My 16-year-and-counting career has had its ups (I’ve just finished a fabulous intensive DELTA course and am about to write a synchronous online Delta Module One course) and downs (at the last count I’ve made about 26 trainees / students cry on my courses / in my classes) , highs (I’ve got the longest title in ELT – International House World Organisation Academic Coordinator for Resources and Director of Studies Support)1 and lows (I’m responsible for co-ordinating IHWO’s Live Online Workshops), ins (I’m a member of the Delta-and-Lancelot-qualified-and-working–in-South-America group of one) and outs (I’ve never slept with a fellow IH teacher)2, but in 15 years of EFLing I’ve never been to IATEFL.
This year’s conference kicks off tomorrow of course and I’m not going. But, since various moons are colliding…
…I have a ‘slow’ week at work
I haven’t blogged much yet this year and need to get started up again
International House is 60 years young this year and we’re celebrating the fact at IATEFL
IH Buenos Aires has been doing CELTAs for five years now and I’d like to celebrate that fact with a bit of a social media push during my ‘slow week’ and therefore can persuade my boss that me spending my work day keeping up to date with IATEFL is good for business
…and…
I have a new smartphone…
My new phone
I feel like I might be able to take an active part in the conference even though I’m 7000 miles away and four hours behind conference time. How do I intend to do this? Well I’ve downloaded the conference app to my phone, I’ve checked out the online support pages and forums and I’ve scanned the schedule and tried to fit it in with my own. I’ve availed myself of the conference hashtag (#IATEFL), the conference Facebook page, cast an eye over the IATEFL registered blogs, signed myself up as one of them and now I’m ready to roll.
The idea is to post a blog a day summarising my thoughts on my IATEFL interaction. In order to do this I need to interact. The plan is to…
…follow #IATEFL on twitter and retweet any interesting tweets with my own take on them (if space allows)
Following #IATEFL on tweetdeck
do much the same on the Facebook page
choose a different forum each day to read and post in
IATEFL Forums
and then summarise this activity in a ‘what did I get out of / give to IATEFL today?’ type post.
IATEFL on A Muse Amuses
Why don’t you do the same? We can be in this together! Come and visit me each day and share your take on events. Let’s catch up on twitter and Facebook and the conference forums and share ourselves. We can’t go to the ball and the talks and have a coffee between them or a beer afterwards, but we can engage online and share and share and share alike.
And who knows? Maybe as a result of our sharing, something wonderful might happen…
…a new idea for a lesson activity
The Game’s Up!
a further understanding of how our students learn English
One of my classes in IH Buenos Aires Recoleta ten years ago – has much changed?
a new friend in ELT world is made
ELT friends in Montevideo
old CELTA trainees get back in contact
Some of our lovely CELTA trainees at IH Buenos Aires Teacher Training
new sources of information and knowledge are discovered
OTTI – best online resource I’ve ever discovered…
I get double figure visitors to my blog page
someone invites us to talk at next year’s conference…
Macmillan Uruguay Conference 2012
Whatever does happen, let’s hope I can at the very least keep to the blogpost a day pledge and that you enjoy the journey. I’m going to IATEFL!
Footnotes
1 Just like to point out this is the author’s own opinion, not an academically researched fact.
2 As I was writing this I actually honestly believed it was true. While there was SPOILER 1 (fond memories), she wasn’t a teacher. And then there was SPOILER 2 (further fond memories), but she wasn’t IH. But then I was about three quarters of the way through writing the rest of the post when I did actually fabulously fondly remember SPOILER 3, and she was a teacher at IH, and so in the end this statement is not strictly speaking (or in any other manner of speaking) true. But it amuses me so I’ll leave it in anyway and hopefully this footnote saves me from having actually knowledgeably lied on my blog for the first time.
