How to integrate social and emotional learning into your classroom management
In this webinar for the British Council I spoke about a topic I’m super passionate about, links to my book “Activities for Social Emotional Learning” you will learn how the integration of social and emotional strategies can help create a structured, emotionally managed learning environment. These strategies can be used with learners of all ages. […]
Empathy makes the world go round
In this blog, written for Macmillan in 2023, you will find a handout with some practical activities to help grow your young learners’ social awareness, but first I explore what social emotional learning is and why it matters. The well-known psychologist and educational reformer Dewey once wrote that education is not only about what one […]
Managing stress well-being during exams
For many learners taking exams is an important but inevitable and often stressful part of life. Key to learners succeeding in exams is not only teaching them the necessary language knowledge and making them test-wise but also helping them to develop ways to manage their well-being in this stressful period. In this blog, we will […]
Advancing Women in Education
Image by pixabay @shawnc125 The below podcast by Macmillan Education, called TEATime, was recorded with Nathan Waller to celebrate March the 8th, International Women’s Day 2023.
Can we motivate our learners or should they motivate themselves?
We all have learners that come to class but just don’t seem to be that motivated to be there. Don’t worry, it’s got most of the time nothing to do with you. In general, making learners stay focused and motivated is one of the biggest challenges (Healey, 2021). According to Scheidecker and Freeman (cited in […]
Problems-solving for future-proofing
Problem-solving is essential in our ever-changing world. In this interactive session, Anna explored what competences learners need to successfully solve problems and introduced how ‘Get Involved’ uses project-based learning to engage learners and integrate these key competences into English lessons.
Focusing on Engagement
I’m obsessed with the brain. How it works and maybe even more so by how it doesn’t work. Whilst brain research has made headway in the past 15-20 years, there is still a lot we do not know about the brain. However, one thing we can say for sure is that our students’ brain certainly […]
Every cloud has a silver lining: professional learning from teacher educators
If COVID-19 has a silver lining, it undoubtedly is the learning opportunities the shift online has provided. Even though there have been challenges, most ELT teachers and teacher educators have developed digital knowledge and skills, pedagogic beliefs and confidence with technology which would not necessarily have happened without the forced transition online. This blog post below, […]
How to choose from a PD smorgasbord?
As a practicing teacher and teacher training, I very much believe that our learning should never stop. English language teachers have continued to develop their own practice, formally but mostly informally for generations (Richardson & Maggioli, 2018). And the recent shift online has reinforced the importance of this: the pandemic became a huge learning opportunity, […]
Reflecting in times of COVID-19: keep calm and keep GROW-ing
In this blog article written for CAE, I explore the benefits of reflective practice. Learn the benefits of reflecting, to promote a self-improving culture of learning and increase your ability to adapt during these unpredictable times.