Stay up-to-date with ELT trends and ideas with articles from experts and teachers in the field.

Articles

Tour around the ELT conference circuit as our team shares conference highlights and session reviews.

Conferences

<div class="white-box">
This September 15 and 16, 2022, we&rsquo;ll be hosting&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/conference/2022" target="_blank">ElliiCon</a>, a free, two-day virtual conference to explore simple, effective, and practical strategies that will help you build stronger relationships with your students and engage them in a more meaningful way. This article is part of a series of posts introducing some of the conference speakers.
</div>

Those who attended our virtual conference last year will recognize this speaker! We&rsquo;re thrilled to announce that Dr. Katie Welch will be joining us once again at ElliiCon2022 on September 16.

Dr. Welch is an educational consultant at <a href="https://www.welcheducation.com/" target="_blank">Welch Education</a> in Dallas, Texas. For two decades, Dr. Welch has&nbsp;taught and trained teachers to effectively work with English learners at the K&ndash;12, adult, and higher education levels.

She currently provides professional development to language educators through partnerships with institutions like the US Department of State and Cambridge University Press.

<h2>Literacy for multilingual learners</h2>

An education topic that Dr. Welch is closely following these days is literacy for multilingual learners.

&ldquo;In the US K&ndash;12 space, there&#39;s been a shift in recent years toward &lsquo;the science of teaching reading,&rsquo;&rdquo; said Dr. Welch. &ldquo;Many states, including Texas where I&#39;m located,&nbsp;have retooled their teacher&nbsp;certification exams and are now requiring elementary school teachers&nbsp;to take part in reading academies to become more proficient in early literacy&nbsp;research.&quot; 
 
According to Dr. Welch,&nbsp;teachers of multilingual students have concerns that the research does not take into account the unique needs of English learners.

She says that while&nbsp;these conversations are most&nbsp;applicable to those in K&ndash;6 education, the topic of literacy is emerging more broadly as an area of interest applicable to all levels. 
 
&quot;I just read a great&nbsp;<a href="http://blog.tesol.org/literacy-vs-reading-3-questions-to-consider-this-fall/?utm_content=buffer378e0&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=linkedin.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">TESOL International blog</a>&nbsp;this week about how our understanding of literacy is growing beyond just the discrete skill of reading,&quot; said Dr. Welch.&nbsp;&quot;Since reading is one of the four foundational language skills of English language teaching, this shift is definitely one to watch.&rdquo;

As an educational consultant, Dr. Welch explains she is also incredibly passionate about helping other teachers:

<blockquote>
&quot;I tend to &lsquo;nerd-out&rsquo; on all things pedagogy, so what I&rsquo;m most excited about right now is how I can be the best teacher I can be and how I can help other teachers do the same in their classrooms.

I especially enjoy following other educators on Twitter because I learn so much by seeing what others are doing in their classrooms.

Just today, I was inspired by a teacher who said&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/JakeMillerTech/status/1556943494354276354?s=20&amp;t=Pe9fWiLRtX6vCtmtWD6srg" target="_blank">he turns his syllabus into a mad-lib</a>&nbsp;as a way to build community, help students become aware of learning targets, and keep students interested in what otherwise can be a very boring first-day-of-class housekeeping matter.

I love adding new ideas like this to my teacher toolkit and enjoy passing them along to others&nbsp;as well.&quot;
</blockquote>

<h2>Learn about addressing teachers&rsquo; social-emotional needs with Dr. Welch at ElliiCon2022</h2>

On September 16, Dr. Welch will be joining us at ElliiCon2022 to talk about self-care.

&ldquo;The last few years have been so difficult for teachers,&rdquo; said&nbsp;Dr. Welch. &ldquo;Teaching was already a challenging profession, and the pandemic exacerbated that even more.&quot; 
 
Dr. Welch has&nbsp;spent more than a decade training teachers and has recently seen many former students&mdash;who she says were fantastic teachers&mdash;leave the profession altogether. 
 
&quot;Those&nbsp;who have stayed are often teaching with as much or more pressure than they had pre-pandemic but with much less energy and emotional reserves.&quot;

At last year&rsquo;s conference, Dr. Welch addressed students&rsquo; well-being and discussed how to cultivate social and emotional learning in the ESL classroom.

This year, Dr. Welch will focus on&nbsp;teachers&rsquo; social and emotional needs. She&rsquo;ll unpack how sustainable self-care must go beyond bubble baths and massages and instead address the underlying issues that make teaching so challenging.

Attendees will gain practical, concrete solutions for how they can prioritize their own social and emotional well-being so that they can bring their best self to the classroom each week.

&ldquo;While the topic of self-care tends to evoke images of bubble baths and massages (both good things!), I want to give teachers some additional tools to cope with the emotional labor that is often required when working with immigrants or refugees from traumatic backgrounds,&rdquo; said Dr. Welch.

&ldquo;I have personally walked through a season of burnout in my teaching journey and had to learn the hard way how to prioritize my own well-being,&quot; she admitted.&nbsp;&quot;I look forward to sharing some of those hard-won lessons with the Ellii conference participants&nbsp;as well as some practical ways that teachers can bring their best selves to the classroom each&nbsp;day. I hope attendees will leave feeling refreshed and encouraged!&rdquo;

<blockquote>
Join us at ElliiCon2022!

Want to attend Dr. Welch&rsquo;s presentation?&nbsp;<a href="https://www.airmeet.com/e/0ee877b0-e369-11ec-b1b2-394b94cc9521" target="_blank">Register for ElliiCon2022</a>&nbsp;(it&#39;s free!).

To learn more about Dr. Welch, visit her <a href="https://www.welcheducation.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">website</a>. You can also follow her on <a href="https://twitter.com/drkatiewelch" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.
</blockquote>

ElliiCon2022 Speaker Spotlight: Dr. Katie Welch

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<div class="white-box">
This September 15 and 16, 2022, we&rsquo;ll be hosting&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/conference/2022" target="_blank">ElliiCon</a>, a free, two-day virtual conference to explore simple, effective, and practical strategies that will help you build stronger relationships with your students and engage them in a more meaningful way. This article is part of a series of posts introducing some of the conference&nbsp;speakers.
</div>

Karina Zew was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and raised in New Jersey, United&nbsp;States.

&ldquo;My passion for languages occurred to me while I was looking the other way,&rdquo; Karina said. &ldquo;As a bilingual child, I had always taken languages for granted. Learning how to speak English was something that just happened to&nbsp;me.&rdquo;

After high school, Karina moved back to Argentina. Like most young adults at this age, she was trying to figure out what she wanted to&nbsp;do.

&quot;In the meantime, I needed a job . . . ,&quot; said Karina. &quot;So that&#39;s how I started to teach.&quot;

Over the years, she&rsquo;s taught Business English classes at international companies and general English to young&nbsp;learners.

<h2>The beginning of a new chapter with&nbsp;Bridge</h2>

Today, Karina works at <a href="https://bridge.edu/" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Bridge&nbsp;Education&nbsp;Group</a>.

She&#39;s a tutor for Bridge&rsquo;s online TEFL/TESOL courses and&nbsp;an ESL instructor for BridgeEnglish in Latin America. In these roles, she interviews and recruits teachers, observes classes and provides feedback for teachers, and tutors online TEFL students from around the&nbsp;globe.

&ldquo;I really enjoy being able to share with others what I have learned throughout these years, both from experience and from academic training,&rdquo; she said.

Karina&#39;s also spoken at many TEFL/TESOL conferences, sharing the knowledge she&rsquo;s gained from over 30 years in the field of English language teaching. She&rsquo;s lectured on a variety of topics, from teaching methodologies and lesson planning to scaffolding and using technology in the&nbsp;classroom.

&ldquo;Before COVID, online classes were quite frowned upon,&quot; said Karina.&nbsp;&quot;However, nowadays, they&#39;re actually many people&#39;s preferred method of learning. This opens up a whole new world! For example, our students who live in Chile have the possibility of taking lessons from teachers who live in South Africa. They exchange cultural experiences and share their views. This is beneficial not only for language learning but for life in general. It also forces us to become more familiar with new technologies, of&nbsp;course!&rdquo;

<h2>Learn about fostering 21st-century skills with Karina at&nbsp;ElliiCon2022</h2>

On September 15, Karina will be joining us at ElliiCon2022 to talk about fostering 21st-century skills for academic and business&nbsp;success.

