The August TEFLer

Welcome to The TEFLer; an English teacher’s guide and companion encouraging reflection and action.

So it's August and that means holidays for some of us, and I can't wait. Intensive courses done, CertTESOL coming to an end and even a two week stint teacher training in Cambridge and that was July. What about you? Of course, for many teachers it's back to work time and others who have never really stopped, working online or stepping it up at summer school. Whatever you're up to, hopefully it's all good.

Look out for yourself?

If you haven't had a break or rarely, or maybe even never, have a proper break, you probably should. We all need to have down time, we all need to nurture ourselves. We teach students, we look after them in all sorts of different ways, we need to look after ourselves too.?

Stop reading now?

How's August looking for you? Maybe you're chilling on the beach, maybe you're more of a city break person, perhaps you're an adrenaline junkie jumping out of a plane. How about spending time with friends and family? Or maybe it's a time for some personal professional development. If the mere suggestion of teaching right now is not what you want to do, all power to you, stop reading now.?

No really, stop.?

Stopping is good.

Playing catch up

For some August is a month to catch up on those bookmarked articles and webinars we've meant to engage with but just haven't had the time. There's never time enough during the hurley-burley of the academic year when we're all so busy, our lists of stuff get longer and longer. There's loads I'm excited about getting into...

I'm going to catch up on the webinars in https://thetefldevelopmenthub.com/ also on on youtube and the podcasts from the crew at https://tdsig.org/developod-tdsigs-podcast/

Oh and I'll dig into https://iamnotataboo.com/ and the resources at https://ipsen.iatefl.org/ which have both caught my eye recently…. and of course there are articles galore at https://www.edutopia.org/

Or maybe you'll take some time to get into a book or two and take things deeper. Maybe you'll get into something new or reread something meaningful from before. I'm going for https://www.routledge.com/Inclusive-Education-for-the-21st-Century-Theory-Policy-and-Practice/ and https://www.deltapublishing.co.uk/book/activities-for-inclusive-language-teaching f.

What's on your lists to read, watch or listen to? What are your favourites to recommend to colleagues??

Or maybe its time to really go for it by taking a course. Summer is a great time to take a course to keep moving forward in your professional development and there are options galore. Commiting to a course gives us a boost as well as focus and hopefully new inspiration and new connections.?

What are the courses you've done? Which would you recommend?

Meanwhile at HQ…

At Active Language Teacher Training we're about to finish our summer Trinity CertTESOL course and then in early September we've got our “Back to School” Teaching Younger Learner course. If now is the time for you, have a look at https://www.activelanguage.net/train-to-teach-english/3-teaching-younger-learners/ to apply and for more info or message us a [email protected]?

We want our courses to be accessible to as many teachers as possible and if finances are stopping you from applying, don't let it. We're committed to inclusivity and want to be financially inclusive, if you want to do it, we'll find a way to make it happen.

So whether you're working or holidaying, indulging in your own professional development or not, wishing you a great August and Happy TEFLing!