers and the radio this week, on the face of it eight months after its publication: here’s Essex academic Amanda Cole’s occasional blog on the development of UK English accents over the years https://www.essex.ac.uk/blog/authors/amanda-cole

2. Food for thought from the EL Gazette: Translation in publishing suffers as markets prioritise English-language exports https://www.elgazette.com/translation-in-publishing-suffers-as-markets-prioritise-english-language-exports/

3. A piece from Der Spiegel on the impact in Germany of the war between Hamas and Israel, A New Wave of Anti-Semitism Sweeps Across Germany https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/absolutely-appalling-a-new-wave-of-anti-semitism-sweeps-across-germany-a-50e18e6a-03ae-4ea5-99ec-6d0c8753558a

4. Tomorrow is Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead in Mexico. Here’s a piece from the Mexico News Daily, Curious about cempasúchil, the iconic Day of the Dead flower? https://mexiconewsdaily.com/culture/curious-about-cempasuchil-the-iconic-day-of-the-dead-flower/

5. And, finally and with a health warning, as this may drive you to distraction, a simple London Underground station game https://london.metro-memory.com/ I’ve stalled at 56.2% …

1. Climate action in language education is a free online course from TeachingEnglish which aims to help you “integrate environmental issues in English language teaching and develop the skills you need to take and sustain meaningful and impactful action to protect the environment in your local context”. It starts on 7^th November https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/training/climate-action-language-education

Three three-hour modules over a month, with a mixture of live events, discussion fora and self-study.

You’ll need to create (it’s free and quick) a TeachingEnglish account if you haven’t already got one.

2. Here’s an exercise in point and counterpoint:

the point is a post from Philip Kerr’s blog, Perspectives on language teaching research https://adaptivelearninginelt.wordpress.com/2023/09/23/perspectives-on-language-teaching-research/

and the counterpoint is a post from Geoff Jordan’s blog, What do you think you’re doing? https://applingtesol.wordpress.com/2023/10/23/the-relevance-of-sla-research-for-language-teachers/

I read that title of Geoff’s with the stress on the ‘do’!

3. Stride is an online global citizenship magazine for schools from Scotland http://www.stridemagazine.org.uk/

Its home page currently has a link to “a curated Padlet of resources to support you with approaching the Israel- Palestine conflict with your learners” from HOW, the Highland One World Global Learning Centre. “The board includes background reading, guidance, first-hand stories from Israel and Palestine, and primary and secondary teaching packs.” https://padlet.com/Highland_One_World/approaching-the-palestine-israel-conflict-with-learners-47fw8lw0s67gwigx

4. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned the event in memory of Dubravka Ugrešić at SSEES earlier this week. By far and away my sternest critic, my wife Boba, says it went well. If you’d like to know a bit more about Dubravka, here’s an informative obituary from the New York Times https://tinyurl.com/yc8j85sm

and below is a home-made PDF of the piece she published in The Independent and Die Zeit in late 1992, The Dirty Tyranny of Mr Clean, that first got her into political hot water.

I failed to teach Dubravka English for three months in 1981. No matter: she later taught herself excellent English!

5. And, finally, What can nuns reveal about the secrets of ageing? In the Radio 4 podcast Uncharted, mathematician Hannah Fry explains how a graph tracking nuns’ mental capacity over decades helped reveal vital insights into how our brains age https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001r1p4

and here’s the matching article from the BBC website https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3TXBkZtyNRPpCCknlVpTnV4/what-can-nuns-reveal-about-the-secrets-of-ageing

1. Lots to explore on the (still under development) AI in Education website https://www.ai-in-education.co.uk/ including AI in Performing Arts Education: Crafting an Immersive Taylor Swift Murder Mystery https://www.ai-in-education.co.uk/resources/ai-in-performing-arts-education-crafting-an-immersive-taylor-swift-murder-mystery Shame she had to be murdered, though!

2. Annie Rauwerda “makes a habit of getting lost among the seemingly endless digital archives of Wikipedia”, and here’s her TED talk about her adventures, The joy of learning random things on Wikipedia https://www.ted.com/talks/annie_rauwerda_the_joy_of_learning_random_things_on_wikipedia

3. Not the easiest website to navigate, the LanguageCert one, but I got there in the end! Here’s short notice of their webinar at 15:00 UK time tomorrow, Wednesday 25^th October, Energise your classroom: Getting creative with English, which aims “to empower you to help students to not just learn English but actively use it through communicative activities like dictation, art, media, imagery, drawing and film” https://www.languagecert.org/en/preparation/webinars/webinars-for-teachers

Direct registration link here !https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/4816934791031/WN_0hJmPyV8Rt-AWVUACSgseg#/registration

4. Here’s something a bit different, from the Smithsonian magazine, courtesy of Maja Mandekić: Claude Monet’s Eyeball https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-new-hand-painted-video-game-takes-place-in-claude-monets-eyeball-180983016/

5. And, finally, here’s George Saunders reading his story, Sea Oak https://songwriterpodcast.com/George-Saunders-Craig-Finn Saunders reading his story forms the first part of each podcast, both of which also include an interview with him and a song based on his story. I tuned out a bit after the story ….

1. The REAL (Research for Equitable Access and Learning) Centre here in Cambridge is about to start its autumn seminar series https://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/centres/real/events/ All the seminars are online (as well as f2f), and here’s the first two:

The role of hope in education: Learning from Syrian refugee youth’s strategies to navigate uncertainty Tuesday 24 October 2023, 13:00-14:00 GMT Room GS4 with Dr Hiba Salem, Research Fellow in Forced Migration Studies, University of Oxford

Exploring higher education solutions for Afghan women under the Taliban Tuesday 31 October 2023, 13:00-14:00 GMT Room GS4 with Dr Marissa Quie, Fellow, Lucy Cavendish College and Convenor, Afghanistan Desk, The Centre for the Study of Global Human Movement, University of Cambridge.