She&rsquo;ll share how you can teach 21st-century skills&mdash;like communication, collaboration, leadership, innovation, and digital literacy&mdash;in the classroom and help prepare your students for success in academics, business, and&nbsp;more.

You&rsquo;ll also&nbsp;learn useful tips and techniques that you can implement to help your English language learners of all ages cultivate necessary, real-world&nbsp;skills.

<blockquote>
Join us at ElliiCon2022!

Want to attend Karina&#39;s presentation? <a href="https://www.airmeet.com/e/0ee877b0-e369-11ec-b1b2-394b94cc9521" target="_blank">Registers&nbsp;for&nbsp;ElliiCon2022</a>&nbsp;(it&#39;s&nbsp;free!).
</blockquote>

ElliiCon2022 Speaker Spotlight: Karina Zew

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<div class="white-box">
This September 15 and 16, 2022, we&rsquo;ll be hosting&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/conference/2022" target="_blank">ElliiCon</a>, a free, two-day virtual conference to explore simple, effective, and practical strategies that will help you build stronger relationships with your students and engage them in a more meaningful way. This article is part of a series of posts introducing some of the conference&nbsp;speakers.
</div>

Readers of our blog will surely recognize this speaker! Emily Bryson is one of our Ellii bloggers. She writes&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/authors/emily-bryson" target="_blank">educational ELT articles</a> where she shares tons of insightful teaching tips, advice, and inspiration.&nbsp;We&#39;re thrilled to have her join us at ElliiCon2022 on September&nbsp;16.

Emily&rsquo;s teaching journey began in Poland where, during her summer break in university, she taught at a summer&nbsp;school.

&ldquo;I loved it so much that when I graduated, I took a job teaching young learners in Daegu, South Korea,&rdquo; said&nbsp;Emily.

In addition to being one of Ellii&rsquo;s bloggers, Emily is now an ESOL lecturer, ELT author, teacher educator, and graphic&nbsp;facilitator.

Her favorite part about being an ESOL lecturer? The&nbsp;students.

&ldquo;I&#39;ve taught some really wonderful people from all over globe,&quot; she said.&nbsp;&quot;We&#39;ve had a lot of fun, and I&#39;ve learned a lot about things I could never have&nbsp;imagined.&quot;

<h2>The importance of literacy, diversity, equity, and inclusion in&nbsp;education</h2>

Emily is particularly interested in literacy, accessibility, graphic facilitation, and <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/support-english-learners-from-refugee-backgrounds" target="_blank">supporting learners from refugee&nbsp;backgrounds</a>.

She spoke at length&nbsp;about the importance of adult ESOL&nbsp;literacy.

&ldquo;It&#39;s an underfunded area,&rdquo; said Emily. &ldquo;There must be so many learners in the world whose first script is not Roman, yet publishers mostly overlook things like phonics, handwriting, and very&nbsp;basic punctuation. So many of my learners have jagged profiles. Even at the intermediate level, I&rsquo;ll find students writing letters from right to left, struggling to read, or putting capital letters in the middle of words as they haven&#39;t had this explained. It&#39;s not covered in so many courses. I&#39;d love to see learners whose first script isn&#39;t Roman having the support they&nbsp;need.&rdquo;

She&rsquo;s also incredibly passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion in the language&nbsp;classroom.

&ldquo;It&#39;s important that our lessons reflect the reality of our learners and give them a voice,&rdquo; said Emily. &ldquo;Talking about global issues in the classroom such as female empowerment, [LGBTQ+] rights, and refugee matters can lead to positive change and students who can advocate for&nbsp;themselves.&rdquo;

<h2>Graphic facilitation is a powerful teaching&nbsp;tool</h2>

Emily&rsquo;s workshops and training courses in graphic facilitation for ELT professionals have received rave&nbsp;reviews.

&ldquo;Graphic facilitation is my passion and my superpower,&rdquo; Emily said&nbsp;proudly.

&ldquo;When I did my first GF course, I&#39;d been teaching for years. I was in a bit of a slump,&quot; she admitted. &quot;But it rejuvenated me and reactivated the excitement I felt when I first started teaching. I realized how powerful [graphic facilitation]&nbsp;was as a teaching tool. A simple drawing can make everything instantly clearer. It makes learning more accessible, fun, engaging, inclusive, interesting, and creative. It helps learners remember and reduces processing&nbsp;load.&rdquo;

Graphic facilitation uses&nbsp;simple drawings to provide a template or prompt for&nbsp;learning.

Emily explained that this can support reflection, planning, ideation, or focus students&rsquo;&nbsp;thoughts.

&quot;The drawings are not art&nbsp;but a visual vocabulary which can be learned just like any other language, so anyone can draw to communicate,&quot; she&nbsp;said.

<img alt="A schetch note with a list of nine accessible teaching tips for ADHD, autism, digital skills, dyslexia, dyscalcula, literacy, sensory impairment, mobility, and study skills." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2651/content_Accessible_Learning_Tips_EmilyBrysonELT-com.jpg" />

One of Emily&rsquo;s sketch notes is pictured&nbsp;here.

<h2>Learn more about graphic facilitation for ELT with Emily at&nbsp;ElliiCon2022</h2>

On September 16, Emily will be joining us at ElliiCon2022 to talk more about how you can use simple drawings to engage learners. You&rsquo;ll learn about simple facilitation techniques such as visual templates, capture sheets, graphic organizers, and&nbsp;sketchnoting.

&ldquo;I&#39;ll be showing some&nbsp;basic GF techniques and tools which can save teachers time and make lessons engaging and accessible,&quot; said Emily.&nbsp;&quot;I&#39;ll be demonstrating some simple drawings too, so it&#39;ll be a really practical and fun&nbsp;session.&quot;

<blockquote>
Join us at ElliiCon2022!

Want to attend Emily&#39;s presentation?&nbsp;<a href="https://www.airmeet.com/e/0ee877b0-e369-11ec-b1b2-394b94cc9521" target="_blank">Register for ElliiCon2022</a>&nbsp;(it&#39;s&nbsp;free!).

To learn more about Emily, visit her <a href="https://emilybrysonelt.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">website</a>. You can also follow her on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/emilybrysonelt/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/Emilybrysonelt" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/brysonemily/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>.
</blockquote>

ElliiCon2022 Speaker Spotlight: Emily Bryson

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<div class="white-box">
This September 15 and 16, 2022, we&rsquo;ll be hosting&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/conference/2022" target="_blank">ElliiCon</a>, a free, two-day virtual conference to explore simple, effective, and practical strategies that will help you build stronger relationships with your students and engage them in a more meaningful way. This article is part of a series of posts introducing some of the conference&nbsp;speakers.
</div>

Nik Peachey is a two-time British Council ELTons award winner for innovation in English language teaching and has been short-listed six times. He&rsquo;s also the founder and director of pedagogy at <a href="https://peacheypublications.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">PeacheyPublications</a>, an independent digital publishing company based in the UK that designs digital learning materials for English language&nbsp;classrooms.

To say Nik is familiar with the education sector would be an understatement. Since 1990, Nik&#39;s&nbsp;worked as a teacher, trainer, and educational consultant. He also has more than 25 years of experience with online, remote, and blended learning&nbsp;environments.

He&rsquo;ll be joining&nbsp;us at ElliiCon2022 on September&nbsp;15.

Something you may not know about Nik is that he&nbsp;studied music in university and taught guitar at a prison. That&rsquo;s when he realized how much he enjoyed&nbsp;teaching.

But it was only after spending time in Egypt that he discovered just how deep his passion for teaching went. While in&nbsp;Egypt, Nik&nbsp;received his CELTA (Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) certification and taught English to&nbsp;refugees.

&ldquo;I enjoyed helping people in that way and meeting people from other cultures,&rdquo; said Nik. &ldquo;I got hooked on&nbsp;teaching.&rdquo;

For 10 years, Nik taught English all over the&nbsp;world.

