Roy Cross's Blog

1. Several webinars today, in date order. First up is the next Eaquals one at 14:00 UK time next Tuesday, 23^rd February, with Nazan Gelbal from Sabanci University in Istanbul and a nice, no-nonsense title, More Interactive and Effective Lessons with Less Tools/ Apps: https://www.eaquals.org/eaquals-events/event/nazan-gelbal-more-interactive-and-effective-lessons-with-less-tools-apps-how-to-coach-and-mentor-effectively-in-a-crisis/

2. Next Wednesday, 24^th February at 09:00 UK time is the next PIE webinar, on What does genuine education disruption look like?, with three speakers from young and successfully disruptive education organisations: Arden University, Nexford University and Minerva https://www.crowdcast.io/e/the-pie-webinar–futureproofed/register

3. At 10:00 UK time next Thursday, 26^th February, the Spanish Ministry of Education & Vocational Training and the British Council are celebrating the silver jubilee of the Bilingual Education Programme with a webinar devoted to Empowering transformational change. It’ll nearly all be in English (with a little Spanish along the way); Lucy Crehan (about whom I’ve enthused before) and Zahir Irani (about whom my colleagues in Spain enthuse) are both talking. More info here https://www.britishcouncil.es/en/events/25-years-mefp-british-council-bilingual-education-programme  and registration link here https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/8252118853419621900?source=EES+UK

4. Just a little later on Thursday, 26^th February, at 12:00 UK time is Promoting Creativity in Digital Learning with Nik Peachey, discussing why it’s currently all the more important to remember to maintain the human aspect of language learning https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/promoting-creativity-digital-learning

5. Last,  but absolutely not least, is the National Geographic Learning webinar at 09:30 UK time next Friday, 27^th February, Cultivate a positive student mindset and learn how to become a plastic detective with your students https://cengage.zoom.us/webinar/register/8016133931986/WN_5bSDhFnZQZyLrRE2tXRh6g So, what exactly is a plastic detective, I wonder, and what’s the connection with a positive mindset? We will find out next Friday!

6. And, finally, and a bit more seriously than usual, the recently published Dasgupta Report, The Economics of Bio-Diversity, which argues that Nature’s (finite) value must be at the heart of economics https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/dasguptareview  PDF of full report below.

1. Techfugees mission is “empowering displaced people with technology” https://techfugees.com/ They’ve just issued their first ever annual report, which you can read here https://techfugees.app.box.com/s/v3j96k8bhs6sm0vuhle6gtkcl4jrnaru I’ve also attached a PDF below but please be warned it’s a bit of a monster file – perhaps surprising, given the people with whom Techfugees does such good work – and you might not want to use up most of your data allowance downloading it.

[FILE]

2. Duolingo, the language learning site, https://www.duolingo.com/  have also just published their first annual Language Report on global language learning trends https://blog.duolingo.com/global-language-report-2020/ Lots of interesting observations, including: the ten most popular languages, where #1 might not surprise you but the lowly position of #10 might; the second most popular language learnt through Duolingo in each country worldwide; the fastest growing languages being learnt; the country that works hardest at learning languages. One small proviso is that the data derives from Duolingo’s customer database, which is clearly not quite a random sample of population in each country.

3. You’ll need to book quickly for the Oxford English Language Teachers’ Online Conference (ELTOC), as some sessions are already full: https://elt.oup.com/events/global/eltoc-2021?cc=gb&selLanguage=en It runs from 25^th to 27^th February, and here’s the programme: https://view.pagetiger.com/ELTOC-2021-global-schedule

4. And, finally, the first episode of the first book, Tess of the d’Urbervilles, in a series of BBC Radio dramatisations over the next few months of Thomas Hardy’s novels told from the heroine’s point of view: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b078zcrr Listened to it last night and thought one of my favourite novels survived well!

Here’s the episode of ‘In Our Time’ that discussed Tess: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b078zcrr

Curiously – or lazily? – both dramatisation and discussion use the same image of Tess – see if you can find it here! http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/tess/tess.html

1. Tomorrow, Thursday 18^th February, at 14:00 UK time: David Heathfield on Engaging, Personal and Creative Online Storytelling https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/online-storytelling-engaging-personal-creative “The webinar will focus on telling tales from the world’s oral cultures and refer to how these folk tales can inspire students to share personal stories.”

