Thursday 2nd May

As I started writing I realised it was 2nd May. It’s a holiday in Madrid to commemorate the ‘Second of May Uprising’ when a civilian-led rebellion stood up against the French Imperial forces who were occupying the city. This happened in 1808 and there’s a famous painting by Goya showing a scene from the events. It got me thinking about how we write about key dates in materials. Over the years I’ve often written lesson plans which link to things like ‘International Women’s Day’, ‘International Book Day’ or ‘Saint David’s Day’. If you look online you’ll see that every day is recognised for something or other. Today is also ‘National Life Insurance Day’, ‘World Tuna Day’ and ‘National Day of Prayer’. If you’re looking for inspiration for some materials, having a look at what ‘today’ is all about might be an interesting starting point. Here are a couple of dates coming up in May:

·?????? 10th May: World Laughter Day

·?????? 11th May: International Technology Day

·?????? 21st May: World Day for Cultural Diversity

·?????? 25th May: Geek Pride Day

·?????? 26th May: Paper Aeroplane Day

Do any of these pique your interest?

Have you ever written any day-based materials?

Writing work: playing catch up

I can’t believe we’re suddenly in May. This week has flown by as I’ve been busy with two kinds of work. Firstly I’ve been catching up on work that I’d set aside while I was away last week. This has been mainly writing digital homework activities, redrafting a graded reader, reading through a brief (which was anything but ‘brief’) and looking at proofs for something that is almost finished. I’ve been doing this last work on my computer but I’d much rather the old days when I worked on paper. I didn’t want to print out hundreds of pages – though I do print some things when I’m working, especially briefs I need to refer to again and again or schedules.

What kind of things do you prefer to print out when you are working?

I can’t believe we’re suddenly in May. This week has flown by as I’ve been busy with two kinds of work. Firstly I’ve been catching up on work that I’d set aside while I was away last week. This has been mainly writing digital homework activities, redrafting a graded reader, reading through a brief (which was anything but ‘brief’) and looking at proofs for something that is almost finished. I’ve been doing this last work on my computer but I’d much rather the old days when I worked on paper. I didn’t want to print out hundreds of pages – though I do print some things when I’m working, especially briefs I need to refer to again and again or schedules.

What kind of things do you prefer to print out when you are working?

The other work has been for ‘Writing ELT materials’. As some of you might know we offered two scholarships for our 2024 courses. This week we’ve been reading through applications and making our selections. The process was interesting for me because I’d never done anything like it before. We sought advice before we started and I’m glad we did. In the end we first sorted applicants into the two courses: the 5-week intensive course or the 10-week course. Then we sorted them into sub-groups: No’s, for those who didn’t meet the criteria, and Possibles for those who did. Then we went through the Possibles, narrowing them down to a shortlist. We finally interviewed the shortlisted candidates last Friday. These were informal chats, mainly to check the people were really who they said they were, and to give them a chance to ask us any questions they might have. We finally chose the successful candidates. This was followed by a lot of emails and confirmations. Needless to say the successful candidates are happy but we were sorry to have to tell people their applications had been unsuccessful.

Religion and Education

This news about ‘faith schools’ in England got me thinking this week. It’s about England where lots of people from different faiths live side-by-side. I don’t like the idea of segregated schools. In Spain, where I live, there’s been a debate going on for years about whether the state and the (Catholic) church should be separate. I know that this is something that very much depends on where you live in the world, of course.

I’m interested in hearing what people think about faith schools. In some countries they are the only kind of school of course.

Other writing work

I’ve been asked by a Publisher I’ve been working with to do some teacher training videos, so I’ve been thinking a bit about those this week too. It’s something I’m looking forward to doing but I want to make sure I don’t rush into things and we get lots of information about the participants beforehand. I’ve had a few situations recently when assumptions were made and afterwards I was left thinking, ‘I should have done … instead. It would have been far more useful.’

Have you ever rushed into something which would have turned out better with a bit more thought beforehand?

Professional Development

I’ve signed up for a couple of webinars and events that look interesting. One webinar is being run by IATEFL MaWSIG on May 14. Lottie Galpin is going to be sharing tips for making sure the materials we write ‘reflect the diversity of the world(s) we live in.’ The webinar is free and you can sign up here.

The other one is being organised by the Society of Authors. It’s tomorrow (May 3rd). This one isn’t ELT. It’s a ‘Draw along’ with illustrator Emma Reynolds and it’s also free. You can sign up here if you’re quick. It starts at 11.00 (UK time).

Have you ever joined in a ‘draw along’? It’s great fun. It’s exactly what you might imagine it to be, and you don’t have to be good at drawing.

What creative thing have you done recently?

Favourite authors

I’ve had a few conversations about authors this week, shared recommendations and a couple of to avoid. Then yesterday one of my favourite authors ever died. Paul Auster. He’s popular in Spain and was awarded the Prince of Asturias prize a few years back. I love all of his books and think I might read them again as a homage. There used to be a regular interview with an author in one of the Sunday newspaper supplements, when we still read in print. One of the questions was ‘Which book by another author would you like to have written?’ I think I’d have like to have written a Paul Auster book. I think that’s a good question to end with too. What do you think?

Which book (by another author) would you like to have written?

Do you have a favourite author?

Thank you for reading, as always. I’ll look forward to your questions, and comments, and answers.

Kath

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