Free Professional Development in ELT - Coursera x The University of Oregon

I've spent the last five weeks doing an online course through Coursera called Shaping the Way We Teach English, 1: The Landscape of English Language Teaching. It's run by the University of Oregon and the best thing about it is, it's all online, it's collaborative (you get to meet and discuss topics on ELT with teachers from around the world) and it is free of any charges. All you need is a computer connected to the Internet.

Basically with course each week involved:

• a reading from an academic journal
• watching a classroom video
• a quiz based on the reading & video 
• compulsory posts in discussion forums
• a two-phase lesson planning project

I have gotten a lot out of the course and in just five short weeks it has already impacted the way I teach. I've started trying out a bunch of new things on my students, like projects (not easy to do in just 45 minutes once a week), silent time, replacement role-plays, and lots more.

The peer evaluations are particularly valuable, the aspects I enjoyed reading in other teacher's lesson plans ended up in my classroom the very next week. Some teachers actually found doing peer evaluations addictive.

I have enjoyed the course so much that I am doing the next five-week course which starts in 9 hours! No rest for me until March 16th.

Teachers TV - a great tool for professional development

Teachers TV was a free video website funded by the UK government until 2011. 

I loved this British series and wish it had continued because it was a treasure trove of brilliant, practical help for teachers and administrators. 

Sadly, funding was withdrawn for reasons unknown but at least all the videos are still online, some on YouTube or hosted on other sites like TES.

Back in the day, I spent hours every week watching videos from Teachers TV to pick up new tips and ideas. The advice dispensed on a wide range of subjects and school issues was incredibly useful.

As Sir Ken Robinson says, 

"Investing in professional development is not a cost, it's an investment."

And these online video websites are an incredibly helpful tool for professional development (PD), because busy teachers easily watch or listen to videos in their free time, in order to keep on absorbing the huge amount of information, new ideas and techniques that are necessary to do our jobs of keeping our students' minds engaged in learning.

I highly recommend watching it.

Try IT On Monday in Japanese ー TIOMは日本語でやります！

Japan ASCD has another Try IT On Monday (TIOM) seminar coming up in Tokyo this Saturday December 6th. 

TIOM is characterized by its relaxed vibe, while being very practical and accessible to teachers at any level of the IT spectrum.

This one coming up is aimed at Japanese educators and will be hosted by the lovely people at Nishimachi International School. As you can see on the flyer, they have coffee!

I highly recommend attending, our teachers really enjoyed the atmosphere while picking up very useful skills at the TIOM we attended (in English) this April. 

Please get the word out to your Japanese colleagues. 

Links: 
Try IT On Monday - in Japanese
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