2. More from the REAL Centre: Sustained, purposeful investment is key to ‘leaving no girl behind’, either in education or beyond, is the finding of a recent report by a group they led into the UK government’s Leave no Girl Behind initiative, launched in 2016. Here’s a summary https://content.educ.cam.ac.uk/23-leave-no-girl-behind-analysis and PDFs of the full report and of the annexes to the report below.

3. Was this author on a hiding to nothing? Maybe she was – but she survived! An Approach to Teaching Humour by Kirstie Jackson Wilms for the IH Journal https://ihworld.com/ih-journal/issues/issue-51/an-approach-to-teaching-humour/

The rest of Issue 51 is here https://ihworld.com/ih-journal/issues/issue-51/

4. Oxford University Press’s next ELTOC is next Friday and Saturday, 27^th and 28^th October https://elt.oup.com/feature/global/eltoc/?cc=gb&selLanguage=en

It starts at 10:40 UK time with a formidably bearded Nik Peachey on Multi-Modal Literacy: Why and How. Nik’s thesis is that “it’s becoming impossible to ignore the fact that our digital world has changed the nature of literacy. Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking are no longer enough”.

5. And, finally, William Dalrymple’s talks are always good. Here’s ample notice, I hope, of one he’s giving for the Asia Scotland Institute at 12:00 UK time on Tuesday 31^st October, based on his new book, The Golden Road, looking at “forgotten chapters of history, the economic, cultural and political impact of the Red Sea route, and modern geopolitics and global trade”, Unveiling ‘The Golden Road’ – The Ancient Trade Route That Shaped Our World. Register here for free https://asiascot.com/events/unveiling-the-golden-road

1. The Nature of Networks that Support Innovation is an interesting piece on what makes networks work by Tobias Stone https://medium.com/@newsquare/the-nature-of-networks-that-support-innovation-e496784b61c3

Don’t be put off by the complex description of ‘an ideal innovation network structure’ at the beginning: Tobias explains it all in the rest of the piece!

2. The Mandates, which started on 3^rd October, is a spookily prescient series on BBC Radio 4 which tells the sorry story of the French and British ‘mandates’ in the Middle East https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m001r1h6

3. I’ve just discovered the Fairtrade Schools video library https://vimeo.com/user36607237 Their films are intended for a UK schools audience but I think they might work in classrooms outside the UK if handled with care.

Here’s two that caught my eye. Farming for the Future: Hear from Banana Farmers in Colombia https://vimeo.com/804236062 and Unravelling the Thread: the story of cotton https://vimeo.com/265355008

4. Green Action ELT’s next event, Offsetting: is it the answer? Is at 14:00 UK time this Friday, 20^th October. Scroll down this page for more information https://green-action-elt.uk/events/ and register here https://nile-elt.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIqdeqpqDspGtGTauZaNpoS5r4KSNhywCzM#/registration

5. And, finally, Louise Glück, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2020, died last Friday at the age of 80. Here’s a NYT gift article which celebrates her life and work, Five Louise Glück Poems to Get You Started https://tinyurl.com/3n6kex5h

1. Want to make ChatGPT work better for you? Talk to it like a person, like you would a co-worker or team member argues this piece by David Gewirtz for ZDNet, How to write better ChatGPT prompts for the best generative AI results https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-write-better-chatgpt-prompts/

2. It’s very difficult to strike a balance on the Israel-Hamas conflict. Even trying to do so upsets many on both sides. I’m not an expert on Middle East politics, but these two pieces seem to me to be pretty balanced:

a) Ian Bremmer’s TED talk The Israel-Hamas War — and What It Means for the World https://youtu.be/wQmBsbt9blg?feature=shared

b) Michele Groppi’s piece for The Conversation, Hamas has achieved what it wanted by attacking Israel: terror, escalation, and disruption to the international order  https://theconversation.com/hamas-has-achieved-what-it-wanted-by-attacking-israel-terror-escalation-and-disruption-to-the-international-order-215236

The Conversation is publishing a ‘rolling guide’ to their writing on the conflict https://theconversation.com/israel-hamas-war-updates-on-the-conversations-coverage-of-the-conflict-215285

I’d also expect Israel and the Palestinians, which starts next Monday, 16^th October, on BBC Radio 4 to be balanced. It’s an attempt by Katya Adler to make sense of the conflict in five short programmes https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001rv0z – might work with an advanced class, if you’re able to go there?

3. The Hay Festival and the Lviv Book Forum have just co-operated on a joint event in Lviv, which – not surprisingly – was also much concerned with war and invasion https://www.hayfestival.com/m-192-lviv-bookforum-2023.aspx Here’s a highlight, Andrey Kurkov and Jonathan Franzen in conversation with Charlotte Higginshttps://www.hayfestival.com/p-20781-jonathan-franzen-and-andrey-kurkov-in-conversation-with-charlotte-higgins-digital-event.aspx

4. In Our Time is one of the longest running programmes on BBC Radio 4. They’ve just put together a ten-episode introduction playlist to the programme from the archives, New to In Our Time? Here are ten great places to start https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1CTX7TRRsXWQP5dyPqK2Z2c/new-to-in-our-time-here-are-ten-great-places-to-start

There’s not a whole lot of overlap with the In Our Time listeners’ Top Ten, however; make of that what you will! https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/wvSdFMv6yP0m6W5J8xyhBh/the-in-our-time-listeners-top-10

5. And, finally, the only colour picture of Tolstoy, taken by photography pioneer Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky in 1908 https://www.openculture.com/2023/09/the-only-color-picture-of-tolstoy-taken-by-photography-pioneer-sergey-prokudin-gorsky-1908.html