Header image credit: https://www.britishcouncil.es/en/english-teacher-conference
Yesterday (Saturday 21st September’18) was my 6th year attending the British Council’s annual conference, Teaching For Success, in Bilbao – an annual highlight in my calendar.
As with previous years, there were many great moments and takeaways, including: meeting up with CELTA colleagues; Robin Walker’s use of Sting’s An English Man in New York – the tune of which is still silently playing in my mind as I type 24 hours later – for pronunciation teaching and awareness; Karen McGhie’s ever energetic delivery of ‘a translation revolution’; a very informative Writing for First Certificate session where I discovered PEEL for writing and the chance to see some interesting material from the publishers. Oh and of course… I now have a new pen and notebook collection too!
Sadly, with these events it’s impossible to see everything and I missed out on a number of talks I would have liked to have sat in on. These included both of Brain Engquist’s talks on ‘connecting with a video generation’ and on developing B2 Speaking skills. Other casualties of the busy talks schedule were: Amanda McLoughlin’s ’10 fun ways to work with a reading text’; A session on Reducing Teacher Talking Time with learning stations; and also a later session on the importance of phonological awareness in the reading and writing processes.
I’m now looking forward to following up on some of the things that I did get to see during the conference as there was plenty of food for thought handed out!
Glyn's English Online 