Welcome to Mindful Monday, where we bridge the gap between Second Language Acquisition research and the practical realities of both your classroom and your business. Each week, Leo and I share research-backed insights to help you sharpen your classroom teaching while building the freedom to work on your own terms.
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It’s the last week of May already. Leo and I are close to “summer mode” even if mother nature isn’t quite with the program just yet.
In this week’s Mindful Monday, you’ll see:
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Recording of our webinar on authentic video lessons with Jake Young
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Gifting guide for Newcomer Dads to Canada
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Do we need to unlearn our CELTA training?
Hope you enjoy this week’s edition.
🎙️ Recording: Make a Greater Impact on Your Students with Authentic Video Lessons
“Real-world language isn’t adapted to the learner, which is exactly why bringing authentic video into the classroom early builds true confidence.”
We invited Fluentize founder Jake Young recently to talk with our community about the benefits of authentic video and language learning – including how it builds student confidence.
Jake’s built an amazing platform on Fluentize with authentic video lessons for all proficiency levels.
If you missed the session, here’s the recording:
Fluentize turns real-world videos into interactive ESL lessons for teens and adults. Explore 650+ ready-to-teach lessons designed to engage your students, simplify lesson planning, and save you hours of preparation.
And watch the full recording of our webinar on YouTube here.
🎙️ Father’s Day & Newcomer Stories in Canada
Father’s Day is around the corner and our friend Dozie from The Newcomers Podcast is organizing a little something.
If you are or know a newcomer dad in Canada, Dozie would love to hear from you (and possibly feature your story on an upcoming edition he’s working on).
He and the team at The Newcomers is putting together a gifting guide for newcomer/immigrant dads in Canada. He’s got only one question for you and it won’t take more than 5 mins of your time.
Any newcomer Dad to Canada can click here to help out.
If you’re not familiar with the work Dozie is doing, check it out. He’s amplifying newcomer stories in Canada that would resonate with anyone who’s moved to another country.
🎙️ Unlearning CELTA Training
“Teachers in my MA program need to unlearn a lot of their CELTA training.”
This is what University of Wellington’s Jonathan Newton told us on our most recent podcast episode.
We hear this a lot: to teach from a task-based approach means to unlearn much of the rigidity that comes from per-service teacher training.
We asked Jonathan why more pre-service training doesn’t include a focus – or at least in introduction to – task based language teaching. We’re all searching for the answer.
P.S. We love how much our podcast resonates with many of you. Shoutout to Amir for his thoughts on the episode with Jonathan and so cool that he got to meet him in person!
That’s all for this edition. Talk next Monday,
Leo and Andrew
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