This is my first post from the conference itself.
A little bit of background first. We arrived here yesterday lunch time and had a walk around. Harrogate is quite a small but very pretty town. The most amazing thing to find out was that there are road signs in the centre of the city directing to IATEFL conference. I tried to attach the picture of it to this post, let me know if you cannot see it. I really liked that especially that the conference is attended by about 2000 teachers from around the globe.
Now on to the programme itself. The conference started today with the opening plenary by Tessa Woodward on The Professional Life Cycles of Teachers. Very interesting and exceptionally well delivered. The plenary was about the research into the stages teachers go through in their profession depending on how old they are there. My favourite quote from the session was 'The older I get the better I was' :-) I will not attempt to summarise the session as I really think it is worth a watch. So if you were not watching the life streaming, I highly recommend you watch it on Harrogate online site.
The next session I went to was by Nicky Hockly on 'Teaching the mobile generation. The auditorium was so full, there were people sitting on the floor and standing at the back throughout the whole session but I do not think anyone regretted it. If you have an interest in new technologies do check this out. The talk addressed issues from basic to advanced technology and from out of class use to guided classroom use. Nicky was giving excellent examples of teenagers using even the simplest technology to produce very interesting and creative content outside classroom. And also different technology being using in the classroom. There also was a great example of the whole class of young learners aged around 8 years old using itouch in the class and doing it very confidently. The PowerPoint is available online and the session was also recorded and will be up on YouTube shortly. Nicky was also interviewed by the Harrogate online team. Her and many other interviews are avalable here.
I do hope some of you will have time to watch some of live streaming as well.
If you are using twitter, do a search for #iatefl You will see updates from many people who are tweeting during the presentations to give on-line audience immediate update on what is happening at the moment. You can follow my updates as well if you like, search for @olgabarnashova
The programme is very intense and full of excellent presentations. Three of the presentations that I attended today had people sitting on the floor as there was not enough room.I even did not manage to have lunch because of everything you want to see and do here but this is good for me :-)
I will be posting another update on Day 1 later. It will be great if you could let me know if you are finding it helpful or what else you would like to know.
Off to more sessions... :-)
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Comments
Dear Olga
Thanks for sharing the info and your emotions. I feel inspiration and enthusiasm in each line.
It’s great that there is such a wonderful opportunity as on-line access. I will go through all conference presentations again and again…I couldn’t even imagine that 8 or 10 years ago. I feel breathless when think how much we can have thanks to new technologies. Being at a far distance from the conference I feel the part of it.
Sitting on the floor in the conference hall reminds me the student years when you feel young and hungry for knowledge…It’s one of the wonderful sides of the conference not to let people get older but let discover new horizons and opportunities in the profession.
Looking forward to your other sharing
P.S. I like the view of a road sign. It demonstrates what big event IATEFL is for ELT community and for Harrogate (the attachment easily opens by the way...)
Dear Olga,
I have looked through the conference programme. What a choice! So many activities, burning issues, charismatic people! Is it easy for you? Tessa Woodward is really a charming woman and a splendid speaker coping with "stale breath of routine".
I'm waiting for you and your colleagues' posts.
Good luck and enjoy this life-time event.
Natalia
Hi Olga,
thnaks for your comments. I followed the conference yesterday on-line. I watched almost all interviews and Tessa's presentation, listened to Gevin's session. It was also nice to see Rod again there in the studio. It is really amazing!thanks for your comments, they help to keep the track. Hello to everyone there.
Hi Olga,
thnaks for your comments. I followed the conference yesterday on-line. I watched almost all interviews and Tessa's presentation, listened to Gevin's session. It was also nice to see Rod again there in the studio. It is really amazing!thanks for your comments, they help to keep the track. Hello to everyone there.
Thank you.
Online plenaries are very amusing.
I was happy watching the interview of David Crystal. It was encouraging what he told about teaching English of people with dyslexics.
In the interview of a teacher from Mid East Technical University I discovered some amazing peculiarities of teaching English in Turkey.
I told to as many colleagues as possible about the possibility of participating in Harrogate online. But one of them, a young man (will be a hit at the conference of course), is training for the State Exam 24 hours a day. And another collegue is busy writing kandidatskay.
I wish you, Olga, and all productive working day.
Dear ladies,
Forgive me for a general reply, it was just very good to see that you watching it online and reading the posts. Do keep going! Today's plenary was excelent. I will write about it in the next post.
There are many interviews going on during the day, do check it out as well.
Thanks a lot again foor the comments. This is indeed a great event and after I come back I'll post here several ways which you can try to get involved.
I will be writing another post now, do leave feedback if you wish.Thanks!
Olga, hi! and many many thanks for your comments!!! For us - remote participants it seems much easier to follow the conference events and attend more events than for you!
Tessa's presentation and the interview reminded me the way how to be interesting both for the teachers and students and that's what I felt and couldn't formulate before - a professional should both be "inside" teaching (working with students) and "outside" teaching being involved in other professional activities. This is the way to develop and feel that you are developing!
Nicky Hockly discovered a new area in ELT I think - a new and very useful tool for students motivation!
The interview with Jeremy Harmer makes me think if I'm burning out at work or developing.
Looking forward to your comments and advice what to attend!
Good luck!
Dear Olga,
It is my first experience in following a big on-line conference and I appriciate your efforts to make it more useful and practical for other teachers. Thank you for your work.
It is also very interesting to read the comments of my colleagues. :)
Irina Starovoytova,
Tambov,
Russia
Great observations, Alexandra!
You are right, you can only visit one session at a time there, really. That's why I will be warching the interviews and everything else I missed online now as well. Thanks for pointing what was interesting for you.
Hello Olga and everybody -- it was great to see you again at Harrogate, Olga, and thanks for putting up with my very uncomfortable and hot session!
We will be adding an edited version of the talk, which we filmed, to our YouTube channel shortly. I am also writing a series of blog posts over the next few weeks about mobile learning, in case anybody is interested in continuing the discussion there> www.emoderationskills.com
I'm looking forward to a possible trip to Moscow later this year, thanks to Olga, and hope to meet many of you there! I have heard all about the famous Russian hospitality, and look forward to experiencing it for myself :-)
Nicky (Hockly)