Here’s David’s own website: https://davidheathfieldblog.wordpress.com/

2. While I was checking out the details of David’s talk, I chanced upon this webinar by Ágnes (Ági) Enyedi on How to Avoid Teacher Burnout. She gave the talk long before we’d heard of Covid, but it’s aged very well and is even more relevant today: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/agnes-enyedi-how-avoid-teacher-burnout  (I don’t suppose you’ll get to see this message, Ági, but hi there if you do!)

Ági recommends TED talks by two Dans: Dan Pink’s on ‘The Puzzle of Motivation’ https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_the_puzzle_of_motivation?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare and Dan Ariely’s on ‘What Makes Us Feel Good about Our Work?’ https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_what_makes_us_feel_good_about_our_work?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

3. A friend of mine with a very large brain, Norman, recommended this article, Martin Luther Rewired Your Brain: https://thisviewoflife.com/martin-luther-rewired-your-brain/ See what you think of it – the central thesis is that the advent of mass literacy changed the way our brain works and is ‘wired’.

4. A short film from the British Museum about the painstaking creation of a mandala in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan – and its ritual destruction almost immediately after its completion, to emphasise one of the central concepts of Buddhism, that everything is impermanent: https://youtu.be/khs0f4zTPbg

Lots more material from the Museum’s recent online exhibition Tantra: enlightenment to revolution here: https://youtu.be/vj2mJGLst9I?list=PLHcErFdjbqlx83D7QRooF8Kls9rFtmD2_ including a spell-binding performance of Tantric mystic songs by Parvathy Baul, who is – a little confusingly – a virtuoso Baul musician. Bit like being named Bruce Guitar instead of Bruce Springsteen, I suppose!

5. The weekly phobia is one that’s shared by my stepson and Alfred Hitchcock – ovophobia!

1. Gary Motteram from Manchester University is conducting a survey on behalf of the British Council on Social media and teacher professional development which asks how teachers and teacher educators use communication tools and social media for professional development. Gary says “We want to know what you learn by engaging in online groups and what you do with what you learn. If you are part of an online group for teacher development, please help us.” https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdtiaABY4tKqFTlmpCEGVhXCPxNa7n3LmVDnQsTKEwqZN3eMQ/viewform Don’t worry if your online group is not terribly formal. Make a cup of coffee and give yourself fifteen, maybe twenty minutes – you need to finish the survey in one sitting. The good thing, though, is that you can look through the whole thing before you start!

Here’s a link to the recording of a webinar of Gary’s from last November, reporting on the use of WhatsApp in ‘challenging contexts’ https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/teacher-professional-development-through-whatsapp-based-communities-practice-challenging

2. First of two from my Darling colleague Ellen: Language teachers’ tips for an interactive online classroom from Ukraine, Spain, Peru and the UK https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/language-teachers-tips-interactive-online-classroom

3. Ellen’s second suggestion is a report from the UK Open University, Innovating Pedagogy 2021, that looks at “ten innovations that are already in currency but have not yet had a widespread influence on education” – here’s the link https://iet.open.ac.uk/file/innovating-pedagogy-2021.pdf   Copy of PDF below. Small-scale use of enriched reality is within reach for learners with access to a suitable smartphone and a good internet connection, apparently! Sounds like quite a good thing in lockdown, enriched reality.

4. Let’s talk about feedback! is Alexandra Mihai’s latest post on her blog, The Educationalist: https://educationalist.substack.com/p/lets-talk-about-feedback Not always comfortable territory, says Alexandra … [As usual with Alexandra’s blog posts, there’s a really good list of resources at the end.]

5. And, finally, for a bit of a change, Lester Bowie’s brassy big band version of Whitney Houston’s Saving All My Love for You: https://youtu.be/py6bZ5qaj7k

1. The next event in Birmingham University’s MOSAIC Centre Group for Research on Multilingualism’s occasional series of webinars is at 16:00 UK time this Wednesday, 17^th February: Uta Papen, Professor of Literacy Studies at Lancaster University, will be talking about the “Peer to Peer Deaf Multiliteracies” project (2017-2020), which developed an innovative way to teach English to deaf young adults in India, Ghana and Uganda. https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/education/research/mosaic/events/uta-papen.aspx

If you’d like to attend, please let Hua Zhu  H.Zhu.3@bham.ac.uk know before Wednesday.

