Online  14-16 March

Programme Highlights – you can access the programme here 

• Blogging to enhance reflective practice and your teaching
• Tips, ideas, and online projects to engage students with blogs
• Connecting students with blogging classes around the world
• Expert advice on how to set-up and maintain a blog for education
• Current technologies and trends in blogging and the future of blogging

My talk – Why do I blog? at 16:00 P.M. GMT

Watch the recording of my talk on You Tube

Here is the abstract to help you decide if it’s of interest to you:

In this presentation, I would like to outline some of the benefits of blogging which I have experienced as a blogger and the reasons why I believe blogging is a great push forward for professional development and reflection on one’s practices as well as on larger issues related to education and teaching & learning foreign languages. It goes without saying that blogging as part of trainee teachers’ development is also highly desirable. And yet, getting trainee teachers to start blogging tends to be quite hard, an experience which many other colleagues in the same situation share with me. Some of the reasons why this happens will be discussed and as I have recently been preparing to start a blogging initiative, I would like to share some of my ideas with colleagues and invite suggestions from more successful teacher educator colleagues of ways to motivate and kick start reluctant trainee teachers into their own blogging experience.

This conference in free – anyone can follow the talks as long as they half a fast internet connection 

In Athens 15-16 March

   TESOL Greece

       35th Annual Convention         15-16 March 2014 in Athens You can find more information on the convention website  where you can download a pre-programme. You can also read the speaker interviews to get some idea of their talk content as the pre-programme does not include details – all this on the TESOL Greece Blog 

My Talk: The Teacher as Scaffold Builder at 12:00 local time 

An interview on the TESOL Greece Blog to give some ideas about my talk

Following this conference is not free- an annual membership of 50 euros is the charge

Unfortunately, like other conferences, the speakers, who provide the content for these conferences and without who they would not exist, also have to pay a membership fee.

Kudos to TESOL France for never charging speakers !!

In Thessaloniki 15-16 March

     International Publishers’ Spring Exhibition

     15-16 March

A major Book Exhibition, primarily, where teachers and directors of studies can find out all about new books and educational products but they also have a great programme of talks, many of which are not commercial but free professional development

Nik Peachey’s Talk

Sunday March 16 10:00-10:50

EXPLOITING ONLINE VIDEO INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE LANGUAGE CLASSROOM Video is one of the strongest mediums to support the learning of language. Besides providing models of a wide range of accents and language examples it also communicates a wealth of cultural information in a way that no other medium can. This presentation will look at materials, resources, tips and advice for getting the best out of online video. You should leave the presentation with a toolkit of ideas useful websites and web-based tools to create your own video-based lessons for students or find ready made activities to set for homework.

My Talk -Sunday March 16 15:00-15:50

ARE YOU A CONNECTED TEACHER? YOUR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ONLY A CLICK AWAY? Recently, there’s been an amazing growth in professional development opportunities available via social networking. It’s never been easier for teachers to personalize their own PD, while simply sitting at home. In this talk we’ll explore the wealth of opportunities available to teachers, discussing how best they can get involved, get connected and how to evaluate what’s out there.

Entrance to the exhibition and all commercial and professional talks is free of charge

Nik Peachey’s Workshop on Sunday

A great opportunity to follow an extended 3-hour workshop with Nik Peachey – one of the world’s best known instructional technology in ELT experts. Nik is the course creator and tutor on our ICT for ELT course  leading to a Certificate of Attendance or to a DELTA Module 3 Certificate (part of the overall Diploma) Participation in this workshop is 30 euros … to be continued with events later in March