2015-Aug-27 Longital at Karloveské Hody

From 2015-09-27 Karloveské Hody s Longitalom

Clouds of smoke, and magic coming from the podium that afternoon... See for yourself:

2015-Sep-26 Sat at the first SKA ELT Conference / Bratislava,SK

After a fairly succesful Friday at our very first SKA ELT Conference, it was time to step up the game with more plenaries, talks and general fun.

First, Barbara Hoskins Sakamoto gave us a plenary on Moving beyond 21st century skills

From 2015-09-26 SKA ELT Conference Day 2

These are the sketch notes from her talk via Mike Harrison 

In the outside study of the Faculty of Philosophy, I met the trio of representatives from Serbia,

Anica Đokić, Jasmina Milicevic and Gaga Andric.

From 2015-09-26 SKA ELT Conference Day 2

Daniela Clarke gave us Warmers and coolers for young adults/adults

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Tomáš Andrášik taught us how to Impro(wise) to improve

From 2015-09-26 SKA ELT Conference Day 2

Sylvie Doláková gave us tools for English from the very first word

From 2015-09-26 SKA ELT Conference Day 2

Péter Medgyes both entertained and informed us about Humour in the ELT classroom

From 2015-09-26 SKA ELT Conference Day 2

Michael Harrison, the author of the sketch notes above, gave us interesting ideas about using Sound activities for the classroom

From 2015-09-26 SKA ELT Conference Day 2

Dragana Andrić (see above) had ideas on how to Liven up your lessons with drama

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And then, Dana Hanesová from UMB, asked What shall I do when …

From 2015-09-26 SKA ELT Conference Day 2

Meanwhile in the Moyzes Hall: Just before lunch, Lynda Steyne asked us (the chamber of teachers) the hard questions: What's your role as an English teacher? What's your role in SKA?

From 2015-09-26 SKA ELT Conference Day 2

And this is also where I got this book:

From 2015-09-26 SKA ELT Conference Day 2

Louel Ross Caleja, whom I met and stayed with at Hradiště conference, asked again about Language correctness: Black and white? Or shades of grey?

From 2015-09-26 SKA ELT Conference Day 2

Here are again, Mike Harrison's sketch notes. These are from Louel's workshop:

Jana Chocholatá made us dance in her workshop Primary CLIL: English naturally

From 2015-09-26 SKA ELT Conference Day 2

Daniela Clarke talked about Chalk and Cheese: Teaching mixed ability primary classes

From 2015-09-26 SKA ELT Conference Day 2

David Fisher asked a rather obvious question, Having fun while teaching – should we do it?

From 2015-09-26 SKA ELT Conference Day 2

And we answered:YES!

From 2015-09-26 SKA ELT Conference Day 2

Or not really?

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Here's Sue Barfield Integrating Roma culture into English language learning through ‘Children of the Sun’

From 2015-09-26 SKA ELT Conference Day 2

And Júlia Stehlíková with Pair work for young learners? Why and how?

From 2015-09-26 SKA ELT Conference Day 2

Barbie Bujtás advised us to Let some Minecraft in!

From 2015-09-26 SKA ELT Conference Day 2

And here's her prezi about it:

Eva Reid told us all about Culture in English lessons

From 2015-09-26 SKA ELT Conference Day 2

 Mona Arvinte paraphrased Abba in Knowing me, knowing you…let’s act together and be true!

From 2015-09-26 SKA ELT Conference Day 2

From 2015-09-26 SKA ELT Conference Day 2

Mark Andrews asked the hard question What’s in a name? The power of vocabulary choice

From 2015-09-26 SKA ELT Conference Day 2

Lyn and volunteers were always on guard!

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Same as Niki Kálnová, who worked with us, taking care of the speakers and exhibitors

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And the others from the organizing committee - Me, Lyn, Lucia and Ilona

From 2015-09-26 SKA ELT Conference Day 2

See you next year in Eastern Slovakia!

2015-Sep-25 Friday at the first SKA ELT Conference / Bratislava,SK

Again, so lucky to be part of all this!
But, all in order.

