CPD

January 2014

Professional Skills in English Course

I attended a 7 week course at Bradford College called Professional Skills in English.(Level 3).. This was an excellent beginner course for anyone wishing to improve their English skills. The course covered all aspects of grammar, writing, reading and listening. We learnt how to identify what each word meant, whether it was a verb, noun or adjective. We were taught to identify students mistakes and how to correct them. This course allowed me to be more confident with my teaching skills. I passed the course successfully and attained a certificate.

3rd February 2014

Brain Science lecture

This lecture was about how the brain works and how information is retrieved and how messages are sent. It also taught us how the left side of the brain worked as compared to the right and how the memory works. This talk taught me to understand better how the brain works and this lead me to have a better understanding of how learning takes place.

3-4th April 2014

10-12 April 2015

IATEFL ( International Association of Teachers of English as  Foreign Language)Conference Harrogate and Manchester.

As a teacher of English attending this conference in Harrogate in 2014, was vital. It was a two day conference and it was attended by many teachers and publishers and authors. I was keen to attend some lectures by some of my favourite writers such as Jeremy Harmer, and Michael Swan. I met with many teachers and was able to discuss ideas at workshops. It gave me an insight as to how others teach. I bought some books as well, which have been extremely helpful in my teaching and academic studies.

I attended the talk by Jeanne Perret “Content, context and emotion in Language Teaching”

This talk gave me new ways on how to use drama based activities, songs and music, which will impact memory. I learnt that when dialogues, structures and vocabulary are contextualised, content becomes meaningful and memorable and this helps our students to learn to interpret context and speak and respond appropriately. They also encourage an emotional response to language and help to unify and unite our students whatever their abilities and motivation. This talk was very useful as I was not very confident in introducing drama or music into my lessons. I have now begun to use more music into my lessons and the learners find the lessons very enjoyable!.

I also attended a talk by Louis Rogers “Teach me to Study”

The talk was aimed at teachers who teach academic skills. I also teach at the University of Leeds pre- sessional course where I teach academic skills to students before they embark on their Masters Degrees. This talk was useful as I learnt some useful tools on how we can teach the learners the skills they need to be able to write and listen to their lectures. The new techniques helped me to advice my students better on how they can learn more effectively. I got to evaluate methods of evaluating teaching study skills.

11-12th April 2015

Workshops by Adrian Underhill

Adrian Underhill is a pronunciation expert. In these workshops we explored ways of what to do about different accents when teaching pronunciation. I also learnt ways on how to integrate pronunciation skills in teaching, and how to integrate pronunciation into grammar, vocabulary and fluency activities. This really changed the way I approach the teaching of pronunciation as my tutors observe that this is something I need to work on correcting pronunciation, for accuracy and fluency

 July- September 2013 and July-September 2014.

The University of Leeds Lectures and workshops.

1. Lecture on how to create more effective Power Point Slides using Pecha Kucha.

This lecture was useful as it explained how as teachers we can make our presentations more appealing to learners by using the Pecha Kucha Style of presenting. It updated my ICT skills, and I taught this to my learners as well. My slides are definitely more interesting now.

2. Workshop on “How to be an effective mentor and how to get the most of your mentor”

This workshop was really useful as before I was not really aware of the roles of a mentor or mentee. These became really clear in this workshop. This then guided me when I had meetings with my mentor as I was more aware of their role and mine. It led me to have excellent relationships with both my mentors who helped me tremendously over the last 2 years.

3. Library Sessions

On these sessions I was taught how to find books using the computer systems and then how to reference the materials in an assignment using the Harvard Reference. I had know how to refer books, articles, journals, and internet materials correctly as I had to then pass this knowledge on to the students. These sessions helped me greatly as I have been able to find books, and refer them with not much difficulty when I have written my assignments for my degree at Bradford.

The National Association for Teaching English and Community Languages to Adults (NATECLA).

5/6/2015

I have registered with Cambridge English at http://www.cambridgeenglish.org, where I have signed up for some teaching challenges at http://www.teachingchallenges@cambridgeenglish.org. I have signed up for 5 teaching challenges where the first one is “how to correct learner errors”. Each week Cambridge English will send me emails and resources related to this first challenge. Once I have completed all 5 challenges I will receive a certificate towards my professional development.

I have also signed up for free teaching webinars from Cambridge English. The first webinar I will listen to will be from Craig Taine who will outline recent theories in Second Language acquisition which emphasis the dynamic nature of learning and how these theories can help make learning more manageable.

concluding Statement

In the future I would find senior colleague observations very useful to observe how my colleagues give feedback and correct errors. I would also like to observe how they play language games to make their lessons more interesting.

I would like to continue to complete the challenges set by Cambridge English and will continue to listen to webinars from Cambridge English. This would keep me updated with the latest developments in English language teaching.

I have also registered with http://www.teachers-media.com where I receive newsletters, articles and videos on different issues. This will also keep me up dated with the latest developments in my field but will also give me ideas on how to teach and make my lessons more interesting and successful.

4/6/2015 (on going)

My workplace offers the CELTA course. I have asked senior management whether I can participate in the course and observe and take part. This is very beneficial to me as it will refresh my course and it will be a kind of revision. Also I will be able to observe other trainees and will be able to contribute and learn something from them.

08/06/15

I have registered with http://www.cambridgeenglish.org. who have set me 5 challenges. My first challenge is to find new ways to identifying ,analysing and correcting my learners mistakes. I will be listening to webinars, reading articles and will be completing tasks on my learning journal. (Please see learning journal page).

16/06/2015 (1 hour)

Listened to a webinar by Craig Thane at Cambridge English on theories of second language acquisition. The Process ability theory (1998) and Complexity theory and how these can be implemented in the classroom. The two theories contrast each other but can work well with different learners.