#KELTchatlive – Questions for my Older Teacher Self

In April we held a very successful chat based on Joanna Malefaki’s blog post about a letter one would write to their self at the start of their teaching career. Over the next two weeks we will be flipping this question at two #KELTchatlive events by asking questions we want answered by an older (hopefully) more experienced version of ourselves.

It can be helpful to have a mentor in the potentially lonely world of a teacher. What better mentor than one who understands where you’ve been and what you (think you) know. What better mentor than you? Participants can bring their questions, hopes, and goals for the future, and gain new insights by talking about them in a group. This workshop is an opportunity for both newer and more experienced teachers to see things from different angles and gain broader understanding around their teaching practice.

We will be collecting questions on twitter from the time this post goes live until 4PM KST on the 9th of October. There are two conferences where we will be meeting to discuss these questions and hopefully provide each other some answers. The events will be at:

• Gangwon KOTESOL Chapter meeting: This will be in Sangji University from midday to 4:30 in Dongakkwan room 2105. The event is free and you can see two other workshops including one by #KELTchat’s very own Alex Grevett.
• KOTESOL International Conference: Korea’s largest TEFL event, held in COEX in Gangnam, Seoul. We will be in room 307C at 4pm on Sunday the 11th of October (subject to changes).

How to get involved

1. Tweet questions you’d like answered with the hashtag #KELTchatlive. Retweet and/or favourite questions you’d like answered as we can take this into account when picking questions
2. Come to one or both of the events above. We will be collecting questions during the session as well as using ones from the twitter chat.

It’s important to note that you can do part one without doing part 2 and vice versa. We’d love to have your questions even if you can’t make it, and you’re more than welcome to attend if you didn’t take part in the Twitter chat.

#KELTChat Slowburn: “Using social media with students” (Tuesday, September 15, 11am-6pm KST)

As KELTchatters our enthusiasm for social media for professional development is well-documented. But what about using social media with students for their English development? In this chat we’d like to share thoughts, experiences, challenges and ideas related to using social media with students.  This post  Social Media and ELT  from the Oxford ELT blog (from 2012) is perhaps ancient in social media terms but it provides a nice overview.

This chat is a Slowburn chat, meaning that it takes place over a much longer time than regular Twitter chats. We hope people will dip in and out of the chat throughout the day as their schedules allow; we don’t expect anyone to be involved for the whole 7 hours.

Some general questions to consider: 

• What are the benefits of using social media with students of English?
• What challenges might teachers who want to use social media with students face?
  How might we face these challenges?
• What do students and other stakeholders think about using social media to improve their English?
  Might we have to encourage buy-in on social media projects? How can we do this?
• What advice would you give someone thinking about implementing social media in their classes?
• What about the technological and educational landscape in Korea makes it a nice choice for using social media with students? What aspects make it less than a great fit? How is Korea similar and different to other places in terms of social media and tech?
• What do you want to know or learn about social media for students of English?
• Are there any problems or difficulties in your teaching experience that you have overcome by using social media?

More specific questions

1. How do/would you handle privacy concerns?
2. What would you have students actually do with social media?
3. Do you prefer networks students already use? Why or why not?
4. What sites or apps do you think offer the most for students?  What are the specific strengths and weaknesses of different social media sites?

We hope to see you in the chat on Tuesday.

#KELTChat: “Building rapport with students” (Sunday 6th September, 8-9pm KST)

After a summer off to gather its thoughts and give those niggling injuries a chance to heal, #KELTChat is back to take once more to the lush fields of Twitter and do battle with the ELT issues of the moment.

If you have never encountered #KELTChat before, here is a short introduction. #KELTChat is a space on the internet (and increasingly in “real life” too) for teachers in Korea and further afield to talk about issues that affect us in the classroom and the industry as a whole. We have a Facebook group but the greater part of teacher interaction takes place in our regular Twitter chats (lots of good information in that link).

The first such chat takes place on Sunday 6th September from 8 until 9pm Korea time (click here for the time in your part of the world). The topic will be “Building rapport with students”. Most teachers would agree that rapport is important, but it may mean different things to different people, and the ways that it is created will vary in each case. This chat is an opportunity to explore our own and others’ approaches to building rapport.

The chat will be structured around the following questions, though tangents and diversions are very welcome.

• What does rapport mean to you?
• Are there any aspects of rapport that you think might be particularly important for Korean students?
• Are there any aspects of rapport included in common definitions that you think are NOT important?
• How explicitly do you try to build rapport between students, and between yourself and the class?
• What activities to you find are effective at building rapport?
• How do you act towards students in order to build rapport?
• Is there anything else that you do to encourage rapport?
• What kind of timescale do you have for building rapport?
• Is there any value in assessing rapport between students?

We hope to see you on Sunday. If you have any questions, please get in touch.

The #KELTChat Team

• Alex (@breathyvowel)
• Anne (@annehendler)
• David (@davidharbinson)
• Dayle (@daylemajor)
• Michael (@michaelegriffin)
• Tim (@timhampson)