Do you remember being a child and making a wish list for Christmas? I know different cultures have different traditions around this time. In Britain I used to send letters to Santa Clause, In Spain children get presents from the Wise men but many have traditions of giving and receiving gifts and making wishlist.
My wishlists usually contained toys and chocolate and maybe world peace and it continued until I discovered a stocking filler catalogue and started to question whether or not St Nicholas could actually travel round the world in one night.
But there are some good things about wish lists and I thought I’d make my teaching list for next year.
Books
Classroom management by Jim Scrivener is one that I’ve been after for a while
I would also like How to teach Pronunciation as I’ve come to realise that I could really do with improving my knowledge and technique in teaching Pronunciation and the How to series by Pearson’s is great (I’ve also peeked inside before) [in fact any/all the how to series would be great!]
The A-Z of ELT by Scott Thornbury would be a nice general overview book that seems to be pretty much essential reading.
Implementing the Lexical approach by Michael Lewis also has a place on my imaginary book shelf. I used to browse it occasionally at my last place of work and it’s absence from my current schools library is a bit of a shame.
Bringing extensive reading into the classroom from OUP sounds like a very useful book especially with all the comments I’ve read recently about how useful extensive reading can be for students.
Here is my full wish list where I believe you could even buy me one of these books.
Books I wished existed
Kevin Stein’s stories and how to write stories.
Mike Griffin’s conversations with himself.
Evidence Based EFL’s Bull… pseudo-science free ELT
Zen and the art of Lesson planning by Rachel Roberts,
Professional development
Starting a DELTA.
This is something that I’ve been weighing up for a while, well I’ve signed up to start doing my Distance Delta this February! Wish me luck!
Attend another conference (face to face)
I’m not sure what conference exactly but I’d love to go to another conference like the IH Young Learners conference especially if I get the chance to present there (though the opportunity to learn from others is even greater than the opportunity to present)
Participate in more “hangouts” with other teachers.
Perhaps the best feature of Google+ is the hangout feature. It allows people from all over the world to participate in video chats about whatever they want! Since moving to Badajoz I haven’t been in contact with that many other teachers at all so I’d love to be able to hang out online with some other people. If you are interested then add me on Google+ or join the English Language Teachers community I set up. (if you are trying to keep a minimalist approach to continuous professional development and don’t want another social media site then I understand)
Continuing ELT Squared.
Starting a DELTA will obviously take a lot of time and so I’m not sure how much time I will have for blogging or how it will change because of blogging. Hopefully the two will compliment each other…hopefully! One thing I have been trying to move towards is more involvement from other people and opening up the site so it isn’t just my own site but really is a site for everyone. I’m still not certain the best ways to do that but Guest posts and setting up a members area might be a step towards that
Meet more of my PLN
I have to admit, after seeing pictures from Mike Griffin and Josette LeBlanc of Meeting up with Kevin Stein I got a little jealous. Three amazing people together! Well I have already met up with some great people who I found on twitter but I’d love to meet up with more people, If you’re even near Badajoz or If I’m near you let’s try to meet up…Deal?
Classroom wishes
- That my students would enjoy every class
- That every class will be full of opportunities to learn and grow
- That they have time to find space to study outside of class and that I can help them maximise their ability to learn.
- That our school will continue to grow
- That our students who are out of work will find jobs.
What’s on your Christmas Wish list?
Some of the links above are affiliate links, this means that if you buy from that link, you don't pay extra but I get a small amount of money.