In 1999, he became interested in technology. This led him to go back to school to get his master&rsquo;s in educational&nbsp;technology.

<h2>The story behind PeacheyPublications</h2>

PeacheyPublications grew out of Nik&rsquo;s desire to write a book about educational&nbsp;technology.

He spoke to publishers about his idea for the book, but,&nbsp;unfortunately, they were limited on what they could do in book form. At the time, no one was interested in publishing a digital&nbsp;book.

That&#39;s when Nik decided to take matters into his own&nbsp;hands.

He wrote and published the book himself using the money he had raised from crowdfunding on Indiegogo. Later, he entered the book for a British Council ELTons award and&nbsp;won.

<img alt="" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2630/content_ElliiCon2022-Speaker_Nik-Peachey.jpg" />

Nik Peachey is pictured here&nbsp;holding his 2016 British Council ELTon&nbsp;Award for Innovation in Teacher&nbsp;Resources. He&#39;s&nbsp;also won the&nbsp;2012 British Council ELTon&nbsp;Award for Excellence in Course&nbsp;Innovation.

At the time, Nik thought to himself, If I want to keep [publishing books], then I have to find a better way to do&nbsp;it.

To write more books and publish them quicker, Nik founded PeacheyPublications.

Today, PeacheyPublications&nbsp;has 180 products, from lesson plans to books to online&nbsp;courses.

&ldquo;We get great feedback from the teachers who use our products,&rdquo; said&nbsp;Nik.

<h2>In the classroom</h2>

As someone who&#39;s passionate about educational technology, Nik believes that technology shouldn&rsquo;t just be used by teachers. Students should be using it too, and it shouldn&rsquo;t just be about replacing homework either.

&ldquo;Technology should be connecting them to people and enhancing their abilities to be creative,&rdquo; Nik&nbsp;said.

He also believes&nbsp;students should come away from a lesson learning three&nbsp;things.&nbsp;

&ldquo;They should learn something about the language, something about the world around them, and something about themselves.&nbsp;The goal isn&rsquo;t language learning; language learning is the means to the&nbsp;goal.&quot;

<h2>Learn about intentional listening with&nbsp;Nik at&nbsp;ElliiCon2022</h2>

On September 15, Nik will be joining us at ElliiCon2022 to talk about how to develop understanding through intentional listening. You&rsquo;ll discover activities that will help your&nbsp;students&hellip;

<ul>
	<li>empathize with others</li>
	<li>listen with the intention to better understand on a more emotional&nbsp;level</li>
	<li>build dialogue and find common ground with those that hold different worldviews than their&nbsp;own</li>
</ul>

<blockquote>
Join us at ElliiCon2022!

Want to attend Nik&#39;s presentation?&nbsp;<a href="https://www.airmeet.com/e/0ee877b0-e369-11ec-b1b2-394b94cc9521" target="_blank">Register for ElliiCon2022</a>&nbsp;(it&#39;s&nbsp;free!).

To learn more about Nik, follow him on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ICT4ELT/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/NikPeachey" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, or&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikpeachey/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>.
</blockquote>

ElliiCon2022 Speaker Spotlight: Nik Peachey

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<div class="white-box">
This September 15 and 16, 2022, we&rsquo;ll be hosting&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/conference/2022" target="_blank">ElliiCon</a>, a free, two-day virtual conference to explore simple, effective, and practical strategies that will help you build stronger relationships with your students and engage them in a more meaningful way. This article is part of a series of posts introducing some of the conference speakers.
</div>

Shelly Sanchez Terrell is a digital innovator, international speaker, author of Hacking Digital Learning Strategies,&nbsp;Bammy Award winner, and the 2014 National Association of Professional Women&rsquo;s Woman of the Year. She&#39;ll be joining us at ElliiCon on September 16.

After graduating with an English degree, one of Shelly&rsquo;s friends asked her to work at a university-run summer camp for middle-school-aged kids from other countries. Since Shelly knew Spanish, she was a huge asset to the team. In addition to working with the campers, she was also able to translate for their Spanish-speaking parents.

After that summer, Shelly worked at&nbsp;a high school&nbsp;as an ESL teacher. She taught there for a few years before moving to Germany to teach English to kids and adults. She also spent two months teaching refugee students in Greece.

Currently, Shelly is a teacher in Texas. In addition to English to newcomers, she also teaches English language arts. Her favorite part about being a teacher is having &ldquo;the ability to give students a voice.&rdquo;

<h2>On using technology in the classroom</h2>

As an award-winning digital innovator and&nbsp;author of numerous education technology books, it&rsquo;s no surprise that Shelly believes it&rsquo;s important to integrate technology into the classroom. She believes technology works best in conjunction with authentic, non-digital materials.

&ldquo;Brainstorm on paper or with a dry-erase marker on a whiteboard or with others. Then tie that into technology. Take what you brainstorm and produce a book, video, presentation, or broadcast,&rdquo; said Shelly. &ldquo;The whole entire process mimics the real world. It&rsquo;s about using technology in a healthy and responsible way.&rdquo;

<img alt="Shelly presenting at TESOL in Texas." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2610/content_ElliiCon_Speaker_Shelly-Terrell.jpg" />

Shelly is pictured here presenting at the 2015 Texas TESOL State Conference.

As an international speaker and someone who has trained teachers in more than 20 countries as a guest expert, consultant, and ambassador for the US Embassy, Shelly helps other teachers&nbsp;not only teach with technology but also design a virtual learning environment.

&ldquo;It&rsquo;s important for students to have a digital home that supports the learning in the classroom and inspires them to practice outside of the classroom,&rdquo; said Shelly.

<h2>On controversial topics</h2>

In addition to EdTech, Shelly is also interested in education-related topics that are controversial and spark debate.

&ldquo;Teachers have different outlooks on policies like grades and homework. Should we have grades? Should we have homework? There are so many ideas and extremes. You see all these perspectives and they help shape your perspective.&rdquo;

<h2>Learn about tools and strategies to get students speaking with Shelly at ElliiCon2022</h2>

On September 16, Shelly will be joining us at ElliiCon2022 to talk about how to get students to speak up in class and use their voice in authentic ways. She&rsquo;ll be sharing strategies, activities, tips, and tools that will inspire even the shyest of English learners to find their voice.

<blockquote>
Join us at ElliiCon2022!

Want to attend Shelly&#39;s presentation?&nbsp;<a href="https://www.airmeet.com/e/0ee877b0-e369-11ec-b1b2-394b94cc9521" target="_blank">Register for ElliiCon2022</a>&nbsp;(it&#39;s free!).

To learn more about Shelly, visit her <a href="http://ShellyTerrell.com" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">website</a> and <a href="http://TeacherRebootCamp.com" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">blog</a>. You can also follow her on <a href="https://twitter.com/shellterrell" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.

PS. Did you know that Shelly used to be one of our bloggers? Explore her <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/authors/shelly-terrell" target="_blank">past blog posts</a> for tons of teaching tips and&nbsp;inspiration!
</blockquote>

ElliiCon2022 Speaker Spotlight: Shelly Terrell

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<div class="white-box">
This September 15 and 16, 2022, we&rsquo;ll be hosting&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/conference/2022" target="_blank">ElliiCon</a>, a free, two-day virtual conference to explore simple, effective, and practical strategies that will help you build stronger relationships with your students and engage them in a more meaningful way. This article is part of a series of posts introducing some of the conference speakers.
</div>

Dr. Ken Beatty is the author and co-author of more than 140 textbooks and has given more than 500 teacher-training sessions in 35 countries. He&#39;ll be joining&nbsp;us at ElliiCon2022 on September 15. 
 
One of Dr. Beatty&#39;s&nbsp;first teaching jobs wasn&#39;t exactly what you would call ordinary. For 18 months, he taught&nbsp;prisoners who were 12&ndash;17 years old.

&ldquo;Although I knew a lot about Shakespeare, I was fairly clueless about how to help students struggling with nouns and verbs,&rdquo; said Dr. Beatty.

This experience led him to go back to school.

After receiving a diploma in applied linguistics, he&nbsp;moved to China to teach English as a second language.

