IATEFL International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language

IATEFL is a UK based portal for language teaching professionals. There is a fee for membership. They hold an annual conference and host web events. I like the SIG, special interest groups that deal with topics of interest in our industry.  Click on the link below for more information.

 

http://www.iatefl.org/ 

 

The MOE conciders cutting school hours.

From the National News Bureau of Thailand. The MOE wants to cut school hours in 10% of OBEC controlled schools so students can relax more. I can see the validity in this as some students are overworked. But I hope some students don't see this as just "freetime" I hope there is some type of educational component between the time when classes are finished and time to go home.  

 


http://thainews.prd.go.th/website_en/news/news_detail/WNSOC5808270010072 



 

Three activities to try with your English Laguage Learners

This is a post from Edutopia. It is about beginning of the school year activities, but you might still find it useful. Click on the link for more information. 

 http://www.edutopia.org/discussion/3-activities-try-your-english-language-learners

Virtual Seminar

The TESOL International Association and VIF International education are co-sponsoring a virtual seminar in September. There is a fee, but there is a discount if you are a TESOL member. The seminar is about Supporting English language learners through parental support and community engagement.  

I don't know how much use this will be to foreign teachers in Thailand because schools tend to keep foreign teachers and parents at arms length. But the VIF International education website had some good content. Please click on the links below. 

 http://www.tesol.org/events-landing-page/2015/09/23/default-calendar/supporting-english-language-learners-through-parental-and-community-engagement


 http://www.vifprogram.com/index.php


 

Supporting English Language Learners Through Parental and Community Engagement - See more at: http://www.tesol.org/events-landing-page/2015/09/23/default-calendar/supporting-english-language-lear

Three useful websites

I found these websites while surfing the net the other day. The first is from ISL collective, it is created by language teachers and offers free resources.  I have used this site for some of my after school classes. 

https://en.islcollective.com/ 

The next site is TES connect. It is a portal for educators world wide. It has resources, job listings, free registration, and an educational news feed. 

 


 https://www.tes.com/home


Pearson ELT is the mega world wide company that specializes in education and languages. On this site registration is free, but I could not preview some of the resources until I registered. 


 



http://www.pearsonelt.com/ 
 

Professional Development for Teachers

Here is an article from a website called Slate. It is about how much is spent on teacher development and how little is gained. Teachers at well funded schools in big cities like Bangkok might receive some professional development, but there are schools in Thailand that have none. Click on the link below to know more.    





http://www.slate.com/blogs/schooled/2015/08/06/professional_development_for_teachers_new_study_questions_value_of_teacher.html

Here is a post from The Nation that might be of interest if you are an educator in Thailand.

NRC's reform proposals call for major overhaul of country's education sector

 

 

 http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/NRCs-reform-proposals-call-for-major-overhaul-of-c-30266555.html

 

ESL listening activities

Ever need some good listening activities for your class? Can't find exactly what you need for your class or level? Don't have the time to make the activities your self? Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab can help. There many topics/categories on the site just click on the link below for more information.  

 http://esl-lab.com/#basic

Thailand Educators Network

This is a group based in Bangkok. They meet informally once a month and have speakers at their events. The link is to their face book page.

https://www.facebook.com/ThailandEducatorsNetwork?ref=profile 

Do we need this in Thailand? Yes we do for both students and teachers.

Motivating the Unmotivated!

 



Check out this post from edutopia. Getting students and even teachers engaged and motivated is a difficult thing to do and maintain. Click on the link for more information.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/motivating-unmotivated-chelsea-dale 

Animated resources for your Interactive whiteboard and presentations

Want to make your presentations more engaging and lively? Here is a website that can help. Heathers Animations has thousands of animated GIFS in many categories.  Best of all they are free! Click on the link below for more information.

 http://www.heathersanimations.com/