Learning to Teach Better

I've finally finished watching the video from Week 4 and I'm just so very happy to have done this course. Lots of food for thought, numerous practical tips and ideas and a fabulous constructive community. Huge thanks to Penny and all of the iTDi team! I'll certainly be recommending future courses to colleagues and trainees.

Hi Barbara Hoskins Sakamoto, I didn't receive the email with the PDF of the slides and the Text Chat from Week 3. Could you email it to me or tell me how to access it? I've really enjoyed the course. Thanks so much for all your help. Francesca

Error correction - fossilised errors Thanks for a great lecture. Lots to think about and digest. I wondered what people think about the correction of fossilised errors. If the student persistently makes the same error, after many months, or even years, is there a case for deciding not to correct those errors? I'm not sure how I feel about it. I guess if it's not obstructing meaning, then I let it go after a while. What do you think?

Jazz chants! I totally forgot about them. We had the Jazz Chants book in my very first staffroom. Such a great way to get students to think about the difference in stress between their languages and English. I searched through some old files and found this old favourite for my students in Madrid. That's tomorrow's class sorted! Thanks! Sally speaks Spanish, but not very well. When she tries to speak Spanish you really can't tell what language she's speaking or trying to speak. The first time I heard her, I thought it was Greek! Such fun! (from Jazz Chants by Carolyn Graham)

Just to say how much I'm enjoying the course!

Reposting Vocabulary review - Word grids I tell pairs of students to draw one grid of twenty small squares. Then they need to look through their vocabulary notebooks together and fill the squares with twenty useful words or phrases we have learned recently. I ask them to include a mix of "difficult" and "easy" words. They are not allowed to choose any words that they don't remember the meaning of so I encourage them to double-check before writing them in the boxes. Once they've finished, different pairs swap papers and must take turns using the words in a sentence, orally. Student A and Student B compete to use the most boxes. Each box (word) that they use counts as 1 point. If they manage to use 2 boxes, that's 2 points. When students ask me for the meaning of the word, I refer them back to their "teachers" i.e. the original pair who designed their grid. Only if they can't explain it do I step in and help. My role is to monitor, listening ...

Thanks Penny and Steven. I found the first session really interesting (I've just watched the recording as I couldn't join for the live. I was particularly fascinated by the i - 1 idea for listening level of comprehension. It was something I'd never really thought about before. What do other people think?

Hi everyone, My name's Francesca and I teach in Madrid in Spain. I've been teaching for 17 years, 9 in Spain, 7 back in my native Scotland and 1 year in Italy. At the moment, I'm teaching mainly Business English classes with groups and one-to one students and I'm also building up my teacher training business. In the summer, I return to Glasgow and teach EAP at Glasgow University. I'm really looking forward to the course as I remember when I first started teaching, Penny Ur was one of my favourite authors. I used to go to my local bookshop and have a look at "Grammar Practice Activities", adding some ideas to my notebook until I got enough money to buy the book for myself! It really helped me survive those first few years of teaching. Thank you for that Penny! I hope to refresh my knowledge of some techniques that I have forgotten over the years and look forward to sharing and discussing new ideas with the learning community. I'd also be interested in a...