After facing some technical difficulties, I’m getting restarted with blogging again.
Last month I had a unique experience. An expert in language assessment named Thom Kiddle came to Santiago to give a two-day workshop.
It took place at Universidad Mayor and was sponsored by Books and Bits, a company that sells textbooks and educational materials. Apparently they also offer workshops and professional development for teachers.
I arrived on Friday morning a bit late due to an early morning doctor’s appointment that I was unable to reschedule, and Friday was all about the changes to the Common European Framework. Up until now there have been six broad levels to classify students based on their language abilities in the broad areas of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. As you can imagine, putting all students into one of six levels is quite broad. There are now 11 levels, and they have also created an addendum that helps teachers measure other competencies related to communication. If you’d like to check out the general information about it, click here. If you’d like to see the supplementary manual (all 235 pages of it), click here.
It was a lot of information, and the workshop was from 9 to 5. Afterwards I had a class from 6 to 7:30, but my Friday night class (8:00 to 9:15) cancelled. By the time I got home I was pretty tired, and I just got home and rested for the rest of the night.
The second day of the workshop was the following morning. I woke up with a sore throat, so I grabbed a big cup of tea to take in with me. Saturday was all about assessment in the English language classroom, and it took an interesting look at the history of language testing. There were some interactive activities that got us planning assessments and classes that we were able to then use in our classes. During the breaks on Saturday I met some teachers that are working on some interesting projects, and I really enjoyed hearing what they’re doing.
They were two long days back to back, but it was worth it. I got to chat with Thom Kiddle during one of the breaks, and it was interesting hearing about his experience. He graciously agreed to a photo with me.
Ongoing professional development is a bit of a challenge in Chile. There are a few conferences every year (mainly IATEFL and TESOL Chile), and there are workshops offered through the American Space at Instituto Norteamericano, but apart from that it’s hard to find events to network and develop your teaching skills.
That being said, I’m looking forward to the IATEFL Chile connferece this Friday July 20th and Saturday July 21st. I’ve been selected to give a workshop, and it will be great to connect with other teachers again. If you’re interested in finding out more check out www.iateflchile.cl
I hope everyone reading this from the Southern Hemisphere is staying warm with the winter weather and everyone up north is staying cool with summer!