2. Also on Wednesday, 17^th February, From theory to practice: decolonising education for sustainable futures at 12:00 UK time is the second in Bristol University’s ‘Decolonising Education for Sustainable Futures’ UNESCO Chair series and aims to “address how activists and organisations have been reimagining education. […] speakers will demonstrate how they are learning from anti-colonial and anti-racist struggles”. http://www.bristol.ac.uk/education/research/bristol-conversations-in-education-research-seminar-series/

Registration link here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/from-theory-to-practice-decolonising-education-for-sustainable-futures-tickets-136414470353

3. Kevin Stroud’s The History of English Podcast is an extraordinary labour of linguistic love, with 144 episodes so far since 2012, which (only!) take us as far as the second half of the fourteenth century: https://historyofenglishpodcast.com/ It’s an engaging blend of history and linguistics.

4. And, finally, it’s alright for some, isn’t it? https://youtu.be/eFgXnr90gLc I confess to a little envy …

1. Early notice of this Trinity College – Regent’s University conference in June, so you have ample time to get in your proposals by the 6^th April deadline. Those of you who are involved in PRELIM, how about a report on the learning from your partnership? https://learn.trinitycollege.co.uk/foelt/events/2021

You’ll find lots of recordings from last year’s conference here, together with a list of forthcoming events.: https://resources.trinitycollege.com/teachers/english_language/webinars/tag/foelt-2020

2. British Council colleagues in Spain have a webinar at 17:30 UK time next Wednesday, A practical tool for Literacy in the Bilingual Primary School, with Louise Van Laar and Richard Stenhouse, looking at the “Dear Greenpeace” storybook. More info here https://www.britishcouncil.es/en/events/webinar-practical-tool-literacy-bilingual-primary and register here https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/8896699848402336271

You can find a recording of the previous webinar in the series, Literacy in Bilingual Primary Schools: an effective text based approach, here: https://youtu.be/KZSdb2kU_sQ

3. The latest edition of Humanising Language Teaching from Pilgrims has just come out, this time with a focus on Australia: https://www.hltmag.co.uk/feb21/

Tomorrow, Saturday 13^th February, Pilgrims are hosting another of their Pilgrims Cafes for trainers from 13:00 to 16:00 UK time: https://www.pilgrims.co.uk/page/?title=Pilgrims+Cafe&pid=139 In their own words, “Short talks, activities, music, poetry, drama: whether you teach young learners or older students, whether you’ve been to Pilgrims or planning to come to Pilgrims, anyone can attend: there will always be something for everyone!”

And, guess what? As a result of Brexit, Pilgrims are moving their Teacher Development summer courses to Limerick, so participants still qualify for Erasmus+-funding. (I realise that makes a difference to only a minority of the readers of this message, but for many of us Pilgrims was synonymous with Canterbury!)

4. The latest edition of EL Gazette has also just come out: https://www.elgazette.com/elg_archive/ELG2011/mobile/index.html I’m still not quite convinced by their page-flicking-with-sound-effects software! Nice piece on standing up to gurus, Guruism can be detrimental to your professional health, by Paula Rebolledo – who has to guard against becoming a guru herself, I guess!

The EL Gazette’s home page is here: https://www.elgazette.com/

5. That Moonflower still hasn’t flowered, it seems: https://youtu.be/uFBp1Eg_0F0 Maybe not too surprising, as it’s been below freezing all day today.

6. And, finally: prompted by a moment of epiphany with a blood orange yesterday evening, I went off in search of this poem of William Carlos Williams, to check I’d remembered it correctly, which I’m pleased to say I had: https://poets.org/poem/just-say And I didn’t need to leave a note on the fridge, as I shared the orange with my wife!

