Jim@SpongeELT

Review: Activities for Alternative Assessment – Leo Selivan

Delta Publishing produced two of my favourite resource books for teachers – Activities for Task-Based Learning and Activities for Mediation. No joke, these books are the most popular in the academy – I even have to tell teachers NOT to take them home! So, I was over the moon when I was able to getContinue reading “Review: Activities for Alternative Assessment – Leo Selivan”

Teaching exam classes – Some questions to consider

Last week, I ran a workshop for a small group of teachers, and we focused on preparing learners for exams. Whenever I run a workshop, I always keep an eye out for teachers’ doubts, questions, etc. and then I write these down. At the end of the session, I then include a ‘thinking questions’ stage,Continue reading “Teaching exam classes – Some questions to consider”

Sponge Chats – Perspectives on money management and investing for ELT professionals with Nicola Prentis

So, after a long-ish break, Sponge Chats are back! Although, we are branching out a little now, and we have a new ‘sub-series’: Perspectives. The Sponge Chats Perspectives series will be intereviews with ELT professionals who are specialists within a certain field, and we’ll go into detail about the what, why, when and how ofContinue reading “Sponge Chats – Perspectives on money management and investing for ELT professionals with Nicola Prentis”

Review: Cambridge Elements – Mediating Innovation through Language Teacher Education – Martin East

Here we are again with another review of another Cambridge Element! Martin East is someone who really needs no introduction, especially to those in the TBLT world. When I heard that he was releasing an Element that focused on innovation, with TBLT as the ‘focus’, and it was done so from a teacher education perspective,Continue reading “Review: Cambridge Elements – Mediating Innovation through Language Teacher Education – Martin East”

TTEdSIG Mentoring conference notes

This weekend, the TTEdSIG held another amazing online event, Mentoring for Teacher Educators. What follows here are my notes from the sessions 🙂 Christine Coombe – Mentoring: An essential skill for leadership development There are many definitions of mentoring, although they are evolving. Christine’s definition is that both the mentor and the mentee gain fromContinue reading “TTEdSIG Mentoring conference notes”

Review: Cambridge Elements – Language Teacher Educator Identity – Gary Barkhuizen

Back in February of 2021, Cambridge published the first Cambridge Element in Language Teaching (they have loads of other really interesting Elements series for those that are interested) – Language Teacher Educator Identity, written by Gary Barkhuizen. I recently got myself a copy, and as usual the Element delivered. This Element, however, was perhaps oneContinue reading “Review: Cambridge Elements – Language Teacher Educator Identity – Gary Barkhuizen”

Musings of an academic manager – managing my time whilst covering for sick teachers

One of the responsibilities of being a DoS or any sort of academic manager (in general) is having to cover teachers’ classes when they fall ill. Most of us in management have probably become even more aware of this (and the pain that it brings) over the last two to three years with the COVID-19Continue reading “Musings of an academic manager – managing my time whilst covering for sick teachers”

Review: The Cambridge Guide to Second Language Teacher Education – Edited by Anne Burns and Jack C. Richards

I’ve been doing a fair bit of reading as of late (more than the usual), and one of my reading ‘projects’ has been Burns and Richards’ The Cambridge Guide to Second Language Teacher Education. This took me a little while to get through, but it was very interesting and well thought-out. I need to clarifyContinue reading “Review: The Cambridge Guide to Second Language Teacher Education – Edited by Anne Burns and Jack C. Richards”

Review: Cambridge Elements – Task-Based Language Teaching – Daniel O. Jackson

Those of you that read my review of Farrell’s Cambridge Element will know that Cambridge have a relatively new series out called Cambridge Elements. These Elements are short (generall around 50 – 60 pages of reading content, with maybe 20+ pages of references), and aim to cover the basics of certain areas. The good thingContinue reading “Review: Cambridge Elements – Task-Based Language Teaching – Daniel O. Jackson”

Article notes – Feeding, Leading, Showing, Throwing: Process Choices in Teacher Training and Trainer Training – Ian McGrath

‘Article Notes’ is a set of blog posts in which I write down my notes about articles that I read. These notes are not meant to be ‘academic’ or ‘formal’; rather, they are my ramblings and immediate thoughts in reaction to the content I read. I’ve written them up to help me remember the article,Continue reading “Article notes – Feeding, Leading, Showing, Throwing: Process Choices in Teacher Training and Trainer Training – Ian McGrath”