About the Teacher Educator World Teachers' Day event
So you want to be a teacher educator….
Watch these recordings if you’re already a teacher educator with a formal role supporting the professional development of teachers or you’re a teacher who’d like to find out more about becoming a teacher educator, or you’d simply like to know about how you can help other teachers who are just starting out then register for the teacher educator strand of the events the British Council is organising for World Teachers Day.
We discussing different roles, different career and learning pathways; look at some examples of professional development opportunities, resources and training room ideas; review some principles of CPD for teachers we can consider in planning teacher learning; we also hear from teacher educators from different countries with different perspectives at different stages in their careers.
An interesting mix of themes for all those who believe that good learning depends on good teaching which depends on good teacher education.
About the teacher educator World Teachers' Day sessions
Session 1: Introduction and teacher educator roles
Speaker:
John Shackleton (UK)
Session information
Join us for a brief run through of the many and varied roles that teacher educators have around the world.
Session 2: Career and learning paths
Speaker:
Sirin Soyoz (Turkey) and Celestin Buhigiro Gasigwa (Rwanda)
Session information
Join Sirin Soyoz and Celestin Buhigiro Gasigwa in a discussion of the key skills that teacher educators develop and employ to support the teachers that they work with.
Session 3: Example professional development opportunities
Speakers:
Mai Nguyen (UK) and Charles Motanya (Nigeria)
Session information:
Mai Nguyen and Charles Motanya will be talking about their experience of the professional development opportunities they’ve undertaken – what they learnt and how the experience helped them to become effective teacher educators.
Session 4: Training room ideas and upcoming teacher educator MOOC
Speaker:
Karen Waterston (Spain)
Session information:
Karen Waterstone will be facilitating a discussion on the learning outcomes of the British Council’s new MOOC for teacher educators and how her training room experience informs her different approaches to supporting teacher learning and her materials writing.
Session 5: Key principles of planning CPD for teachers
Speaker:
John Shackleton (UK)
Session information:
John Shackleton will be presenting a list of key considerations that inform successful planning of CPD for teachers.
About the speakers
John Shackleton has been working in the area of English language teaching for over 30 years in varied roles and different geographical locations. Currently he works for the British Council in the UK – leading the British Council’s support for teacher educators and providing technical advice on overseas programmes that contribute to systemic improvements in the teaching, learning and assessment of English.
Sirin Soyoz is based in Istanbul, Turkey and is an English teacher, teacher educator, and e-moderator with the British Council. She specialises in e-learning and teacher education. Pursuing a PhD, her research interests involve the community of practice, research mentoring, and artificial intelligence.
Karen Waterston is a teacher, teacher trainer and materials writer and holds an MEd in Educational Technology and ELT. Karen has extensive experience working in Africa, Asia, Europe, South America and the Middle East as a teacher, senior teacher, teacher trainer and materials writer. Karen has a passion for teaching large classes with minimal resources, creating resources from what is available and, on the other end of the scale, using digital tools to make teaching and learning more effective.
Mai Nguyen is Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics and TESOL at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, where she works with pre- and in-service English language teachers from various backgrounds in undergraduate and postgraduate language teacher education courses. She has recently completed training and been awarded an Assured Certificate in Teacher Education (ACTE) by the British Council. Mai is passionate about nurturing teacher learning and development through active involvement in teaching, research, and the implementation of teacher development initiatives.
Charles Motanya is a seasoned English language teacher who has taught the language in various institutions. He is currently a Principal lecturer at the Aminu Saleh College of Education Azare, Bauchi state Nigeria where he trains both pre-service and in-service teachers. He holds a masters degree and is on the verge of completing his PhD in English language. He also has many certificates from professional courses in teacher training among which include: Early Grade Reading, Strengthing Teachers English Proficiency and Assured Certificate in Teacher Education (ACTE) from City and Guilds. Charles has a passion for teacher professional development, and that is why he has worked with the British Council, USAID, UKAID, UNICEF, WORLD BANK, Victims Support Fund etc in the area of building teachers' capacity in pedagogy and modern trends in teaching.
Celestin Buhigiro Gasigwa was born and raised in Rwanda and is a secondary school teacher and teacher educator at Groupe Scolaire Gasabo, Kigali. He has been a teacher of English for ten years and has worked as a School Based Mentor/Teacher Educator for seven years, helping new teachers to become familiar with the teaching profession. He plans and conducts continuous professional development activities, and has conducted face-to-face intensive English training sessions prepared by the Rwanda Basic Education Board (REB) with different Education partners and until April 2023 was a local E-Moderator on courses for primary teachers through the Building Learning Foundations (BLF) Project.