1. Here’s the latest newsletter from the European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) in Graz: https://www.ecml.at/News/Newsletter/Gazette54/tabid/4424/language/en-GB/Default.aspx If I’m honest, I often groan when a newsletter of this length lands in my inbox, but I never groan when the ECML one arrives – there’s always two or three items of interest. You can subscribe here: https://www.ecml.at/Resources/Newsletter/tabid/1385/language/en-GB/Default.aspx

This time round I noticed the item on the ECRML (not to be confused with the EC -no ‘R’- ML), the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Here’s the ECRML website: https://www.coe.int/en/web/european-charter-regional-or-minority-languages/home and here’s a link to the page where they list the languages they protect: https://www.coe.int/en/web/european-charter-regional-or-minority-languages/languages-covered I’ve attached a PDF of the list of languages below, and what really strikes me is how short that list is for Europe! How long would the comparable lists for other continents be, I wonder?

Another item that caught my eye was the one on UNESCO’s ‘Mother Language Day’ https://en.unesco.org/commemorations/motherlanguageday (Not a term I’d come across before: ‘mother tongue’, yes, but not ‘mother language’: maybe a straightforward translation of langue maternelle in French?) This year’s theme is Fostering multilingualism for inclusion in education and society and here’s a link to register: https://unesco-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_L44NOqccRHKddCKqGM9b0A PDF of programme also attached below.

2. I thought this was a really good, engaging, inspiring story about the 2021 TESOL-National Geographic Learning Teacher of the Year Khanh-Duc Kuttig and her professional journey: http://newsmanager.commpartners.com/tesolc/issues/2021-02-01/4.html (How well does the expression “I am really, really chuffed” travel, I wonder – does the expression mean anything in the USA?)

More on the award here: https://www.tesol.org/news-landing-page/2021/02/05/tesol-and-national-geographic-learning-announce-2021-tesol-teacher-of-the-year

3. I hope most of you found something of interest in the British Council Teacher Educator newsletter I shared yesterday. I couldn’t find the link to the page where you can subscribe yesterday, so here it is today: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/subscribe-our-newsletter You can subscribe to both the teacher educator newsletter and the teacher newsletter, should you so wish.

4. And, finally, here’s some more Amanda Gorman, her mould-breaking Superbowl performance: https://youtu.be/-ejbSCjg2qo

plus a piece from the New York Times with a bit more background https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/07/sports/football/amanda-gorman-poem-chorus-of-the-captains.html

which includes (right at the very bottom) this link to a piece, with videos, of ten young black poets whose work might engage your students (and their teachers!) https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/10/09/arts/young-black-poets.html

1. A repeat of this morning’s message for those that didn’t get it earlier about Macmillan Education’s Advancing Learning Global Teachers’ Festival which began on Monday and runs till Friday 19th February: https://www.macmillanenglish.com/advancing-learning-global-festival Two sessions each day, each repeated two or three different times in the course of the day, so everyone that wants to gets chance to attend. PDF of programme attached below.

[FILE]

2. This looks likely to be a great event at 20:30 UK time next Monday, 15^th February as part of the Northern Ireland Science Festival with Jane Goodall, famous for her pioneering chimpanzee conservation work: https://nisciencefestival.com/e21465-how-to-save-the-planet–in-conversation-with-dr-jane-goodall-dbe-tara-shine-and-anna-kernahan

Here’s the link to register https://www.citizenticket.co.uk/events/ni-science-festival/how-to-save-the-planet-ndash-in-conversation-with-dr-jane-goodall-dbe-tara-shine-and-anna-kernahan/

and here’s the Jane Goodall Institute website: https://www.janegoodall.org/ Jane first travelled to Gombe Forest in Tanzania in 1960, the same year that she made the discovery that chimpanzees make and use tools.

3. Lots of good stuff here in the British Council TeachingEnglish Teacher Educator Newsletter, including yoga, storytelling and communities of practice in Egypt and globally, plus several surveys, at least one of which is bound to pique your interest enough for you to complete it: http://createsend.com/t/y-96B356118BCE856E2540EF23F30FEDED

4. If you missed – as you almost certainly did, given the notice I gave you – the Hay Festival event with Francis Spufford yesterday evening (during which he wore a hat indoors, which would have upset my grandmother), here’s the BBC Radio ‘Book at Bedtime’ version of his novel, Light Perpetual: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000s18l It’s a good, accessible listen so far.