After the successful coooperation at ELTForum.sk 2013 and the organization of ELTForum.sk 2014 (more on the organization here), the Slovak Chamber of English Teachers (SKA/SCET) have decided, as an IATEFL member, to organize its own, smaller but cosier, conference in September.

The most work done since the decision earlier this year was done by Lucia Otrísalová (on the left, Comenius University, Faculty of Philosophy, English and American Studies) and Lynda Steyne (on the right). Lucia was crucial to the organisation in gaining the support of her faculty, and especially the beautiful premises connected with the Moyzes Hall, the original broadcasting place of the Slovak Radio and now a concert hall (see my pictures from there just the week before). She has also got the student volunteers to help with the conference itself and done a lot of actual work on putting it all together. Lynda, she has been here for just everything else!

From 2015-09-25 SKA ELT Conference Day 1

After Lynda I should mention Ilonka Sostronek, who is in charge of the Chamber memberships and along with Lynda and Lucia, helped me a lot with the invoicing for the conference (yes, me and invoicing!). Here she is, in her usual attitude:

From 2015-09-25 SKA ELT Conference Day 1

The conference itself started on a Friday evening with a lovely performance by the English learning pupils from Tilgnerka. , Lynda's former school as an English teacher.

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Here they are in front of the already prepared first slide of Péter Medgyes' plenary

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And here is Péter himself, one of the funniest and brightest English professors not only in Hungary, preparing for his plenary:

From 2015-09-25 SKA ELT Conference Day 1

And here are his plenary slides, although they won't tell you much without his lovely insights like this one:

“The bad news is that we are linguistically handicapped – there is no way we can emulate native speakers in terms of their English-language competence. The good news is that we can (a) provide a better learner model for imitation; (b) teach language learning strategies more effectively; (c) supply learners with more information about the English language; (d) anticipate and prevent language difficulties more successfully; (e) be more empathetic to the needs and problems of learners; (f) make better use of the learners’ mother tongue. The aim of this plenary is to discuss these controversial claims, with the final message that natives and non-natives are potentially equally effective teachers.”

After the warm reception of the plenary, it was time for three rounds of workshops:
First, Angelos Bollas has shown us a picture of himself, showing An image is worth… All language skills and systems

From 2015-09-25 SKA ELT Conference Day 1

Here are the sketchnotes from his workshop, beautifully done by Mike Harrison

Second were George M. Chinnery & Gergo Santha with What’s in it for me? A complete guide to RELO for teachers

From 2015-09-25 SKA ELT Conference Day 1

Third, my countryman Martin Jelínek has told us Whatever you say, say it right

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Fourth, Eddy Moran has told us all about Mashups: Combining Web 2.0 technologies to produce interactive language learning actvities

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Barb Sakamoto, the second plenary speaker has warmed u the Moyzes Hall in her workshop Creative teaching for 21st century learners

From 2015-09-25 SKA ELT Conference Day 1

In the second round of workshops, there was Elena Kováčiková with Different Learners in your Language Class 

From 2015-09-25 SKA ELT Conference Day 1

Candy Fresacher with Finding your students’ strengths: The job interview

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Jasmina Milicevic with Dare to be different 

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Frank Prescott has told us all about Using fieldwork for language learning

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Anica Dokić with Let's Celebrate

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Mike Harisson (the author of the earlier sketch notes)  explained What has Swiss cheese got to do with language teaching?

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Šárka Dohnalová gave us practical overview of Multisensory drama for teaching literature and history

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And finally, David Fisher (of Bear Theatre) has shown us We can all use theatre as a tool for teaching in his evening plenary in the beautiful Moyzes Hall.

From 2015-09-25 SKA ELT Conference Day 1

The reception was all that he hoped for:

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Some people (Autumn!) were even shooting at him,

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..while others (like Barbie Bujtás here) died at his defence.

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And thankfully, many people stayed to talk over a glass of wine and some pagáče

From 2015-09-25 SKA ELT Conference Day 1

To be continued.