World Teachers' Day – Saturday 11 October
The theme for this year's World Teachers' Day conference is 'Global voices, future focus', inviting you to join English language professionals worldwide in shaping the future of English language teaching.
On the final day's sessions focused on the themes of climate action in the classroom and improving speaking and vocabulary skills.
About Saturday's sessions
Plenary session: Making sustainability part of daily practice
Speaker
Christopher Graham
About the session
This is the final plenary session of World Teachers' Day 2025. As teachers, we aim to empower learners with the skills and knowledge they need to create a fairer and better world that cares for the environment and society. For this reason, 'sustainability' and the UN's SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) are an increasingly important focus for English language teaching. This interactive talk first defines sustainability and looks at how it can be integrated into ELT. The second part of the talk looks at practical ideas for teachers: adapting existing materials to give a sustainability focus, using projects, creating a sustainable classroom, and engaging with local sustainability initiatives outside of school.
Watch 'Making sustainability part of daily practice'
Session 2: Role play to teach climate change
Speaker
Iman Hassan Zain
About the session
This practical webinar shows teachers how to make the topic of climate change feel less overwhelming by using role-play activities that simplify the complex terminology and science in this topic. The session shows you two role-play activities that can be used and adapted for your classes. Finally, we discuss how role-play is a fantastic way to develop learners' communication skills and self-confidence.
Watch 'Role play to teach climate change'
Session 3: Problem solving through vocabulary games
Speaker
Iyabọ Adebimpe Akintola
About the session
The workshop gives you practical ideas to help you engage learners in low-resource games to learn vocabulary. You see how this can motivate learners and help them develop problem-solving skills as they interact with the games. This session will give you ideas for games and tasks that will make vocabulary learning exciting and rewarding for learners.
Watch 'Problem solving through vocabulary games'
Session 4: Boosting learner engagement in speaking activities
Speaker
Inga Mdivani
About the session
Many learners hesitate to speak due to fear of making mistakes, low confidence or lack of clear purpose. In this webinar, I share practical strategies from my exploratory action research that successfully helped increase learner engagement in speaking activities. You learn how techniques like pre-teaching vocabulary, regrouping and round robin-discussions can lower barriers and create a more supportive classroom environment.
Watch 'Boosting learner engagement in speaking activities'
About the speakers
Christopher Graham is a freelance ELT consultant and author based in Scotland. He has worked in over 30 countries for the British Council, ministries of education and international publishers. He works extensively on monitoring, evaluation and learning projects and CPD design and delivery. He has a specific interest in teaching contexts in fragile and fractured societies, in the design and delivery of train-the-trainer courses and in the role that ELT has in engaging with the climate crisis. He is a member of Green Action ELT and the president of IATEFL, while also chairing the board of trustees and the publications committee.
Iman Hassan Zain is a senior teacher in Al Azhar Al Shareef, Egypt, and has worked in education for over 17 years, teaching a wide range of levels. She is also a British Council teacher educator supervisor in the Sharqia region. Iman won a climate change competition for teachers in 2023 and is passionate about helping teachers with this important topic. Iman was mentored by TeachingEnglish in 2024 and spoke in our panel discussion How are teachers using AI tools? at our AI for learning webinar event.
Iyabọ Akintola is a secondary-school teacher and a teacher educator from Nigeria. With over 20 years' experience in education, her goal is to impact her community. She has presented in seminars and online events locally and globally. She is a member of ELTAN, the English language teachers association of Nigeria and a former mentee of the Africa ELTA.
Inga Mdivani is an experienced English teacher and foreign languages coordinator at a secondary school in Tbilisi, Georgia. She also holds a qualification as an English language interpreter and translator. She is an exploratory action research mentor with the British Council and is a strong advocate for professional development. Inga was mentored by TeachingEnglish in 2025 and spoke at our Developing as teachers webinar event, on our How can we develop as teachers? panel discussion.