&ldquo;Teaching abroad requires a high degree of empathy&mdash;putting yourself in the place of others to understand their contexts before working backwards from their local logic to imagine what can be improved,&rdquo; explained Dr. Beatty.

Teaching in China was his first year of 18 years abroad. His only regret? He wishes he&#39;d spent more time observing other teachers in the classroom.

&ldquo;Ours is a solitary profession, and we&rsquo;re all in danger of getting comfortable with the way we&rsquo;ve always done things, perhaps even parroting the ways our own teachers did them decades earlier,&quot; he said.&nbsp;&quot;Teaching should be&nbsp;a never-ending quest to do things better.&rdquo;

<img alt="Dr. Ken Beatty in a classroom with smiling students " src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2607/content_ElliiCon_Speaker_Dr-Ken-Beatty_01.jpg" />

Dr. Beatty is pictured here in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

<h2>The human element of online teaching</h2>

Today, Dr. Beatty is a TESOL professor at Anaheim University. He teaches students pursuing their master&rsquo;s and doctorate degrees. He particularly enjoys&mdash;and was surprised by&mdash;how intimate teaching online can be.

When he was first invited to join the faculty 12 years ago, he expected it to be less personal than face-to-face classrooms. He has a story to illustrate why he was wrong:

<blockquote>
&ldquo;We all got to know each other well on the discussion forum and&nbsp;one day, John announced&nbsp;that his wife was pregnant. Over the next couple&nbsp;months of classes, we got updates and shared stories and advice. By chance, nine months later, John was enrolled in another of my classes and wrote one week to say he might not attend Friday&rsquo;s session as his wife was expecting any day now.

Then, Wednesday, he announced the birth of their baby girl, and I didn&rsquo;t expect to see him in class that week, but Friday evening he opened his laptop in his kitchen. The class and I shared our congratulations. And then I asked, &#39;Is the baby home yet?&#39;

&#39;Let me get her!&#39;

And suddenly, yawning on screen, we saw a three-day-old baby.

It was a moment like a thousand others that one wouldn&rsquo;t expect in a traditional graduate seminar. I get to know the students and the students all get to know each other much more than if we were in some brick building. Being online can open us to others&rsquo; lives.&rdquo;
</blockquote>

<h2>Technology is a great way to&nbsp;empower your language learners</h2>

Dr. Beatty holds a PhD in computer-assisted language learning and has written a few books on the topic as well. He recalls a time when he was a student and one of his teachers used technology in class.

<img alt="Dr. Ken Beatty holding a big stack of books" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2608/content_ElliiCon_Speaker_Dr-Ken-Beatty_02.jpg" />

Dr. Beatty is pictured here with some of his published books.

&ldquo;When I was in grade two, my teacher, Mrs. Babcock, asked, &#39;Now, which student would like to operate the film strip projector?&#39; Hand in the air, I remember straining every muscle in hopes I would be chosen,&quot;&nbsp;said Dr. Beatty.&nbsp;&quot;It was ridiculously simple, just turning the knob, but to my seven-year-old self, it seemed I was operating a spaceship.&quot;

&ldquo;What was the point?&rdquo; he asked himself, reflecting back on that day.

His teacher, he explained,&nbsp;used the task as a way to both reward good behavior and to give students a small sense of pride and empowerment. 
 
His advice for&nbsp;teachers who want to use technology in the classroom? 
 
Don&rsquo;t. Instead, get your&nbsp;students involved.

&ldquo;Our students tend to be digital natives and are better aware of how new technologies work,&quot; said Dr. Beatty.&nbsp;&quot;Need Quizlet quizzes? Let each student create one. Need to explain new conferencing software to the class? Let a few students teach the rest. They&rsquo;ll do so in ways they best understand and will better connect as friends. Everyone benefits.&rdquo;

<blockquote>
&quot;To teach is to learn twice.&quot;

&mdash;Joseph Joubert, French writer
</blockquote>

<h2>Learning English outside the classroom is just as important</h2>

Dr. Beatty believes that learning needs to happen outside of class time too since there never seems to be enough time to learn a language within the classroom.

A&nbsp;teacher he&nbsp;met in Shanghai gave each of her students wall space and told them to decorate it with English. Dr. Beatty said the students were confused about what to do but soon started putting up items they found outside the classroom, including&nbsp;menus, comics, maps, advertisements, and their own English annotations of pictures of things like soccer games.

&ldquo;It became a kind of subversive competitive treasure hunt,&quot; Dr. Beatty&nbsp;said.&nbsp;&quot;It was subversive because the students didn&rsquo;t understand that by focusing on finding and discussing English materials, they were learning English. Best of all, the teacher only had to start the ball rolling. Once in motion, students did all the work and chattered about each new contribution.&rdquo;

<h2>Advocate for your student&#39;s language learning needs&nbsp;</h2>

Dr. Beatty also believes that teachers should pay attention to politics in education.

&ldquo;As teachers, we are the ones who best understand our students&rsquo; needs. Not parents. Not administrators. Not elected officials,&quot; he said.&nbsp;&quot;Every teacher needs to be involved in the decisions being made about what to teach and how to teach.&rdquo;

If you&#39;re looking to get involved in politics, Dr. Beatty suggests to start by joining your local or national language association. Teachers could share their ideas about education at staff meetings,&nbsp;with friends and family, in blog posts, and in letters to the editor.&nbsp; 
 
From there, Dr. Beatty encourages teachers to identify the issues that matter on a personal level and find other teachers who agree. 
 
&quot;Think about what you can do together,&quot; he said.&nbsp;&quot;Are the needs of students not being met? Are teacher working conditions making it impossible to give students the attention they deserve? Are education budgets being slashed? Shout!&rdquo;

<img alt="Dr. Ken Beatty giving a speech" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2609/content_ElliiCon_Speaker_Dr-Ken-Beatty_03.jpg" />

Dr. Beatty is pictured here in Liverpool, England.

<h2>Learn about assessment with&nbsp;Dr. Beatty at ElliiCon2022</h2>

On September 15, Dr. Beatty will be joining us at <a href="https://ellii.com/conference/2022" target="_blank">ElliiCon2022</a> to talk about assessment.

Have you had this experience? You spend hours correcting students&rsquo; errors on their assignments only to see them glance at the final mark and crumple the paper into a ball.&nbsp;Students too often see assessments like court verdicts, not learning opportunities.

The title of Dr. Beatty&#39;s talk is &quot;Assessment: Agile, Simple, Effective.&quot; He&#39;ll kick off the session by asking&nbsp;why teachers assess students and then explore the&nbsp;key principles that apply to students of all ages and levels.&nbsp;

Here are the three key principles he will cover:

<ul>
	<li>Agile&nbsp;is about responding to students&rsquo; needs.</li>
	<li>Simple&nbsp;is about saving ourselves time.</li>
	<li>Effective&nbsp;is about ensuring that students learn from their assessments.</li>
</ul>

<blockquote>
Join us at ElliiCon2022!

Want to attend Dr. Beatty&#39;s presentation? <a href="https://www.airmeet.com/e/0ee877b0-e369-11ec-b1b2-394b94cc9521" target="_blank"> Register for ElliiCon2022</a> (it&#39;s free!).

To learn more about Dr. Beatty,&nbsp;<a href="http://kenbeatty.ca/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">visit his website</a>.
</blockquote>

ElliiCon2022 Speaker Spotlight: Dr. Ken Beatty

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Learn how to make the most of your Ellii subscription with tips from our publishing team.

Teaching with Ellii

<div class="white-box">
This article is part of a series of posts highlighting our community of teachers around the world. We hope you find their stories interesting and&nbsp;inspiring!
</div>

Since 2003, Rick Powell has been busy traveling the&nbsp;world.

He&rsquo;s spent time in several cities in Europe and South America&nbsp;before finally settling down in Mexico. To financially support his travels, Rick spent his time cooking professionally and teaching&nbsp;English. However, since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, he made the decision to drop his cooking job and solely focus on&nbsp;teaching.

Today&nbsp;Rick teaches online from Mexico City. He mainly teaches adults at the low-intermediate to advanced levels who are interested in improving their English for work or in preparation for a move&nbsp;to the United&nbsp;States.

