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Time: 10:00 GMT

SUMMARY:

Many different interpretations of the Cambridge assignment design guidelines exist. This session considers some of these in various contexts, both face-to-face and on-line. It will address issues of timing and order assignments, extensions and resubmissions, collaboration and plagiarism, “accuracy”, and use of support sessions and materials. The main objective of the session is to consider ways to improve the assignment process for both trainers and trainees in participants’ centres. Bring some ideas and questions for discussion and sharing.

SPEAKER’S BIO:

Diane Hoggins has been teaching English language for nearly 30 years and training teachers for more than 15. Although based in Australia, she has conducted face-to-face teacher training in Indonesia, China, South Africa, Egypt, India, Latvia and Lebanon, and many other countries on-line. Her interests include promoting ‘non-native speaker’ trainees, and encouraging learner-centeredness and innovative CELTA delivery, with a focus on on-line platforms.

Watch Recording Here

Time: 10:00 GMT

SUMMARY:

As a trainer and life coach, I see helpful crossover between the skills required for the two roles. My recent Certificate in Coaching course at the University of Cambridge has shown me how I can improve my training. These ideas are especially relevant in these COVID times when we want to show our warmth through the ether and in spite of time pressure. Come to my talk and see how this could impact on your training, too.

SPEAKER’S BIO:

Jacqueline Douglas is a freelance trainer September to March and teaches/trains at Bell School in Cambridge April to August. Her ELT experience spans 20+ years and four continents.

She’s a CELTA and Delta tutor, and offers training in CLIL, becoming a teacher trainer and evidence-based teaching.

Jacqueline is a regular speaker at conferences including IATEFL and writes a monthly blog: jacquelinethetrainer.wordpress.com

Watch Recording Here

Time: 11:00 GMT

SUMMARY:

In this workshop, we will start by exploring the challenges faced by CELTA candidates when attempting to monitor tasks purposefully. We will also discuss how meaningful and efficient feedback can be achieved in a virtual classroom setting. We will then look at common classroom activities and analyse necessary modifications to further enhance learners’ language learning experience in an online environment. By the end of the session, attendees will be better informed on how to help CELTA trainees adapt materials in order to create and deliver more effective and engaging online lessons.

SPEAKER’S BIO:

Yulianto Lukito is a teacher and senior trainer for Cambridge CELTA and TESOL courses. He holds an M.A. in Applied Linguistics, M.A. TESOL, Cambridge DELTA, and Cert IV in Training and Assessment. He has taught numerous ELT courses and run professional development workshops at universities, high schools and private colleges in Indonesia and Australia since 1997. He has presented at conferences and run webinars as well as workshops in Australia, Indonesia, and Singapore. Besides being an exam preparation course coordinator and an international English Language oral examiner, he has developed the International House Advanced Grammar and Teaching Methodology courses for English teachers. In his free time, he is passionate about elephant welfare advocacy, enjoys hiking, and immersing himself in nature.

Yanina Leigh has been teaching and training in the ESL field since 2000 both in Australia and overseas. Throughout her career, she has been involved in teaching, course design, and management positions. Her passion for learning languages and intercultural communication has brought her to the world of teacher training, a world she has been exploring since 2010.

Watch Recording Here

Time: 11:00 GMT

SUMMARY:

In this session, I will share my experiences to help answer these questions. - Is it possible to create the same communicative, student-centred classroom of pre-pandemic times in an online classroom during this pandemic? - Can we do the same when we return to the face-to-face classroom during a pandemic where pair / group work, boardwork, and passing objects is often not safe? - Can we provide the same, quality course? How can we adapt what we have been doing for years to teach our candidates the teaching techniques that will help them develop into effective teachers both online and in face-to-face lessons?

SPEAKER’S BIO:

Stephanie is a dedicated and dynamic teacher trainer and young learner specialist who has taught and trained in-service primary and secondary school teachers, pre-service and in-service English teachers, and CLIL to subject teachers in over a dozen countries, including in Europe, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, the Arabian Gulf, the Middle East, South America and North America since 2004. Since March, she has been providing CELTA online and face-to-face exploring the necessary adaptations. Stephanie recently completed a Master’s degree in International Education specializing in Innovation and Reform in 21st Century Education, specifically teaching / training in refugee and post-conflict situations.

Watch Recording Here

Time: 13:00 GMT

SUMMARY:

The Covid-19 pandemic has created a flux in education globally and widened the chasm between the have's and have-not's. With our ELT education background, what can realistically be done? This talk is to share experiences and opportunities spotted whilst you were training face-to-face and in blended programmes in the past, and more recently having to modify training to suit educational technology learning online. Can these modes be used to tailor an extensive pragmatic programme for the vast majority of English teachers who previously could not contemplate a traditional CELT-P, CELTA or DELTA route for language proficiency and/or financial reasons?

