⛴ NAVIGATION 🚢

Apparently, I’ve been doing it all wrong until this very moment. So here are the hashtags for this channel. Most of them are self-explanatory as you can see. I might add to them later on.

⏳Work
#methodology #work_at_school #conference #CPD #burnout_resistance #activities_ideas #AI #lesson_materials #A2 #B1 #B2 #exams #listening #failure #lesson_ideas

🦔 Random Stuff
#life #books #rant #hobby #random_musings #funsies #motivation

• How Languages are Learnt – by Polina Kordik School of English.
A glorified book club, but a really good one. The book itself is quite interesting, the monitoring teachers were cool, the people attending the course were amazing. However, in my opinion it is a tad bit overpriced. 8/10

• Three conferences
1. “Every Lesson is PROурок”, Гимназия им. Примакова.
Not bad, nothing new, really. The organization wasn’t top-notch, but it was their first, so some leeway is to be offered. It was fun to visit another school of the same caliber as mine. 5/10
1. Trendy English Evolution
It was interesting as I met some long-lost colleagues, was fun to get back in touch. There were some nice talks I genuinely enjoyed. 7/10
2. Перезагрузка образовательного опыта, МПГУ
Loved it. Had a chance to meet up with some amazing people. Kudos for making it free, even novice teachers could attend. 7/10

• Psychology in Language Teaching, МПГУ
It was conducted by Kate Redkina, I like her a lot, and the content was quite engrossing. Several things that I found out were quite a game-changer, immediately implementable and actually implemented. 9/10 (yes, I am hard to impress).

CPD is not just about methodology though…

P.S. Some honorable mentions of what we can use CPD for, most of them kind of ring true for the original meaning: Celebrated Palpable Disaster, Casually Playful Despair, a Casually Pessimistic Dolphin, the Captivating Perfection of Demonology etc.
Which one do you like best? Maybe you’ve got some other ideas about possible interpretations? #methodology #CPD #professional_development

On the way to work I was thinking that I am relatively free today so I could dedicate some time to CPD. However, instead of actually learning anything new, I started off my day with ways to change the CPD abbreviation... Here is me, absolutely unapologetic 😅🫣🤍 #CPD #work #work_at_school

Your students can't sit still? They despise reading from the bottom of their little black hearts?

There's one little thing that can become akin to a drop of luck potion - off-the-wall reading.

☝️Procedure: the students are given a task to complete a table. They go to different texts on the wall, note down the required information. The activity is timed, so as soon as the timer runs out, the students are supposed to go to the next little text or part of a text (jigsaw reading 2.0).

👍 Benefits
➕ students don't just sit and read (good for 5-8 grades mostly)
➕ they have a time limit, so they don't diddle-dawdle
➕ it helps them learn to scan the text for required information (a very useful skill!)
➕ they do not cheat off each other (no time!)

👎 Disadvantages Disadvantage
❌ prep time (But frankly, it is a negative side to most additional activities. However, with the advance of AI, it's much easier to manage)

🆘 Anticipated problems and solutions:
1⃣ some students might not want to stand up (and it's ok! - just let them read quietly)
2⃣ some might complain that they are not fast enough (pair them up for peer check to aleviate stress)

#work #work_at_school #activities_ideas

What makes a good day for you?
For me a good Sunday is a whole list of stuff.

💜 Have yesterday’s home-made sushi for breakfast
💙 Have a lesson with an amazing student
🤍 Be outrageously late to my singing class and sing so badly that the teacher claimed he felt like he was poking a couple of corpses with a stick
❤️ Eat
💚 Eat some more
🧡 On the way to the next location buy a cap in a random pedestrian underpass
💛 Have your lashes extensions done and have a nice nap at the same time
🤍 Get a scooter to go meet a friend and take a picture of almost everything nice (debatable and extremely subjective) that you see
💜 And smell everything that resembles flowers
💙 Get some food with a friend and go eat it in a lilac garden
💚 Go get the book you ordered quite a while ago
❤️ Stumble upon a sale in a leather goods shop
🧡 Get my husband a gift (and don’t forget about myself, of course)
🤍 Arrive home to a clean flat

Do any activities above seem fun to you? Do you do any of them?

#life #burnout_resistance 💗💗💗The sponsor of this amazing day is my husband, of course. Love him. 💗💗💗

A good successful Monday - being on time to catch the school bus + having time to grab a coffee. This is what I call successful success that successes 😌

Wednesday is my CPD day as my schedule is freest, so today I shall continue prattling about Critically Predictable Dolphins. Reading up on methodology or even developing your teaching skills in class is not a recipe for success (though a HUGE part of it).

There is no such recipe, as everybody with half a brain knows. But we are trying, right? And that’s what matters.

CPD is different for everyone, but for me it also includes developing your own language skills.

#CPD #teachers_language #random_musings

I remember when I just started teaching, I was absolutely sure my language could not deteriorate. But it (surprise! surprise!) did! I was frankly appalled.

Then I decided to try my hand at managing people and lucked out. I got a job as an academic manager and one of my main responsibilities was to arrange classes for our native teachers. Two years in, and a methodologist, I took CAE and with almost no prep (I did practice writing, though) got an A. I was dumbfounded, but ecstatic.

Since then, I have been trying to keep my level up. For a while, with just books and fanfiction. In the last several years, it’s been book and speaking clubs.

This year I got to know a lot of amazing people through Natalia Egorova’s Elegant English Club (https://vk.com/natalia_egorova_eeclub). It’s astonishingly affordable given how good it is.

For the summer, I’ve already signed up for two book clubs: Atomic Habits and It by Stephen King (https://vk.com/mybookclubeng or https://t.iss.one/uptoenglish1)

The question on the agenda will probably forever be: When will I sleep? But there is no rest for the wicked.

How much time a month do you dedicate to CPD in whatever definition you are inclined to use?

#CPD #teachers_language #random_musings

What do you think, guys? Are you willing to listen to teaching ideas in this format, or should I stick to writing?

Sorry for any possible slips, this was like the tenth take and I was nauseatingly anxious 😅

#activities_ideas #listening #methodology