For one reason and another I’m unable to be at IATEFL Brighton this year, but I have really enjoyed following the plenaries online and catching the gist some of the talks via Twitter. Tom Farrell’s plenary “Reflective Practice for Language Teachers” has been a talk that has really made me consider the extent of my own professional reflection on my classes. I will post a link to Tom’s talk once it goes up on the IATEFL Online site.
I teach mainly Business English and like many of my colleagues I know online, we are freelance. There isn’t a staffroom, observed lessons, developmental sessions (although some might think this sounds great). Whilst the obvious freedom that this brings is an advantage, the negative can be that one can feel a little lost at sea on those days when you need support or have a lesson which didn’t quite go to plan. Reflective Practice for some is very literally a personal exercise.
So following the plenary session I mention above, I have been wondering if some of our online community might benefit from a regular teacher development session. This could be in the form of a regular, scheduled slot similar to #eltchat, or it could simply take the form of a dedicated hash-tag on Twitter to which people can post their suggestions, reading suggestions on a questioned topic or offer advice for a troubled teacher. It’s not an easy thing to come out and say that something didn’t got as your planned, or you are not sure what to do with a particular problem. Equally, some people are uneasy about coming online and ‘boasting’ about a great lesson. Do you think such a forum would be of help?
I’ve embedded a poll below to get an overview of your thoughts. Please feel free to use the comments section to give me detail or your further suggestions. They would be very much appreciated.
I know for one, I would greatly value the opportunity to share, help and develop in a focused and dedicated space, rather than simply randomly throwing it out to the interweb!
Monday, April 18th, 2011, 18:44 | 
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April 20, 2011 at 11:20
Hi Emma
I think this is a great idea! It would be useful both to get a better idea of what people are doing in their classes and as a place to ask for advice and suggestions. I find that thinking about and discussing solutions for other people’s learners to be very useful in clarifying my own ideas and makes me better prepared to deal with similar situations when I come across them myself.
However, there are a lot of places to discuss things online, many of which I just don’t have time to visit and some people may prefer to use their own blogs to reflect and discuss. But, for those without a blog, a forum like this might be a good way to expand ideas, requests, moans in Tweets. So, perhaps a forum with a Twitter hashtag to highlight postings might work!
Good luck
Carol
April 20, 2011 at 14:04
Hi Emma.
I really agree with the idea here behind your post. I myself have developed my own style of reflective teacher practice and have been using it for the past 16 months. In that time, reflection has become something I rely on. Not happy to let the ‘not go to plan’ moments go, I have found it really helpful to turn them into learning experiences. It’s nice to see the idea is spreading beyond just the conference as I think it’s a really valuable tool for planning and self-directed development.
I noticed that your trainers were Nick Hamilton and Paul Martin. I work with those two people at IH London, they are truly inspirational.
Dale