SPEAKER’S BIO:

Wendy Arnold has over 30 years’ experience, ELT training and educational management, including 15 years classroom experience teaching English (as a second language) to Primary 1 to 6 learners. She has a particular interest in developing lower middle-income countries where English is taught but the teachers are not necessarily trained to teach language. With the Covid-19 pandemic she is re-tracing her experiences to see what else can be done to close the educational gap to include more teachers and their learners.

Watch Recording Here

Time: 13:00 GMT

SUMMARY:

I’ll give a brief update on Teaching Qualifications over the last year – obviously an unusual one for us all. I’ll talk about the measures we’ve taken with TQs in response to Covid-19, the reasons for them, and the response and impact. I’ll also look at plans for the future, and particularly look at what we’re proposing to do with CELTA and ask for your feedback.

SPEAKER’S BIO:

Tim has been working in ELT for 30 years, as a teacher, academic manager, trainer and materials writer. He’s worked in Europe, Asia and Africa, including spells with International House and the British Council. Since 2013 he’s been working at Cambridge English as the Global Manager – Teacher Development. He’s responsible for the strategy and development of teaching qualifications including CELTA, DELTA, TKT and CELT-P and CELT-S.

Watch Recording Here

Time: 14:00 GMT

SUMMARY:

Why we did this

How we did it

Why we now want to exploit it in more areas

SPEAKER’S BIO:

Sally runs (and creates a lot of the content for) the ITI Delta Modules, tutors for the Distance Delta and is an assistant examiner on Module Three.

Watch Recording Here

Time: 13:00 GMT

SUMMARY:

Not really excited about having to use the standard Cambridge LMS on your intensive fully online CELTA courses? There is an alternative! Slack can be used as a good substitute for a learning management system. In my session I will show you how we use it not only as a means of instant communication, but as a tool that allows trainers to organize course content, set up a variety of tasks, share files, promote collaboration and implement the flipped classroom approach.

SPEAKER’S BIO:

I'm a CELTA Trainer and a Delta Module Two Local Tutor based in St Petersburg, Russia. I've been running CELTA courses for more than five years now. I've supervised three trainers-in-training and I've also set up two new CELTA centres in Russia and Kazakhstan.

Watch Recording Here

Time: 15:00 GMT

SUMMARY:

The roles of the online course facilitator have been summarized as: Pedagogic, Managerial, Technical and Emotional. Each of these can be described and exemplified, but which is the most crucial to the learning process? In which role can we most effectively stimulate and maintain our online course participants’ motivation and help them achieve their learning objectives? Which, in a few words, is the most important?

In this session I will first review the main functions of each of these roles and then go on to discuss which role is the most crucial, particularly in a time of crisis, such as the 2020 contingency. I will share some opinions fro teachers who were pushed into 100% online teaching this year, and I hope that, finally, the online audience will help us to reach a relevant conclusion, for this moment in time.

SPEAKER’S BIO:

Pat Grounds (MA App.Ling., PhD Language Studies) has had a long and varied EFL/TEFL career, including language teaching, materials, textbook and course design, examinations development and validation, professional training/development and research. Recently, her focus has been on in-service and postgraduate training, including DELTA and online MA TEFL training and assessing, in higher education. Engaged in online course design and teacher development since the early 2000s, Pat has published research on participant perceptions of what helps them to study effectively on line. This year, she has designed custom made online reflective teacher development courses, based on her perception that the roles of both tutor and course participant, though are in some ways obvious, are at once subtle and complex.

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Time: 15:00 GMT

SUMMARY:

For some years, I’ve been explored how drawing can be used as a tool to initiate communication and storytelling. This took place in the forms of artists in schools programmes and a local residency programme among immigrants in our local community in Cambridge, UK. During lockdown, I began what was called the “Lockdown Drawing Studio” with some children and parents in our local area. Building on this online, yet very participative experience, I will share with you some drawing based ideas we can adapt and use in online sessions to facilitate connection with our students and course attendees.

SPEAKER’S BIO:

Emma’s specialism is looking at creative solutions to classroom practice and learning, working with all age groups. She has also worked in teacher management working with the business side of running language schools and working with agents. She investigates ways in which it can be used in English language contexts to engage children’s brains, challenge their visual schema, and give voice to non-verbal forms of communication. She has contributed to publications and blogs on this subject. Emma has given workshops at IATEFL and The Image Conference on drawing in the classroom as well as being the 2018 Artist in Residence at IATEFL. She is interested in the role of illustration in storytelling and how to exploit that in the classroom. Emma has been designing online learning courses since 2013 and was, with Jamie King, a finalist in the ELTons 2014 for Innovation in Teaching Resources.

