Roy Cross's Blog

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.

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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

1. First up today, at least a weekend’s worth of resources to explore for learners and teachers from Cambridge Assessment and Cambridge University Press: https://www.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/blogs/online-resources-for-teachers-and-students-2021/

Try Kahoot! if you’ve haven’t already done so https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/teaching-english/resources-for-teachers/kahoot/

or scroll down this page for an invitation to share your good ideas on the Cambridge University Press blog https://www.cambridge.org/gb/education/blog/

2. I missed my deadline for a piece in the first issue of the relaunched Granta back in 1979. It was meant to be on Thomas Pynchon, I think, and was definitely the one and only chance I’ll ever get to write for Granta, which launches its 154^th issue at 19:00 UK time on 11^th February: https://granta.com/events/launch-of-granta-154-ive-been-away-for-a-while/ I know it’s time to attend when there’s only one writer (Ian Jack) I’ve heard of in the list of those reading at the launch. Registration link here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_h3H45jmbTwu1AYua0CnWAg

3. Two examples of British democracy in action for you to compare and contrast – should you wish to do so, of course!

The first, this week’s PMQs (Prime Minister’s Questions) from the House of Commons during which Speaker Hoyle told the Prime Minister, “Prime Minister, in fairness, I think we’ve got to be somewhere near (my emphasis) the question that was asked. I don’t want to go round the world answering every problem and issue. There’s a lot more questions who’s (sic) going to allow you to do that ..” https://youtu.be/daEpoDZ5JxA Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer continue to inhabit different universes as far as the facts are concerned. Oh, yes you did! Oh, no I didn’t! Oh, yes you jolly well did!

The second, from Handforth Parish Council in Greater Manchester defies commentary: https://youtu.be/xsBBGVi2MCw Just enjoy it! I think ‘enjoy’ is the right word …

4. Here’s Hisham Matar, who won a Pulitzer prize for his biography The Search in 2017, reading Colm Toibin’s story, One Minus One: https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/fiction/hisham-matar-reads-colm-toibin  I’ve attached a PDF of the story below.

5. And, finally, the latest Finborough Theatre production, which is being broadcast in daily instalments during February: Late Night Staring at High Res Pixels You can watch all the instalments without subtitles on YouTube here https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6Ahow3Mr6bR7cuU8YCaanKcqdxi0Kz0F  or with subtitles on Scenesaver here https://www.scenesaver.co.uk/production/late-night-staring-subtitled/ (Worth registering for Scenesaver if you’ve not already done so.)

1. Simply put, this research paper in the Research in Learning Technology journal by Brendan Humphries and Damien Clark, An examination of student preference for traditional didactic or chunking teaching strategies in an online learning environment, is about a) whether students prefer short bursts of learning, and b) learn more effectively from them: https://journal.alt.ac.uk/index.php/rlt/article/view/2405  PDF of full article (including a short abstract for those of us who are time-poor) attached below.

2. The latest Pearson-WONKHE research also looks at the world from the student end of the telescope and aims to capture student views on online learning: https://wonkhe.com/blogs/the-expectation-gap-ii-students-hopes-for-learning-and-teaching-in-the-next-normal/ The conclusion is that “the direction of travel in meeting students’ expectations for the future of learning and teaching will be towards a more purposefully flexible approach that draws on the best of both online and face to face learning”. I’ve attached a PDF of the full report below.

3. In interesting contrast, the latest THE (remember what it stands for?) survey looks through the teacher end of the telescope in a survey of university staff on ‘digital teaching’: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/times-higher-educations-digital-teaching-survey-results  It concludes “However fiery the online baptism may have been for universities and their staff, it seems that some aspects of working practices may have been re-forged for the long term.”

4. Last time I linked to a piece from The Daily Mail, I got told off. So, I have my tin hat on in readiness this time round. Here’s the Mail’s piece from today on the slow, sad decline of modern language learning in UK schools and universities: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-9221669/Number-students-accepted-language-degrees-drops-third.html We’re well on our way to becoming a monoglot nation …

5. And, finally, the latest episode of the New York Times ‘5 Minutes That Will Make You Love …’ series, this one on String Quartets: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/03/arts/music/five-minutes-string-quartet-classical-music.html (Usefully, all the other episodes in the series are linked to in the first paragraph.) I’m listening to it right now.

1. You’re still in time to sign up for this free three-hour course on Teaching with minimal resources, which started this Monday: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/language-resilience-teaching-minimal-resources

There’s a puritan streak in me that thinks that – within reason, of course – minimal is always better! The course is available until 12^th February and a free certificate of completion is available.

2. IATEFL and its SIGs continue to offer a wealth of free events. Check out the programme, which includes How to ‘Grammar’ online on 6^th March and Creating ELT materials with no words (or very few) on 20^th February, here: https://www.iatefl.org/events

3. If you get chance to see the film The Dig, do take it. It’s the story of the discovery in 1939 of the Sutton Hoo Anglo-Saxon royal burial ship site by amateur archaeologists and their clash with professional, carpet-bagging archaeologists from Cambridge University.

The British Museum is now home to the Sutton Hoo treasure and they’ve just issued a really well-illustrated blog post, with photos from the time and stills from the film, about the film of the find and the reality of the find: https://blog.britishmuseum.org/inside-the-dig-how-star-studded-film-squares-with-reality-of-sutton-hoo/ Less gap between film and reality than is often the case!

The Sutton Hoo site is now managed by the National Trust: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/sutton-hoo I love that helmet on the first page!

4. And, finally, normal Wednesday phobia service is resumed with cynophobia, prompted by a horrific story I read last night involving two Rottweilers and a postman in the lane just round the corner from us which provoked a brief bout of cynophobia in me …