Where’s my popcorn? – A webinar marathon challenge

Image from Flickr by Barbara Müller – Walter under CC BY ND-2.O

 

Once in a blue moon Chronos decides to cut me some slack and provides me with the gift of time to attend live webinars and online conferences. But, like I said this isn’t how it usually works 🙂

Soooooooo… given that there are tons of past webinars, conference sessions recording and training videos I have been bookmarking for the past month, I have set myself a challenge:

A WEBINAR MARATHON ONCE A WEEK!!!!! 

Would you like to join me??? Leave a comment below and let’s start sharing 🙂

What I will do before I start:

1. Decide the extension of the challenge = A total of 6 consecutive weeks.
2. Decide the duration for the sessions = 3 hours straight
3. Choose a day to make the best out of it = Saturday mornings sounds perfect to get into my very own CPD bubble.
4. Bookmark a couple of days in advance the webinars/videos chosen for the following session.

What I will do during the sessions:

1. Take notes on:

•  ideas and tools I’d like to try out in my classes 
•  topics/areas for further study

What I will do after the sessions:

1. Tweet the links to the webinars/videos I have seen using the hashtag #wbnrchallenge
2. Send a tweet to the teacher/presenter to let him/her know you have recently viewed the webinar.
3. Tweet an idea you’d like to share and stand out from each webinar.

 

How did this all come up??? 

This year I attended my first conference. Spain’s TESOL 37th Annual Conference in Madrid took place at the Faculty of Education, in the very same building where I studied for my B.Ed in Primary Education-EFL. DESTINY OR WHAT??? 🙂 🙂

During the weekend I had tons of flashbacks, going up and down the corridors and entering some the classrooms I spent several years in. It couldn’t have been more magical. It was great. 🙂

I had that adrenaline rush that keeps you up at night even long after going back home every evening. I knew it came from the excitement of being a learner again with a handful of notes on class ideas and must read lists.

From then on, I’ve had the feeling of having missed out on so much.

There is so much to learn and it’s FREE 🙂 

Here is the list of the sources I will be using.

These are probably quite obvious to those who have been in ELT for a while 🙂 

British Council Seminars Series on Eventbrite : register to attend live online.

Seminars English Agenda British Council : watch previous seminars

Cambridge English Teacher : sign up and view some. For most of them you must be a member.

Jo Gakongas elt-training.com: She has got the sweetest voice 🙂 View past webinars and sign up to receive email alerts for monthly new videos.

Shelly Sanchez Terrell’s – American TESOL Webinars: Hundreds of 30 mins webinars on almost anything and everything related to teaching. (I’m kind of addicted to these I must confess:) )

Oxford University Press Webinars and MacmillanEnglish ELT Webinars: Register for upcoming live webinars or view the archive for previous ones.

BeltaBelgium.com : as a non-member you can watch older recordings.

Russell Stannard’s Teacher Training Videos: free online tutorials for learning to use technology and ICT in education.

IH Teachers Online Conference 2014: 25 video presentations, 10 mins each.

IATEFL.ORG webinars live : only if you can make it to the live session. Past webinars for members only

• Harrogate 48th Annual Conference: sessions and interview 
• Liverpool 47th Annual Conference: sessions and interviews
• Glasgow 46th Annual Conference: sessions and interviews

WizIQ.com online courses, watch the sessions live or past presentations with corresponding chats and power points.

 

To stay updated about upcoming webinars, seminars, conferences, etc:

• 4C in ELT Event Calendar
• Facebook group : Webinars for English Teachers (this one I found out very recently thanks to Lizzie Pinard:) )

 

 

Are you up for it ????  Ready…. Steady…. WAIT!!!!!  

WHERE’S MY POPCORN ??? 🙂

Photo from Flickr by J Mark Dodds under CC BY NC-ND 2.0