Also from Hay, free access for this week only to the recording of Bernardine Evaristo’s interview with Pilar Quintana at Hay Cartagena last month: https://www.hayfestival.com/p-17347-bernardine-evaristo-in-conversation-with-pilar-quintana.aspx?skinid=16

1. The shortest notice ever, sorry – this Hay Festival event with Francis Spufford starts at 19:00 UK time today, Tuesday: https://www.hayfestival.com/p-17398-francis-spufford-in-conversation-with-rebecca-watson.aspx

Here’s a review of his book to whet your appetite: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jan/24/light-perpetual-by-francis-spufford-review-a-brilliant-capacious-experiment-with-fiction And I very much hope there will be a recording ..

2. Amazon (Jeff Bezos) yesterday, today it’s Google’s turn – these small organisations need all the help they can get! Google’s Learning with Google event takes place on 17^th and 18^th February this year. More info and a registration link here: https://educationonair.withgoogle.com/events/learning-with-google-2021

I’m absolutely sure I’m not exploiting all of Google’s features, and I’m looking forward to learning what I’m missing next week. I’m also slightly worried that Google, on the other hand, are exploiting all of my features and not missing very much at all, given the accuracy of some of their advert placement!

3. Lots of short pieces on science for your students to engage with on the IFLScience! site, some appealingly wacky: https://www.iflscience.com/ Not quite sure about that acronym, though: the I in IFL = I, the L = love, the F = …?

4. And, finally, here’s Jon Burton, the Chief Executive of IATEFL’s reflections on thirty years, man and boy, in ELT: https://www.iatefl.org/news-views/30-years-english-language-teaching It brought back memories for me of trying – and usually failing – to stop/start the cassette recorder in the right place!

1. Several pieces from last Friday’s weekly Learnit newsletter, these first three a bit sombre:

Gangs in Latin America: https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/schools-out-in-latin-america-gangs-are-thrilled/ 

Covid management in France: https://www.connexionfrance.com/French-news/France-sets-stricter-Covid-protocol-for-schools-including-masks-and-distancing

Private schools in Ghana: https://www.africanews.com/2021/01/31/ghana-s-private-school-sector-hit-hard-by-the-covid-19-pandemic/

Less sombre, though, is the thought of an exam-free future: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/schools-seize-on-perfect-time-to-explore-a-future-free-of-gcses-3qgxwdbrd (you may need to register for that one)

and – unless you’re feeling very cynical – the news that Jeff Bezos is about to invest $2 billion in a Montessori-inspired network of preschools https://www.edsurge.com/news/2021-01-21-jeff-bezos-wants-to-go-to-the-moon-then-public-education

Here’s more about Learnit https://learnit.world/#about-us and you can sign up for their newsletter yourself here: https://learnit.world/newsletter-signup

2. I’ve mentioned EEF, the Education Endowment Foundation, before: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/  EEF started a podcast recently  https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/news/podcast/  and the second edition, on Managing behaviour and building habits, examines the evidence on supporting pupils to form effective learning behaviours, both in-school and at home. You could split your listening of the podcast up into the three different lively interviews it comprises, and I think it would make a good shared listening activity for a TAG (teacher activity group).

3. More, fascinating detail on that wonderful Sutton Hoo helmet I was talking about the other day here: https://youtu.be/zYk0GH5iFYI The very personable presenter, Sue Brunning, the Curator of European Early Medieval Collections at the British Museum, has made a number of good videos: here’s another one, this time on the Sutton Hoo sword https://youtu.be/nb9vTu73xmE.

If you really can’t get enough of The Dig, Dr Brunning is discussing the novel on which the film of the same name was based with its author John Preston at 18:30 UK time on Monday 22^nd February: https://www.britishmuseum.org/events/members-exclusive/the-dig You can also join on the day via the British Museum’s YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/britishmuseum/videos

4. And, finally, just why is Mars such a popular destination this year? https://theconversation.com/mars-the-conversation-weekly-podcast-explores-why-three-missions-are-about-to-reach-the-red-planet-154326