Like many teachers,&nbsp;a&nbsp;typical day of teaching for Rick begins with a lot of coffee. Then he opens his computer and heads straight to&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/discover" target="_blank">Ellii</a> and <a href="https://www.notion.so/product" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Notion</a> to plan out his lessons for the&nbsp;day.

&ldquo;I also look at my news channels on YouTube because many of my students are interested in US politics and culture,&rdquo; said&nbsp;Rick. &ldquo;I use videos during&nbsp;class.&rdquo;

Classes start at 10:00 am&nbsp;with his last class of the day sometimes ending as late as 10:00&nbsp;pm.

&ldquo;There are breaks, thankfully,&rdquo; said Rick. &quot;I take lots of short walks, even around the block, so that I stay alert and&nbsp;fresh.&rdquo;

<h2>How Rick uses the Ellii platform with&nbsp;students</h2>

Recently, Rick used our <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/133/lessons/4189" target="_blank">Supreme Court Overturns Roe V. Wade</a> lesson in&nbsp;class.

&ldquo;I use the <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/133/lessons" target="_blank">That&#39;s News to Me</a> section a lot. There have been some good conversations,&rdquo; he&nbsp;said.

Check out Rick&#39;s&nbsp;text response below to learn more about why he loves Ellii and how he uses it with his&nbsp;students.

<iframe allow="autoplay *; encrypted-media *; fullscreen *;" height="400px" src="https://www.videoask.com/axle8u41hw8k5wu2ztr9xc643m7k35duz98ns8kv" style="border: none; border-radius: 24px" width="100%"></iframe>

<h2>Overcoming challenges in and out of the&nbsp;classroom</h2>

Getting students to speak up in class and complete their homework outside of class have&nbsp;been two&nbsp;of Rick&#39;s biggest challenges of&nbsp;late.

&ldquo;It has been hard getting some students to speak at any length and, since my students are all working professionals, to get them to do homework and study vocabulary on their own,&rdquo; he&nbsp;admits.

Despite these challenges, Rick still finds teaching incredibly&nbsp;rewarding.

&ldquo;I love it when my students recognize and benefit from their own progress after giving their first presentation or running an international meeting in English, or publishing their first article in English, or getting accepted to an American university&mdash;all of which have happened.&rdquo;

His advice for aspiring teachers?

&ldquo;Be fearless when teaching slang, idioms, and colloquial English,&quot; he said.&nbsp;&quot;Students are very interested in sounding as native (and sometimes as hip and cool) as possible. And make them laugh!&rdquo;

<blockquote>
Want the chance to be featured in our Teacher Feature series? Visit our&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/20th-anniversary-giveaway" target="_blank">20th Anniversary Giveaway</a>&nbsp;blog post&nbsp;to tell us why you love Ellii and how you use it in your classroom.
</blockquote>

Teacher Feature: Rick Powell

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For many, reading is a silent, internal&nbsp;process.

When I did my CELTA (Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), my tutor taught me that reading aloud was unnatural and, therefore, didn&rsquo;t have a place in the&nbsp;classroom.&nbsp;

As I&rsquo;ve developed as a teacher, especially as a teacher of adult ESOL&nbsp;literacy, I&rsquo;ve explored this belief a lot. I&rsquo;ve discovered that reading aloud is an essential part of the English language&nbsp;classroom.&nbsp;

Here are some&nbsp;beneficial ways you can use reading aloud in your language&nbsp;classroom:

<h2>Try reading aloud to your&nbsp;students</h2>

Reading to students is a great way to add some energy, drama, and fun to the classroom. It provides an opportunity for English learners to hear the words and be exposed to the concept of reading. It can also activate imaginations, build vocabulary, and improve overall understanding of the&nbsp;language.&nbsp;

Students can listen and follow the text as the teacher reads or simply enjoy listening to the&nbsp;text.

<h2>Have your students read aloud</h2>

Getting students to read aloud is one of the best ways to check that their sound decoding skills are developing. It also provides an opportunity to practice pronunciation&nbsp;and check that they understand&nbsp;punctuation.&nbsp;

There have also been studies to show that <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200917-the-surprising-power-of-reading-aloud" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">reading aloud aids memory</a>. Colin MacLeod, a psychology researcher at the University of Waterloo, Canada, found that readers of all ages remembered words better if they read them aloud. He calls this &quot;the&nbsp;production&nbsp;effect.&quot;

Be aware that some learners may lack confidence in reading aloud in front of peers. This can be especially true for <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/accessibility-supporting-english-learners-with-dyslexia" target="_blank">learners with dyslexia</a> or for those who find literacy&nbsp;challenging.&nbsp;

In this case, aim to create a welcoming, supportive, and respectful classroom atmosphere,&nbsp;and allow learners to work in small groups or pairs to read&nbsp;aloud.&nbsp;

<h2>Practice choral reading</h2>

Choral reading is a great way to read aloud in class. It gets everyone involved and allows learners to gain confidence before reading&nbsp;alone.

Simply display a text on the whiteboard or screen and ask students to read it aloud together.&nbsp;If one learner struggles with a particular word, they can hear how to say it from the other learners or the&nbsp;teacher.&nbsp;

<h2>Use technology to&nbsp;read aloud</h2>

You can use tools such as&nbsp;the Microsoft&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/how-to-use-microsoft-immersive-reader-on-ellii" target="_blank">Immersive Reader</a>&nbsp;on Ellii&nbsp;to read texts aloud to&nbsp;learners.

Ellii&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/134/lessons" target="_blank">Word Bank Readers</a>&nbsp;lesson section has tasks where students&nbsp;can...

<ul>
	<li>read and listen to recorded audio of the text</li>
</ul>

<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/134/lessons/3685" target="_blank"><img alt="Audio track on top of an excerpt from Leena's Big, Happy Family lesson from Ellii's Word Bank Readers section." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2567/content_Ellii-read-listen-recorded-audio.jpg" /></a>

<ul>
	<li>record themselves reading a text for the teacher to mark</li>
</ul>

<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/5-speaking-tips-for-students" target="_blank"><img alt="Example of Ellii speaking task type with a record button to record your answer." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2568/content_Ellii-record-reading-text.jpg" /></a>

<ul>
	<li>watch videos and read aloud with the highlighted reading&nbsp;prompts</li>
</ul>

<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/134/lessons/3685" target="_blank"><img alt="An Ellii read aloud video from Lena's Big, Happy Family lesson." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2550/content_Screen_Shot_2022-07-06_at_11.32.40_AM.png" /></a>

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Share your thoughts!</h5>

Do you use reading aloud in class? If so, how? Let us know in the comments&nbsp;section.
</div>

The Importance of Reading Aloud in a Language Learning Class

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Are you looking for a new teaching job? Will you be asked to deliver a demo lesson?

Many schools and organizations require job candidates to teach a demo lesson as a final part of the interview process. During your demo lesson, managers or administrators will observe your teaching skills and determine whether you will be a good fit for the students and&nbsp;school.&nbsp;

To help you get ready, we&#39;ve put together this&nbsp;comprehensive guide on how to prep and deliver a top-notch demo lesson with&nbsp;confidence.&nbsp;

We&#39;ll go over...

