The Newsletter That Nearly Didn't Happen....

We're still on the road and making our way up from Melbourne back home to Sydney this week. We've seen all sorts of wildlife; echidnas, kangaroos, koalas and loads of birds but the 'exciting' event of the week was almost stepping on a black snake that I suspect was quite venomous - you can see this could have been a very different letter!

Anyway, I'm still here and having a bit of space away from a 'normal' life is great for getting ideas. I have lots of things cooking away for you so watch this space....

A quick reminder before we start - the deadline for my scholarship offer for the VoiCE programme is tomorrow so go and have a look at the email I sent on Friday if you missed it.

OK- let's get onto the good stuff..

Something old

Something that I've been thinking about quite a bit recently is confidence. It's a quality that will take you a long way, whether that's as a teacher, a video maker or (quite frankly) just in the world in general and I see a lot of people being held back because their nagging inner voice keeps telling them that they're not quite good enough (even when they definitely are!).

Now, I understand that it's easy to worry that you'll slip from confidence to arrogance (I can feel my inner voice shouting that as I write this- yup- me, too!) but being less diffident in the classroom will really help your teaching and I've made a couple of videos about this in the past. They're mainly aimed at you if you're a trainee or a more novice teacher, but maybe we all need a reminder once in a while.

The first one is some thoughts and practical ideas for building a rapport with your learners and the second has some practical tips to help you 'fake it 'til you make it' if you're feeling a bit nervous.

Let me know what you think and if either of these were useful.

Something new

Moving on, you're going to LOVE my new video this week for two reasons. The first is that it's only 45 seconds long (so you have NO excuse not to go and have a look now!) and the second is that it's got a really useful idea for listening that you can integrate into any lesson. There's no preparation to do and it's a little trick you can use repeatedly. I think your learners are going to really like this!

Something borrowed

Finally, my recommendation in this section for you this week is something a bit less practical but it's the sort of thing I wish I'd had access to when I was starting out in this game.

It's a talk by Chia Suan Chong (who's a fantastic speaker) entitled 'A Trip Down the Memory Lane of Methodology' and it gives an accessible overview of some of the trends that make up our shared history as language teachers. I think it's a journey we should know about if only to realise that nothing is new under the sun, really....

OK- that's it for today. Have a great week, as always and I'll see you next Sunday.

Best

Jo

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