We are looking forward to the next round of free teacher workshops coming up at Oxford TEFL in Barcelona this February! Join us on one, or more, of the following Fridays to pick up some practical tips and develop your teaching skills from experienced teachers and trainers. As always, there will be snacks and drinks in the break which is another opportunity to network with other teachers in the city and enjoy our lovely garden and modern school in the centre of the city.

Friday 14/02

11:00 - 11:45: Methodology Meets Task Design: new ways to add some sparkle to your lesson planning. - Melody Philip

-In this highly interactive session we will briefly assess some of the current ELT methodologies and see how these can be married successfully with the topic of task design: all aimed at improving lesson planning skills for the busy teacher.

12:15 - 13:00: Critical thinking with Business English students - Billie Haase

-Critical thinking is regarded as one of the key 21st century skills that employees look for in a candidate when recruiting. EFL teachers can provide Business English students with language-practice tasks that require critical thinking to stimulate learning. In this workshop we will have a look at three practical ways in which you could implement critical thinking in your teaching and relate it to your students work.

Friday 21/02

11:00 - 11:45: Dealing with mixed abilities with Young Learners - Anita Derecskei

-Regardless of how good the level testing system of a school is, there is no such thing as a homogeneous young learner class. Young learners can vary greatly in terms of skills, level of English, maturity, interests, etc. In this interactive workshop, we are going to look at some techniques that can help us deal with these differences and make sure that individual students are challenged according to their needs.

12:15 - 13:00: Don't do all the talking - Patricia Ramos Vizoso

-Do you think you talk too much in class? or Have you been told so? Well, this workshop is for you! We will look into practical tips on how to change the focus from you to your students in your lessons and why not, let them do the work for you!

Friday 28/02

11:00 - 11:45: Going off-piste - Luke Worsnop

-We all have the occasional class when we'd prefer not to do a 'normal' lesson - maybe it's the last day of term, lots of students are absent, or we want to reward a group for good behaviour. It's tempting to show a film, but in our heart of hearts we know we could do better. This workshop will provide you with a variety of suggestions for engaging one-off lessons which need little preparation and allow students to communicate in English rather than just eating popcorn.

12:15 - 13:00: Too much too soon? Using authentic materials before advanced levels. - Rubens Heredia

-In this workshop, we'll be investigating the pros and cons of using authentic materials with elementary and intermediate students. We'll look at research and rely on our own experience to evaluate and create activities that help lower-level learners develop skills and language.

You can sign up to as many workshops as you like. We look forward to seeing you soon!