<ul>
	<li><a href="#8questions">8 questions to ask before your demo&nbsp;lesson</a></li>
	<li><a href="#6tips">6 tips for delivering a successful demo&nbsp;lesson</a></li>
	<li><a href="#5ways">5 ways Ellii can help you prepare for and&nbsp;present a demo&nbsp;lesson</a></li>
	<li><a href="#5topics">5 recommended topics and targets for demo&nbsp;lessons</a></li>
	<li><a href="#5resources">5 suggested Ellii resources for demo&nbsp;lessons</a></li>
</ul>

<h2><a id="8questions"></a>8 questions to ask before your demo lesson</h2>

Before you rush into making plans for this part of the interview, it&#39;s a good idea to do a bit of homework by asking yourself the following&nbsp;questions:&nbsp;

<ol>
	<li>Will the students be real learners or staff pretending to be&nbsp;students?</li>
	<li>Are the students young learners, teens, or adults?</li>
	<li>What&nbsp;level will the students be? (See <a href="https://ellii.com/equivalencies" target="_blank">Equivalency&nbsp;Scale</a>)</li>
	<li>Approximately how many students will there be? (Bring extra handouts&nbsp;and share with the interviewer(s)&nbsp;too.)</li>
	<li>Is there a set grammar&nbsp;target&nbsp;or function&nbsp;to cover?&nbsp;</li>
	<li>How long should your demo lesson&nbsp;be?</li>
	<li>Will the lesson be delivered in person or online?&nbsp;</li>
	<li>What tech and tools will be available? (Find out if there&#39;s Wi-Fi, speakers, a whiteboard, markets,&nbsp;etc.)</li>
</ol>

<h2><a id="6tips"></a>6 tips for delivering a successful demo lesson</h2>

At a recent panel discussion&nbsp;on demo lessons with <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/professional-development-with-bridge-education-group" target="_blank">Bridge&nbsp;Education&nbsp;Group</a>, presenters shared these six&nbsp;tips:&nbsp;

<ol>
	<li>If you&#39;re not given a specific target to teach, choose&nbsp;a low-intermediate (A2) target. It&#39;s easier to level up than&nbsp;down.</li>
	<li>If you&#39;re not given a specific topic, grammar is a safe target. Try to find a way to make it fun or memorable. Include&nbsp;visuals!</li>
	<li>Be mindful of the&nbsp;time you have. You may only have 20 minutes. Cut out any parts of a lesson that aren&#39;t needed&nbsp;and focus on the essential parts of a lesson that you learned in your teacher training&nbsp;(warm-up, presentation, production, and&nbsp;practice).</li>
	<li>Find a way to showcase your strengths as a&nbsp;teacher.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Use&nbsp;class time wisely. Make sure to use activities that get students talking but also highlight your ability to teach a concept.&nbsp;(Give feedback&nbsp;too.)</li>
	<li>Keep your lesson low-tech. If you&#39;re planning on using audio or video, make sure&nbsp;you have a backup plan if something goes&nbsp;wrong. If you&#39;re teaching online, make sure that you understand the platform&nbsp;fully.</li>
</ol>

<h2><a id="5ways"></a>5 ways Ellii can help you prepare for and&nbsp;present a demo lesson</h2>

A comprehensive materials provider like Ellii is a must-have for new teachers. But Ellii&nbsp;can help you even before you get your first teaching&nbsp;job.

<h3>1. Ellii&nbsp;helps teachers gain confidence teaching tricky grammar&nbsp;targets&nbsp;</h3>

New teachers often struggle with confidence, especially when it comes to teaching grammar. If you&#39;re going to teach grammar in your demo lesson (a&nbsp;safe choice for a language target), be sure that you understand how to teach&nbsp;it.

Ellii&#39;s <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/categories/grammar-usage" target="_blank">grammar posts</a> offer lots of tips on how to teach different grammar points. You could even choose a target to teach in your demo lesson based on one of Ellii&#39;s blog posts.&nbsp;In the comments, you&#39;ll find lots of commonly asked questions that teachers and learners have. Make sure you&#39;re ready to answer a few questions about the target. Find a corresponding lesson in Ellii&#39;s <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/grammar" target="_blank">Grammar&nbsp;collection</a>.

If you&#39;ve never taught the target before, try&nbsp;teaching it to some friends or family members before you step into the classroom. And you can always reach out to the Ellii team via our blog posts if you have a specific grammar&nbsp;question.&nbsp;

<h3>2. Ellii has ready-made visuals and charts that teachers can use in an in-class or in-person&nbsp;demo class (and&nbsp;beyond!)</h3>

<img alt="simple past vs. past progressive chart" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2566/content_Ellii_Visual.jpg" />

Simple past vs. past progressive chart

You don&#39;t have a lot of time to prove yourself in&nbsp;a demo lesson. You may also not have a lot of teaching experience.&nbsp;

Don&rsquo;t waste time writing out a lot of long explanations or grammar charts. Find some ready-made visuals and talk your students through them or project them in the classroom and encourage&nbsp;students to take notes or&nbsp;annotate.&nbsp;

Here are some places to find&nbsp;visuals:

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/flashcards" target="_blank">Flashcards</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources" target="_blank">Grammar Charts</a>&nbsp;(Not a subscriber yet? Visit our blog&#39;s <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/categories/grammar-usage" target="_blank">Grammar&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;Usage</a>&nbsp;section&nbsp;for lots of free tips.)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos/grammar" target="_blank">Grammar Videos</a>&nbsp;(Not a subscriber yet? Visit our <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/ESLlibrary" target="_blank">YouTube channel</a>.)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/124/resources" target="_blank">Sentence Stems</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/107/resources" target="_blank">Visual Learning&nbsp;</a></li>
</ul>

<h3>3. Ellii offers multi-level lessons on a wide variety of topics and&nbsp;targets</h3>

Show that you&#39;re prepared for students who are at different levels. Think of ways to&nbsp;make your lesson easier or more difficult or find similar lessons that are at different levels. Keep in mind that it&#39;s easier to make a lesson more difficult than it is to make it&nbsp;easier.

Look at&nbsp;a <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/123/lessons" target="_blank">Super Simple Grammar</a>&nbsp;lesson compared to a <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons" target="_blank">Grammar&nbsp;Practice&nbsp;Worksheet</a> lesson or&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/116/lessons" target="_blank">Fun Grammar Lesson</a>&nbsp;on the same target. Then look at a <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/90/lessons" target="_blank">Grammar Stories</a> lesson or <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/89/lessons" target="_blank">Basic&nbsp;Grammar&nbsp;Sentences</a>&nbsp;lesson to learn about teaching grammar in&nbsp;context.

<h3>4. Ellii has a wide variety&nbsp;to choose from, allowing teachers to showcase the importance of needs&nbsp;assessment&nbsp;</h3>

An important part of teaching&nbsp;is finding out what students&#39;&nbsp;needs and interests&nbsp;are.

With Ellii, you can offer a little choice to the learners in a demo lesson. Do they want to learn about <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/113/lessons/2399" target="_blank">fruit</a> or <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/113/lessons/2396" target="_blank">vegetables</a>? Would they like to&nbsp;practice <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/grammar/simple-verb-tenses/present-progressive" target="_blank">present progressive</a> while going on a&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/125/resources/2870" target="_blank">picnic</a> or to the <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/125/resources/2865" target="_blank">park</a>? Do they want to learn how to&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/107/resources/3555" target="_blank">follow&nbsp;instructions at the doctor&#39;s</a> or <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/107/resources/2482" target="_blank">at the pool</a>?&nbsp;

<h3>5. Ellii has activities, assessments, and reflections to help you close your demo lesson in an impactful&nbsp;way</h3>

Showcase your understanding of assessment and reflection by leaving time for a short review or&nbsp;reflection.

You can play a fun game like <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/4-activities-for-reviewing-vocabulary" target="_blank">Hot Seat</a> to review some vocabulary or share an <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/2228" target="_blank">exit slip</a> or short <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/2557" target="_blank">reflection</a> to gauge how you did in your demo&nbsp;lesson.

