lunedì 24 novembre 2014

My first workshop and webinar - Experiences I want to make again and again

In the last few weeks I was really busy with my lessons but I made time for my first workshop and webinar.

1) Workshop - Teaching Teenagers: 4 Skills + 1 at the TESOL Italy's 39th National Convention

In this workshop I talked about how we can engage teen learners and how to create fun lesson plans which integrate the four linguistic skills, and at the same time, allow the students to learn job skills. I shared with the audience my series of lessons called "If I were a... JOB". The example I used was If I were a... mayor
However, before handing out my own lesson plan I showed them this slide and I asked to create their own lesson plan. While they were working in small groups I supervised and I noticed that the most difficult part was to integrate the skills with the aims. So I told them, "Be creative, don't be afraid of trying something new and you'll see that you and your students will have a lot of fun"!

Over the last few lessons my teen students and I have also tried out to be TV reporters and real estate agents and I hope to share my lesson plans soon with you. 

2) Webinar - Games in the English classroom hosted by Jason R Lavine (Fluency MC) and WizIQ.

I'd never been fond of teaching online because I'd always thought it was not my cup of tea but yesterday I completely changed my mind. I'd always believed I couldn't have enough interaction with the audience in a webinar but I was terribly wrong! Yesterday I had the chance to meet teachers from any part of the world and I was able to share my ideas with them. Moreover, at the end of webinar some of them even contacted me on social networks and we continued our conversation about teaching issues. 

I loved having this webinar also because I could talk about something I usually do with my students in my language studio. Playing games is so important to me because they add variety to the lesson, they make students feel relaxed and less worried about mistakes and finally we have a lot of fun!

If you wish to see the slides and the webinar recording please enroll here ;-)

I'd like to thank once again Jason for giving me this fantastic chance and introducing me to the world of online teaching!