Covering all bases once again

My news for this week is a bit happier than the past couple of newsletters. Charlie and I are going to Japan on Friday! We're going to do the Kumano Kodo walk, visit Tokyo and Kyoto and (hopefully) see some cherry blossom!

I've never been to Japan before so if you've got suggestions about things to do or see (or eat!) in the Tokyo/ Osaka/ Kyoto area, please let me know.

Right, what's in the lineup today? Something for you if you're a trainer or manager, a novice/ trainee or working freelance. I'm covering all bases today!

Something old

Giving feedback to other teachers is always challenging to do well, whether that's as a tutor on a course like CELTA or as a manager who observes teachers as part of their job. In 2018, I gave a talk at the IATEFL conference about this and I thought I'd give it a bit of an airing once again.

The title of the talk was 'Reflecting on your feedback' and it looks at a way to record and reflect on what you say in this sensitive space, including an analysis of an example of some my own feedback (not always a pretty thing to listen back to!). It's designed as a session that you could use as for CPD with other people so check it out and see what you think!

Something new

Moving on, something for novice and trainee teachers now.

I wonder what you think about coursebooks? I know they often get a bad rap in our industry but my personal opinion is that they're generally helpful and timesaving although of course some are better than others and they all need adapting to fit your particular learners.

The difficulty can often be that last part. You look at the activities on the page and it's not always clear which ones are the most important or should take the lion's share of the lesson. Yes, I know the Teacher's Book will help, but how many people DON'T look at this?

So, my new video today takes a look over a coursebook page with some thoughts on prioritising activities and it's got a link to a free sample unit of Outcomes too. You might like it...

Something borrowed

Finally, for any of you who work freelance (or are thinking about it!) I haven't had to search the internet for you this week- it came to me because I'm speaking at the Momentum Workalong Summit and you're invited!

The Summit is this Thursday to Saturday (March 7-9th) and it's for anyone who wants to build and grow their own language teaching business. No matter what your business looks like now- even if you haven't started yet- there's something to help you. This year there are 15 speakers (including me!) all addressing the theme 'How do you find your next student?'

You can get all the details about Momentum and register here and it's FREE. All of the sessions are online and available to watch for 72 hours after each talk. See you there.

Right, that's it. Coming to you next week from the Land of the Rising Sun.

Best

PS. You can view all my resources for CELTA here and for teachers here.

PSS. If you know any other teachers who you think might like this newsletter, feel free to forward it to them.