About this page
This page is designed to give you a summary of all the activity happening across our TeachingEnglish channels during the month. This includes information about our free online training courses, our Facebook and Instagram Live events, and our online events happening on Zoom - all designed to support your professional development in a specific area of English language teaching and teacher education, and to help you develop as a teacher or teacher educator. We also have a list of practical resources for your classroom that help you focus on different days celebrated by the United Nations.
What's happening in March 2023?
This March we are celebrating International Women's Day on 8 March, so our activity and resources are focused on the theme of Gender and Equity in language teaching. Below you'll find details of our online events, training and classroom resources.
Online training
Gender in Language Education
In this practical four-week course, you will learn to recognise the different kinds of gender bias and stereotypes which exist in language education, some of the barriers people face in terms of gender equality and equity, and how these can be overcome.
'Gender in language education' is a twelve-hour self-study training course, which is divided into three three-hour units.
- Engaging and interactive content to help you learn and develop your teaching skills at your own pace.
- Real-time up-to-date insight, resources and innovative ideas for you to try out and engaging discussions taking place in a dedicated community of course participants.
- Live events with your course tutor and language teaching experts
Find out more and enrol on this free course
Online events and webinars
International Women's Day mini-event (online)
Join us on 08 March 2023 to celebrate International Women's Day. Starting at 13.00pm UK time, we will be hosting three 60-minute sessions looking at different elements of gender and English language teaching. #GlobalGenderEquality #IWD2023 #EmbraceEquity.
Find out more and register for the event
Facebook and Instagram Live events in March 2023
We will be hosting weekly events throughout March via our Facebook and Instagram channels. These 30-minute 'live' sessions are an opportunity for you to join teachers from around the world to engage with English language teaching experts on a range of topics and themes that will help you develop your teaching skills, and share ideas and questions with a vibrant global online community.
See what's happening in our community on Facebook
See what's happening in our community on Instagram
Podcast episodes
British Council TeachingEnglish podcast series
Listen to episodes from our TeachingEnglish podcast that explore the theme of Gender and equity.
Episode title: How can I make my teaching gender fair?
Although classrooms are becoming increasingly gender fair, the educational impacts of COVID-19 have affected females more than males. Now, more than ever, teachers need to continue to make their classrooms gender-fair places. In the first part of Episode 2, we learn about a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) recently created by the British Council, in which we explore its three modules, Gender representation in teaching materials, Understanding gender equality in teaching practice and Working with Gender equality in Education. In the second part, gender expert and educator Bhavna Gupta identifies simple ways in which all teachers, whatever their context, can ensure that all students are given equal opportunities.
Listen to the episode and download the show notes
Practical teaching resources
Lessons plans on TeachingEnglish
See a range of lesson plans below that you can use to highlight different United Nations days during the month of March.
International Women's Day (08 March 2023)
Title of lesson plan: She's a policeman
Age group: Primary learners (8–12 years old)
Level: Elementary (CEFR level A2 and above)
In this lesson, learners brainstorm jobs, then draw three people doing different jobs. Afterwards they are guided to notice the gender of the people they have drawn and think about why they might have drawn them like that. Then they sort job names in English according to whether they are gendered or not and consider why it’s good to use non-gendered terms. Finally, they think about which jobs are important, exciting or interesting and why, and make a display.
Click or tap to go to the lesson plan and download the material
Title of lesson plan: Taking liberties
Age group: Secondary learners
Level: Intermediate (CEFR level B1 and above)
In this lesson, students reflect on gender stereotypes, discuss human rights, review vocabulary related to rights and look at a timeline of women’s rights in the UK. They will also develop their speaking skills in a discussion activity, and have the option to research their own timeline for another country.
Click or tap to go to the lesson plan and download the material
International Day of Women and Girl's in Science (11 March 2023)
Title of lesson plan: Women and Girls in Science
Age group: Secondary and Adult learners
Level: Upper Intermediate (CEFR level B2 and above)
In this lesson, students read an article about some of the reasons why there are fewer girls and women interested in working in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and what's happening to encourage equality in these fields. Students will have a chance to evaluate ways of doing this, as well as reading about alternative approaches. There are optional extension tasks at the end of the lesson.
Click or tap to go to the lesson plan and download the material
World Wildlife Day (03 March 2023)
Title of lesson plan: A new logo for the World Wildlife Fund
Age group: Primary learners (9-11 years old)
Level: Elementary (CEFR level A2 and above)
This lesson is part of a series of engaging lessons about the climate emergency and biodiversity loss. It explores different topics connected to the crisis. In this lesson, learners will reflect on the importance of all animals, and look at how big, cute animals are over-represented in wildlife conservation efforts. They will read about five more unusual, endangered animals and choose one to replace the giant panda as the symbol of worldwide conservation.
Click or tap to go to the lesson plan and download the material
World Water Day (22 March 2023)
Title of lesson plan: Water for All
Age group: Adult learners
Level: Intermediate (CEFR level B1 and above)
There is a global water crisis. In this lesson, the learners will use and develop their reading skills to gain a bigger understanding of the crisis, its causes and some possible solutions. They will go on to use some 21st-century skills such as collaboration and creativity to make some campaigning posters to create a greater awareness of the problem in their local communities.
Click or tap to go to the lesson plan and download the material