I’ve never been to IATEFL…
6 04 2013My 16-year-and-counting career has had its ups (I’ve just finished a fabulous intensive DELTA course and am about to write a synchronous online Delta Module One course) and downs (at the last count I’ve made about 26 trainees / students cry on my courses / in my classes) , highs (I’ve got the longest title in ELT – International House World Organisation Academic Coordinator for Resources and Director of Studies Support)1 and lows (I’m responsible for co-ordinating IHWO’s Live Online Workshops), ins (I’m a member of the Delta-and-Lancelot-qualified-and-working–in-South-America group of one) and outs (I’ve never slept with a fellow IH teacher)2, but in 15 years of EFLing I’ve never been to IATEFL.
This year’s conference kicks off tomorrow of course and I’m not going. But, since various moons are colliding…
…I have a ‘slow’ week at work
I haven’t blogged much yet this year and need to get started up again
International House is 60 years young this year and we’re celebrating the fact at IATEFL
http://ihworld.com/60blog
IH Buenos Aires has been doing CELTAs for five years now and I’d like to celebrate that fact with a bit of a social media push during my ‘slow week’ and therefore can persuade my boss that me spending my work day keeping up to date with IATEFL is good for business
http://www.ih-buenosaires.com
…and…
I have a new smartphone…
My new phone
I feel like I might be able to take an active part in the conference even though I’m 7000 miles away and four hours behind conference time. How do I intend to do this? Well I’ve downloaded the conference app to my phone, I’ve checked out the online support pages and forums and I’ve scanned the schedule and tried to fit it in with my own. I’ve availed myself of the conference hashtag (#IATEFL), the conference Facebook page, cast an eye over the IATEFL registered blogs, signed myself up as one of them and now I’m ready to roll.
The idea is to post a blog a day summarising my thoughts on my IATEFL interaction. In order to do this I need to interact. The plan is to…
…follow #IATEFL on twitter and retweet any interesting tweets with my own take on them (if space allows)
Following #IATEFL on tweetdeck
do much the same on the Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/groups/iatefl
choose a different forum each day to read and post in
IATEFL Forums
and then summarise this activity in a ‘what did I get out of / give to IATEFL today?’ type post.
IATEFL on A Muse Amuses
Why don’t you do the same? We can be in this together! Come and visit me each day and share your take on events. Let’s catch up on twitter and Facebook and the conference forums and share ourselves. We can’t go to the ball and the talks and have a coffee between them or a beer afterwards, but we can engage online and share and share and share alike.
And who knows? Maybe as a result of our sharing, something wonderful might happen…
…a new idea for a lesson activity
The Game’s Up!
a further understanding of how our students learn English
One of my classes in IH Buenos Aires Recoleta ten years ago – has much changed?
a new friend in ELT world is made
ELT friends in Montevideo
old CELTA trainees get back in contact
Some of our lovely CELTA trainees at IH Buenos Aires Teacher Training
new sources of information and knowledge are discovered
OTTI – best online resource I’ve ever discovered…
I get double figure visitors to my blog page
someone invites us to talk at next year’s conference…
Macmillan Uruguay Conference 2012
Whatever does happen, let’s hope I can at the very least keep to the blogpost a day pledge and that you enjoy the journey. I’m going to IATEFL!
Footnotes
1 Just like to point out this is the author’s own opinion, not an academically researched fact.
2 As I was writing this I actually honestly believed it was true. While there was SPOILER 1 (fond memories), she wasn’t a teacher. And then there was SPOILER 2 (further fond memories), but she wasn’t IH. But then I was about three quarters of the way through writing the rest of the post when I did actually fabulously fondly remember SPOILER 3, and she was a teacher at IH, and so in the end this statement is not strictly speaking (or in any other manner of speaking) true. But it amuses me so I’ll leave it in anyway and hopefully this footnote saves me from having actually knowledgeably lied on my blog for the first time.
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Tags: 2013, blogging, Buenos Aires, comment, conferences, CPD, Delta Modules, ELT, Facebook, IATEFL, IH, International House, Neil McMahon, Share, Students, Thinking, twitter
Categories : Developing Teachers, My CPD and I