Watch Recording Here

Time: 16:00 GMT

SUMMARY:

The CELTA is often described as a career game changer, but former trainees also describe getting bogged down in the planning and assignments. This might now be aggravated as prospective trainees show concern about coming to grips with the digital platforms and fear a reduced contact with tutors and peers. This talk will provide examples of how flipping the classroom and exploiting unassessed TP sessions may promote a supportive atmosphere to build confidence.

This talk aims at sharing examples of successful practice related to the implementation of a fully-online, part-time CELTA course. The session will address adjustments in the local programme and resources to improve the experience of trainees taking the CELTA. The adjustments are proposed to boost trainees’ perception of the support they receive in the course and minimize their anxiety related to the course workload so they can work more confidently and be more successful.

The presenter will start by sharing the sources of anxiety reported by trainees prior to and during a CELTA course, relating these to the required course components in the syllabus. Then, he will exemplify adjustments made to the different components, including the course programme and daily timetable to promote a positive environment among trainees and put emphasis on collaboration and tutor support. This will include adjustments to TP point and supervised lesson planning, consultation with trainees requiring support, digital resources and moments of peer collaboration where trainees can consolidate and apply content from input sessions and assignments into lesson planning and teaching preparation. Next, the presenter will share examples of how self-paced activities and discussion can maximise these opportunities for collaborative work among trainees and also enhance the support and guidance provided by the course tutors in scaffolding the process of developing trainees’ lesson-planning skills. This will entail examples of technology.

SPEAKER’S BIO:

Wilson Portilho is an Academic Coordinator at Cultura Inglesa São Paulo, where he is responsible for in-house, pre-service training initiatives and the Cambridge CELTA. Wilson is a Delta holder and Celta Tutor. He has been working in the field of ELT for 14 years.

Watch Recording Here

Time: 16:00 GMT

SUMMARY:

As CELTA trainers, we know that our trainees’ experiences in the CELTA course change them in different ways. We also know that the way they experience the CELTA course is different for each trainee despite the fact they go through the exact same CELTA course, with the exact same trainers and resources. How can we explain why and how this happens? In this talk, I draw on my PhD research to shed light on how trainees’ learning and development as teachers is determined by how they interpret and emotionally relate to the activities they engage in during the CELTA course.

SPEAKER’S BIO:

Danielle Freitas is a professor at Sheridan College, where she teaches and advises in the TESOL Plus and ESL programs. She has been involved academically and professionally in English language teaching for over 15 years and is a TESL Canada, TESL Ontario, and CELTA teacher educator. She is also an IELTS and a Cambridge Assessment English Speaking Examiner. She has taught ESL and trained English teachers in Brazil, England, USA and Canada and has published papers and presented at local and international conferences in different countries on various topics, including teacher identity, teacher learning and development, and assessment. She is currently finishing her PhD at the University of Toronto (U of T). She has also earned her first master’s degree in Second Language Education from U of T and earned her second master’s degree in TESOL from the Institute of Education of the University College London. Danielle holds several Cambridge English Teaching Awards, including TKT, CELTA, ICELT and DELTA.

Watch Recording Here

Time: 17:00 GMT

SUMMARY:

The 100% online CELTA course needs to adequately prepare candidates to teach in both online and face to face contexts. How easy is this to do in reality? While teaching practice goes online, the Cambridge CELTA online input material is aimed at teaching face to face. This session will look at simple ideas for ensuring that candidates are fully aware of the important similarities and differences and how to adapt lesson planning, feedback, classroom management and other skills & techniques - thereby satisfying candidates, employers and CELTA assessors!

SPEAKER’S BIO:

Kate French has worked for International House Belgrano in Buenos Aires since 1995 where she has been ADoS, DoS, Incompany Coordinator, and Head of Teacher Training. She is currently DoS and Teacher Trainer, overseeing the online classes during the pandemic and tutoring on the insitute's full and part-time CELTA courses. Kate is also a Cambridge ESOL and IELTS examiner, and a CELTA assessor.

Watch Recording Here

Time: 20:00 GMT

SUMMARY:

As more textbooks are integrating 21st century skills to meet changing learner needs, how are teacher training programs keeping up? Digital literacy, critical thinking, and collaboration are some of the skills that are emerging—where do they fit into the criteria in comparison with the language itself? In a time when general English is slowly being absorbed into CLIL, ESP, and EAP, we should consider how we can adapt to prepare teachers for this shift. This talk will discuss to what extent this change should be taken into account in our training programs.

SPEAKER’S BIO:

I’ve been teaching online for more than 5 years and have several students who have taken more than 100 lessons with me. My passion is balancing language teaching with coaching to ensure that students are able to reach their full potential. I am a freelance Celta tutor with ITI Istanbul, have trained teachers with Oxford University Press programs, and am originally from Canada.