Wednesday 29 July 2015

Digest of first days on the BTT course - Part 1

First days on Bell's Becoming a Teacher Trainer (BTT) course at Homerton College, Cambridge (part 1)


July 26th, arrival Sunday

I'm in the West House, room 337
I got to the college in the afternoon, unpacked and got ready for the event Bell had prepared for us course attendants.


Me holding room key and invitation

In the evening, Bell gave a welcome buffet dinner to help us break the ice, make acquaintance and relax. Jim Scrivener, Academic Director, gave us a light-hearted welcome in the lovely English manner.

Jim Scrivener welcoming us

Here have come teachers - of English mostly, but also of other subjects - from all over Europe as well as from Argentina, Australia, Egypt and the US. They have different interests: polish/enrich their English, try new methodologies, keep up-to-date with the use of technology in the classroom and, of course, learn how to teach teachers. 

Those of us whose projects have been approved for European Union funding are particularly interested in establishing a network of cooperation for dissemination, job shadowing activities, virtual swap-shops and the like. I'll let you know more about them in future posts!




Monday 20 July 2015

First week!











 
This is Homerton College. It's like being at Harry Potter's College of Wizardry!





When I learnt that my tutor was going to be Pete Sharma I couldn't believe it, as he is one of the very first people to write about Blended Learning in ELT.
If you would like to know more about him, check these links:
http://www.eltteacher2writer.co.uk/pete-sharma
http://www.psa.eu.com/about/pete-sharma

As for social networking, it's been amazing! Everything here is really intense and you get to enjoy great moments!



Friday 17 July 2015

Some nice photos of my first week in Canterbury

Going sightseeing (and shopping, I must say) with my dear flatmates Niki, Lily and Juanmi.

Welcome to Canterbury Cathedral: 

a must-see








We went to a service in Canterbury magnificent Cathedral and we enjoyed the Choral Evensong by a boys' choir. An unforgettable experience!                                

Another very popular tourist attraction that visitors love is the River Tour. I did go on the river tour and it was definitely more than worthwhile.

Admiring the view from our little boat!

This is our captain, who was very knowledgeable and, overall, great fun! 

 More pics and info coming soon ...














Monday 13 July 2015


My second week has just started and ... still so much work to do :)

TEACHING ADVANCED STUDENTS: COURSE CONTENTS


1ST WEEK
9.00 – 10.30
11.00 – 12.30
14.00 – 15.30
Tue, 07.07.2015
Dealing with longer texts 1.
Dealing with a short story 2
Types of feedbacks 1
Wed, 08.07.2015
Live Listening
Listening a recorded text (You Tube)
TBL in different settings
Thu, 09.07.2015
Speaking activities 1
Speaking activities 2
Pronunciation
Fr, 10.07.2015
Teaching lexis 1
Teaching grammar 1
Grammar games


2nd WEEK
9.00 – 10.30
11.00 – 12.30
14.00 – 15.30
Mo, 13.07.2015
Introducing “new” grammar to advanced students 2
Dictations: what are they good for?
Process and product writing
Tue, 14.07.2015
Classroom management: Setting up group activities
Classroom management: dealing with difficulties
Revisiting: the importance of revision activities.
Wed, 15.07.2015
More on feedbacks.
Tests and assessment
More writing activities: Poems
Internet resources
Thu, 16.07.2015
More on pen-and-paper activities
Work with course books
CLIL/ 
Catch-ups
Fr, 17.07.2015
Designing your own games
Songs and music in the classroom
End-of-course activities

Tuesday 7 July 2015

Comienza la primera fase de nuestro proyecto



[English translation available soon]

Hola a todos de nuevo:

Tras comunicarnos a mediados de junio 2015 que nuestro proyecto había sido aprobado, el Servicio Español Para la Internacionalización de la Educación - SEPIE, pronunciado con acento en la i :-) - nos pidió la asistencia de un representante de nuestra Escuela a unas jornadas que tendrían lugar en Murcia el 22 y 23 de junio con el tema...

II Encuentro Nacional de Proyectos de Acción Clave 1. Movilidad para el Aprendizaje del Personal de Educación Escolar (KA101) y de Educación de Personas Adultas (KA104)

La parte que nos afecta es, por supuesto, la de Educación de Personas Adultas (KA104). Podéis ver la información que se nos presentó allí en el siguiente enlace: http://www.sepie.es/comunicacion/jornadas/index.html
La representante de nuestra escuela tomando notas con avidez durante las jornadas

 Pronto habilitaremos un enlace para que podáis consultar en qué consiste nuestro proyecto, pero os adelantamos de manera muy resumida que éste busca que el profesorado de nuestra Escuela se forme en tres áreas en las que hemos detectado necesidades, para a continuación poder atender mejor a un sector importante de nuestro alumnado: el alumnado profesor que necesita adquirir inglés avanzado con el apoyo de una plataforma virtual de aprendizaje. Es de notar que el proyecto contempla además la difusión de la información y de los resultados obtenidos a otras instituciones.

Os recordamos una vez más el título de nuestro proyecto, porque es tan chulo como el proyecto en sí y nos gustaría que os familiarizáseis con él:

Catering for Multilingualism and its Demands: Blended Learning Teacher Training at C1 Level / Atención a las demandas del plurilingüismo: Formación del profesorado a nivel C1 en modalidad semipresencial

La primera fase del proyecto acaba de comenzar ahora. Es la llamada etapa de movilidad, consistente en que las profesoras viajen al extranjero para formarse. Así, entre julio y agosto de 2015, cada una realizará un curso de dos semanas de duración:
  1. Fanny Capó profundizará en la metodología del inglés a niveles avanzados ("Teaching Advanced Students", en Pilgrims, Canterbury, Reino Unido).
  2. Amalia Santana ampliará su comprensión del diseño de cursos semipresenciales ("Blended Learning: Combining Online and Face-to-Face Teaching", en Bell, Cambridge, Reino Unido).
  3. Irene Martínez ahondará en los aspectos necesarios para formar a formadores ("Becoming a Teacher Trainer", también en Bell, Cambridge, Reino Unido).
Os animamos a todos a seguir este blog y participar con vuestros comentarios para enriquecernos todos con la circulación de info.

¡Feliz visita!










Monday 6 July 2015

“Teaching Advanced Students”

Hi everyone and welcome to our newly-born blog!

I’m Fanny and I’m doing a course on “Teaching Advanced Students” at Pilgrims at the University of Kent, Canterbury. Canterbury is a place not to be missed if you happen to be in England.

Today’s my 3rd day at Pilgrims and so far so good.
Loads of new things, ideas, experiences to take in, so imagine how much more I’ll learn by the end of the two weeks that I’ll be here!!!
Most importantly, I’ve met some wonderful people from all over the world.
Hope you join me throughout this journey and find it as enjoyable as I do.


TODAY’S MESSAGE: “I’m a teacher-learner”

Friday 3 July 2015

Erasmus+ KA104 project approved!


Hi everyone!

We're very excited to announce that a project of our school's - whose planning, drafting and delivery was very time-consuming - has been approved! The title of the project is...

"Catering for Multilingualism and its Demands: Blended Learning Teacher Training at C1 Level / Atención a las demandas del plurilingüismo: Formación del profesorado a nivel C1 en modalidad semipresencial"

More info coming soon!



This project will be co-funded by the European Union