World Teachers' Day 2024 Friday 4 October

About this event

The British Council's World Teachers' Day conference is a global online event, featuring practical webinars by and for English teachers all over the world. In 2024, the event took place over three days: Thursday 3, Friday 4 and Saturday 5 October, World Teachers' Day. There were 18 webinars in this year's programme.

About the sessions

Session 1 – Plenary session: Our changing profession, our changing CPD needs

Speaker:

Aleksandra Popovski – IATEFL President

Session information:

Continuing professional development (CPD) has become more important than ever due to the ever-changing technology and opportunities it provides. In this talk, we discuss the importance of CPD and the transformative impact of technological advancements, especially artificial intelligence (AI), on the CPD of ELT professionals, highlighting both opportunities and challenges. We explore how AI and new digital tools are reshaping traditional approaches to professional development, making it more personalised, accessible and efficient. The talk also addresses the importance of AI literacy, ethical considerations and strategies to ensure equitable access to CPD and technology.

Session 2: Can rap engage our students?

Speaker:

Claudia Tshifwaka Tumba

Session information:

This webinar shows you how to confidently rock the rap scene in your class, even if you've never dropped a rhyme in your life. You see how rap can turn your English class into an interactive party and raise learner engagement. You learn how you could read children's books and nursery rhymes to a sick beat for very young learners and use rap to teach pronunciation techniques to teens. It's not just English; it's English with style. 

For copyright reasons, this session was only available live.

Session 3: Intercultural awareness in the classroom

Speaker:

Daniel Tse

Session information:

In this interactive webinar, we explore five classroom activities that can integrate intercultural awareness into language teaching and learning. Reflecting on my experience, I propose a model for identifying the learning aims in these five activities. The aims are divided into four increasing levels of intercultural awareness: knowledge, understanding, demonstration and communication. You see how intercultural awareness can be taught implicitly through language practice, skills practice, and exam preparation tasks.

Session 4: Productive classroom management

Speaker:

Tarek Abdulrahman

Session information:

This interactive and practical workshop helps teachers revise the basic elements for productive classroom management, such as grading language, integrating all types of learners' preferences and using attention grabbers. Together, we go through some hypothetical situations that any teacher may face in the classroom and discuss how to deal with these successfully.

Session 5: How can games help revise vocabulary?

Speaker:

Alegra Nikolova-Ristovska

Session information:

In this webinar, you experience fun and simple games that can be used to revise grammar, vocabulary and/or culture, so that you can use them confidently in your own classroom. These are all versatile games that can be done with limited to no resources and have various applications. The games are suitable for all levels of primary, secondary and even adult learners too.

Session 6: How can we create global citizens?

Speaker:

Marcela Villán

Session information:

The webinar presents the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the perfect framework to explore the climate crisis and environmental education in our classes. You see how working on homegrown and international projects on these topics will help your learners develop their 4 Cs (Critical thinking, Creativity, Communication and Collaboration). Finally, you get practical tips for integrating SDGs into your classroom.

About the speakers

Aleksandra Popovski is a teacher and teacher trainer from The Republic of North Macedonia and is currently the IATEFL President. She holds an MA in Professional Development for Language Education from the University of Chichester, and her special interests include CPD, multimodality, incorporating visual arts into language teaching and exploring effective reading comprehension strategies. She is particularly interested in reading as a tool for exploring and discussing issues such as social (in)justice, diversity and inclusion with learners of English. 

Claudia Tshifwaka Tumba is an EFL Instructor from the UK who is now working as a teacher trainer and English expert at Chuncheon National University of Education, South Korea. As well as working with teachers of the future, she also works with young learners, and has a special interest in project work, how to teach pronunciation and of course, music.

Daniel Tse has five years of experience working with young learners, teens, and adults across the full range of CEFR levels. He teaches general English, exam classes and business English. An early-career teacher, he is currently on the final leg of his journey through the DELTA. He also works as an oral examiner and has spoken at conferences around Europe.

Tarek Abdulrahman has a degree in English Teaching, a CELTA and has been teaching for over ten years. He currently teaches in Saudi Arabia and has taught students of different cultural backgrounds in different countries. He also works as a teacher trainer, regularly giving webinars.

Alegra Nikolova-Ristovska has over twenty years of teaching experience. She has taught from ages 4 to 64. She is an avid reader but loves learning languages as well. She is open to new knowledge and experience, both teaching and learning new skills. In the last ten years, she has focused on teaching young students, and she loves using games while teaching.

Marcela Alejandra Villán is a global educator, international speaker and teacher trainer from Buenos Aires, Argentina. She has taught all topics, age groups, and levels, and these days she specialises in environmental education and promoting global citizenship in the English classroom. She supports the United Nations 2030 Agenda and firmly believes in its inclusion in the classroom.