<h2><a id="5topics"></a>5 recommended topics and&nbsp;targets for demo lessons</h2>

<ol>
	<li>Vocabulary (All Ages):&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/113/lessons/2399" target="_blank">Fruit</a> or <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/113/lessons/2396" target="_blank">Vegetables</a>&nbsp;(could pair with <a href="https://ellii.com/flashcards/grammar-punctuation/like-don-t-like" target="_blank">&quot;like&quot;&nbsp;and&nbsp;&quot;don&#39;t like&quot;</a>)</li>
	<li>Grammar (Young Learners):&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/132/lessons/3174" target="_blank">Morning</a> or <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/132/lessons/3195" target="_blank">Evening&nbsp;Routine</a>&nbsp;(simple&nbsp;present)</li>
	<li>Grammar (Teens &amp; Adults): <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/adjectives" target="_blank">Adjectives</a>&nbsp;(See <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/2093" target="_blank">full lesson</a>.)</li>
	<li>Function (Adult Newcomers): <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/76/lessons/1712" target="_blank">Going to the Supermarket</a>&nbsp;or <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/76/lessons/3716" target="_blank">Going&nbsp;to&nbsp;the&nbsp;Bank</a>&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Function (Business English):&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/135/lessons/3757" target="_blank">Making Introductions at Work</a>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/92/lessons/1749" target="_blank">Making&nbsp;Small&nbsp;Talk</a></li>
</ol>

<h2><a id="5resources"></a>5 suggested Ellii resources for demo lessons</h2>

<ol>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/categories/grammar-usage" target="_blank">Grammar &amp; Usage</a>: Choose or review a target from Ellii&#39;s most popular blog section.</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos/grammar" target="_blank">Grammar Videos</a>: These videos can help you understand the target before you teach it.&nbsp;Visit our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/ESLlibrary" target="_blank">YouTube</a>&nbsp;channel if you aren&#39;t an Ellii subscriber&nbsp;yet.</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/125/resources" target="_blank">Language Scenes</a>: See&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/125/resources/2872" target="_blank">Teachers&#39; Notes</a>&nbsp;for ideas on how to use&nbsp;these. Digital versions are in color and&nbsp;useful for online demos.</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/flashcards" target="_blank">Flashcards</a>: Bring visuals to class! Review&nbsp;<a href="https://help.ellii.com/article/63-how-to-create-flashcard-sets" target="_blank">How to Create &amp; Save Flashcard&nbsp;Sets</a>.</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/2228" target="_blank">Exit Slips</a>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/2557" target="_blank">3-2-1 Reflection</a>: Impress your interviewers by getting feedback from students, especially if the students seemed&nbsp;engaged.</li>
</ol>

Want to learn more about Ellii&#39;s content and courseware platform and how it can help you teach a better class? <a href="https://app.livestorm.co/ellii" target="_blank">Register for a free webinar today</a>.

Ellii's Comprehensive Guide to Nailing Your Demo Lesson

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Dyslexia is a specific learning difference which affects information processing, memory, and organizational skills.&nbsp;

Learners with dyslexia may find reading, writing, and spelling more challenging. They may also need additional support to plan their time.&nbsp;

Often learners with dyslexia are very creative&nbsp;and excel at artistic tasks or solving problems.&nbsp;

Here are some tips for supporting learners with dyslexia:&nbsp;

<h2>Speak to your learners</h2>

This is one of the most important things to do with any language learner who has additional needs. Every learner is different and will benefit from their own tailored support plan.&nbsp;

Set aside time to have a guidance appointment with them and discuss ways you can help. For young learners, involve their parent(s) or guardian(s).

<h2>Give extra time</h2>

Learners with dyslexia may need more time to read and process a text.

It&#39;s common for dyslexic learners to re-read entire paragraphs. They may miss lines or sections as they read or&nbsp;confuse visually similar words. They may even&nbsp;see words that &quot;float&quot; or appear to move around as they read a text.

<h2>Give instructions one step at a time</h2>

Learners with dyslexia may find it confusing to receive too many instructions at one time. To make the lesson as accessible as possible, give classroom directions one at a time.&nbsp;

Example of information overload:&nbsp;&quot;Open your computer, log in to Ellii, view your assignments and then read the text. Once you&rsquo;ve done that, answer the comprehension questions.&quot;&nbsp;

Instead, break it down into stages and give new instructions once each task has been completed.

Example of simple instructions:&nbsp;&nbsp;&quot;Open your computer.&quot;

In reality, this is good practice for teaching all&nbsp;language learners. Often making small changes to your teaching practice to make learning English accessible for an individual can benefit the whole class.&nbsp;

<h2>Use assistive tools&nbsp;</h2>

There are lots of different apps and software which can help learners with dyslexia. For example, spell-checkers, voice-to-text, mind mapping, and text-to-speech.

Ellii uses Microsoft&rsquo;s <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/how-to-use-microsoft-immersive-reader-on-ellii" target="_blank">Immersive Reader</a>&nbsp;which&nbsp;allows learners to customize their own reading experience. Students can change&nbsp;the text size, view the text&nbsp;in&nbsp;full-screen, adjust the translation to their preferred language, and have the text read aloud.&nbsp;

<h2>Learn about dyslexia-friendly&nbsp;fonts</h2>

In general, larger, sans serif&nbsp;fonts with double line spacing are easier to read, especially for people with dyslexia.&nbsp;

There are also a variety of fonts which have been designed specifically to support dyslexic readers. Their effectiveness depends on individual preference.

Speak to your learners and find out if they have any font preferences.&nbsp;

<h2>Use visuals</h2>

Dyslexic learners often enjoy multisensory approaches.

Visuals such as graphic organizers, mind maps, diagrams, and charts have minimal text so they can reduce processing load. They also appeal to dyslexic learners&rsquo; creativity and aid memory.

Here are two examples from Ellii&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/74/lessons" target="_blank">Writing in English</a> lesson&nbsp;on <a href="http://ellii.com/courses/74/lessons/1826" target="_blank">How to Brainstorm</a>:

<a href="http://ellii.com/courses/74/lessons/1826" target="_blank"><img alt="Example of a Venn diagram from Ellii's Writing in English lesson on How to Brainstorm" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2557/content_venn-diagram.jpg" /></a>

Example of a Venn diagram from Ellii&#39;s Writing in English lesson on How to Brainstorm.

<a href="http://ellii.com/courses/74/lessons/1826" target="_blank"><img alt="example mind map from Ellii's Writing in English lesson on How to Brainstorm" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2558/content_Mind-Map.jpg" /></a>

Example of a mind map from Ellii&#39;s Writing in English lesson on How to Brainstorm.

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Share your thoughts!</h5>

Do you support language learners with dyslexia, or do you have dyslexia yourself? What works for you and/or your students? Let us know in the comments below.
</div>

Accessibility: Supporting English Learners with Dyslexia

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Did you know everyone at Ellii works remotely?

Our team is spread out across the&nbsp;US, Canada, Brazil, and Argentina, with&nbsp;contractors in even more&nbsp;countries.

As Ellii&#39;s&nbsp;videographer, having the opportunity to work from anywhere is fantastic. But having this freedom is not the most exciting part of remote&nbsp;work.

What I love the most is that I have the chance to connect and work with people from different parts of the world. Plus, I get to learn so much from my coworkers about their traditions and culture. Who knew that dinnertime is&nbsp;around 6:00 pm in the US and Canada? In Argentina, dinner around 9:00 pm. You can see why this came as a big surprise to&nbsp;me!

Discovering these&nbsp;new&nbsp;tidbits of information is the reason I enjoy working remotely&nbsp;so much. It allows me to learn something new&nbsp;at work every&nbsp;day.

The title of this blog post, &ldquo;Traveling with Ellii,&rdquo; doesn&rsquo;t just refer to the fact that Ellii allows you to travel anywhere and <a href="https://ellii.com/careers" target="_blank">take your work with you</a>. It also implies that even when I&rsquo;m home in Buenos Aires, I&rsquo;m still traveling all over the world (figuratively speaking) thanks to my amazing&nbsp;coworkers.

When I look at the&nbsp;incredible hiking pictures our director of language development, Tanya, took around Vancouver, and then I see the&nbsp;unbelievable photos of a recent snowstorm in Winnipeg taken by our VP of people &amp; culture, Marta, I get to&nbsp;learn a little bit more about this amazing world we all live&nbsp;in.&nbsp;

I love imagining&nbsp;myself in those places too. What would it feel like to smell the trees along the hiking trails or to experience a&nbsp;freezing cold&nbsp;snowstorm?

So as you can see, I&rsquo;m always discovering new places and adventures at&nbsp;work.

But recently, for the first time since I started working at Ellii, I decided to go on an adventure:&nbsp;I went to live in Madrid, Spain, for two months. My team was nothing but&nbsp;supportive and encouraged me to take this amazing&nbsp;opportunity. 
 
And I can&rsquo;t begin to tell you what an incredible, fun, and inspiring experience it&nbsp;was.

<h2>Living in Madrid</h2>

For starters, I got to spend lots of time with my sister who&#39;s currently living in Madrid. We enjoyed morning walks together in the most amazing parks. My favorite parks in Spain were El Retiro, Madrid Rio, and&nbsp;Santander.

<img alt="El Retiro, Madrid (park)" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2449/content_Retiro_Park.png" />

Retiro Park&rsquo;s lake on a cloudy day. Photo by Lucia Padilla

<h2>Touring Segovia</h2>

I also visited other cities in Spain, like Segovia, where I saw one of the best-preserved, elevated <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqueduct_of_Segovia" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Roman aqueducts</a> in the world.

Although its exact construction date is somewhat of a mystery, there&#39;s archaeological evidence that points to it being built around AD 112. It truly is an architectural masterpiece, and it&rsquo;s also in an excellent state of&nbsp;conservation.

Even though it looked small in the distance, I could still feel its powerful presence. When I got closer,&nbsp;the scale and magnitude of the construction hit me with such force that I couldn&#39;t help but feel tiny. Looking up at the aqueduct from down below, I couldn&#39;t stop thinking,&nbsp;Did someone shrink me and I didn&rsquo;t realize&nbsp;it?

<img alt="Segovia’s Aqueduct" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2450/content_Segovia_s_Aqueduct.png" />

Segovia&rsquo;s Aqueduct. Photo by Lucia Padilla.

<h2>Celebrating in Barcelona</h2>

Another wonderful place I went to was the well-known city of Barcelona. I went there for <a href="http://www.spain.info/en/discover-spain/fiesta-sant-jordi-barcelona/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Sant Jordi</a>, which is celebrated every April&nbsp;23.

During this very important holiday, it&#39;s customary for friends, families, and&nbsp;couples to exchange roses and books while they celebrate in the&nbsp;streets.

Strolling around the city during this time is like a fairytale. You&#39;ll see the stores and buildings decorated with beautiful roses. I highly recommend you visit <a href="https://www.casabatllo.es/en/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Casa Batll&oacute;</a>&mdash;they go all out during Sant&nbsp;Jordi!

You&#39;ll also notice the streets packed with what feels like millions of stalls&nbsp;selling books and roses to passersby. It was a truly beautiful sight that even a rainy day couldn&#39;t ruin. I have to admit I was especially impressed by the&nbsp;Catalans who didn&rsquo;t seem&nbsp;to mind the weather at all and still enjoyed the&nbsp;celebrations.

But the reason I&#39;ll never forget this day is that I&rsquo;ve never seen so many people buying so many books in my entire life! I loved it.&nbsp;I wish I had been able to take more pictures, but&nbsp;I was completely engrossed in the&nbsp;festivities.

<img alt="Raima's Stationery Store" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2451/content_Raima_Stationery_Store.png" />

Decorations inside Raima, Europe&#39;s largest stationery store. Photo by Lucia Padilla.

<h2>The beauty of remote work with Ellii</h2>

All in all, traveling with Ellii is a wonderful experience. I can be&nbsp;home in a sweltering Argentinian summer and yet &ldquo;feel&rdquo; the chilling cold of a Canadian&nbsp;winter.

The freedom and flexibility of&nbsp;working remotely&nbsp;helps you be more empathetic and open-minded about the amazing people you work&nbsp;with.

Working remotely also transports you to other cultures and lets you experience someone else&#39;s traditions. I would not change it for the world. And yes, I do hope one day I get to see all my coworkers in person. But until that day comes, I&rsquo;ll keep learning and traveling around the world with&nbsp;Ellii.

Working Remotely: Traveling with Ellii

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We take pride in empowering English language teachers. That&rsquo;s why we love collaborating with organizations and businesses that provide professional development opportunities, teaching resources, industry events, and close-knit communities for educators around the&nbsp;world.

Visit our <a href="https://ellii.com/partnerships" target="_blank">Partnerships &amp; Collaborations</a> page to learn more about the brands we work&nbsp;with.

<h1>Meet Bridge Education Group</h1>

One of the organizations we love collaborating with is <a href="https://bridge.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Bridge</a>.

Bridge provides accessible and affordable English language teacher training, certification, and continuing professional&nbsp;development.

They offer&hellip;

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://bridge.edu/tefl/courses/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">TEFL certification programs</a> that provide teachers with internationally recognized&nbsp;credentials</li>
	<li>in-depth, <a href="https://bridge.edu/tefl/courses/specialized" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">specialized professional development courses</a> to help teachers learn about the latest methodology, best practices, and technologies in&nbsp;ELT</li>
	<li>short <a href="https://bridge.edu/tefl/courses/micro" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">micro-credential courses</a> specially designed to help educators gain new skills that will take their teaching to the next&nbsp;level</li>
</ul>

Bridge also publishes relevant and helpful English language teaching news and resources at <a href="https://bridge.edu/tefl/blog/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">BridgeUniverse</a>.

<h1>Why is professional development important?</h1>

Why invest time, effort, and money in your professional development (PD)? Here are three compelling&nbsp;reasons:

<h2>1. PD can help you land your dream teaching&nbsp;job</h2>

Professional development can help you get the teaching job you&rsquo;ve always dreamed&nbsp;of.

Having additional professional development courses on your resume gives you added credentials that may qualify you for more jobs or promotions. It also shows potential and current employers that you value continuous learning and that you strive to be a better&nbsp;teacher.

<blockquote>
91% of hiring managers report certification is a criteria for&nbsp;hiring.

&mdash;<a href="https://certiport.pearsonvue.com/About/The-value-of-certification.aspx" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Certiport</a>
</blockquote>

Ultimately, it opens the door to more teaching opportunities and helps you stand out against the&nbsp;competition.

<h2>2. PD can help you get a higher salary</h2>

Professional development can also help you get a higher starting salary or a raise. According to <a href="https://mms.businesswire.com/media/20160330005307/en/516651/5/2517910_Comparison_infographic.jpg?download=1" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Business Wire</a>, 79% of certified professionals see a tangible impact on their career, including pay raise, promotions, and resume&nbsp;shortlists.

In interviews with potential employers, having training and development courses on your resume may help you negotiate a higher&nbsp;salary.

With current employers, completing certain types of professional development courses may help you qualify for a raise or&nbsp;promotion.

<blockquote>
Certified professionals are 2.55 times more likely to get a promotion than non-certified&nbsp;professionals.

&mdash;Business Wire
</blockquote>

<h2>3. PD can help you be a better teacher</h2>

Finally, professional development can help you be a better&nbsp;teacher.

Thanks to professional development courses, new teachers are equipped with the necessary skills for success and experienced teachers are able to stay current and gain skills in new teaching approaches, technologies, and&nbsp;ideas.

Essentially, professional development gives teachers more tools to create better learning experiences for their&nbsp;students.

Interested in taking a professional development course? <a href="https://bridge.edu/tefl/online-tefl-certification" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Explore Bridge&#39;s online TEFL courses</a>&nbsp;today.

<h1>How our collaboration benefits you</h1>

There&rsquo;s never been a better time to invest in your professional&nbsp;development.

As part of our collaboration with Bridge, Ellii subscribers will receive a 10% discount on Bridge&nbsp;courses!

If you&rsquo;re an Ellii subscriber interested in taking a Bridge course, watch your inbox&mdash;we&rsquo;ll be sending you an exclusive promo code you can redeem at&nbsp;Bridge.

New to Ellii? <a href="https://ellii.com/sign_up" target="_blank">Sign up to our newsletter</a> by creating a free account so you don&rsquo;t miss out on future&nbsp;discounts.

Happy upskilling!

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Webinar: Tips for Finding Engaging Materials from Ellii (formerly ESL Library) &amp;&nbsp;Beyond!</h5>

Did you hear we recently collaborated on a webinar with Bridge? Last April, Bridge and Ellii discussed how to foster interesting discussions with intermediate and advanced-level learners. Our expert panelists shared their best tips and tricks for sparking meaningful and engaging conversations in the classroom. <a href="https://vimeo.com/699573636/fda4be7992" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">View the full&nbsp;recording</a>.
</div>

Invest in Your Professional Development with Bridge Education Group

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