comfortable shoes, no powerpoint, free coffee and a good plenary
(Teacher Development Series Number Two – Attendance of professional workshops, lectures and conferences)
When I asked ‘How do you learn to teach?’ this was another of the popular choices, at about 20% of the popular vote. People love a good conference! As IATEFL is fast approaching, I thought it was an appropriate time to tackle the topic. The trouble is, so did everyone else. Rather than trying to squeeze any more out of it myself, you are probably better off visiting Jeremy Harmer’s recent post on ‘What makes a good conference?’. If you are presenting yourself (or planning to) it is also worth checking out this four part series from One Year, on presenting from the planning stage right through to publication…
The title of this post alludes to the elements I personally feel make a good conference. Please, please don’t read me your slides. And if you can’t get the powerpoint working within fifteen seconds, just talk. That will be fine.
If you are not presenting, take a breather between sessions. And if you hear someone is interesting and / or funny, go and see them, whoever they are or whatever they are talking about. If you want to read my recommendations in more detail, I have an article in English Teaching Professional (November 2008) which was perkily re-titled ‘See you at the Coffee Stand’ during the editing process. If you can’t get hold of it, then this slightly inferior rip-off by notorious ELT chancer Alex Case will probably do just as well…..
Can you express the perfect conference in 140 characters or less? tweet me at @livesofteachers or comment below.
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Naturally I’m going to tell you that this is a fabulous blog post, but really, thanks for the mention.
BTW, get the TweetMeMe wordpress plugin. It gives you a nice little retweet button in the top right corner of your blog post (like you can find on my blog).
cuz, ya know, like a 1/2 hr pre-talk-reserved-prep-time should have been fine (and it was in the end, everything worked at 13:14:35 for a talk at 1.15 but man I really wished I’d had that meet & greet moment as people came in the door rather than the oh-god-shall-i-just-throw-up-now because-ST-has-jinxed-me-for-all-eternity-with-his-faffology-business, feeling.
Thanks for the kind mention of my ‘conference’ blog.
I just wanted to empathise with Karenne’s tech-guru-absence moan. I have lost valuable future years of life through the stress of tech guys being unavailable or unable to make things work. I hate it! Jangly nerves, irritation etc etc.
But on a more serious note, a good conference is a coffee break (or a good conference is as good as its coffee breaks)! That’s where the good stuff really happens (if the talks are god enough to provoke discussion, that is)
Jeremy
Are god enough, Jeremy… there are so many jokes that could go with that 2nd time around typo but I’ll leave it to just say yes, coffee breaks and long spaces – I loved that in the above referred to conference. Half an hour between each workshop: perfecto-mundo for socializing, breathing, checking email, etc etc
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For me, the best conferences will give me some practical ideas of things I can take into class and use right away. Teachers are busy people, so if I am going to invest time in going to a workshop, I really want to get something out of it. It’s great looking at the stands, talking to participants, making new friendss, learning about the latest methodologies etc, but the things that stay with me long afterwards are those lightbulb moments- oh, I can’t wait to try this out with my class.
Yes, and the coffee!
Adam – Cheers… good blogger’s tip too. I do urge people to get over and look at your series…. I don’t necessarily agree with all of it, but I like it nonetheless.
Karenne – Yes, it’s tough to get onto the technology issue without it turning into a punch up about faffology. But I have to say I lay the blame squarely at the feet of a presenter if they can’t get over a tech problem. Later on, yes, they should go and give someone a hard time if they can’t get things working. But at that moment? I don’t care! Get on with it… I’ve seen too many people wasting time with cables and laptops when they should have just taken a deep breath and TALKED to us. It frustrates me even more when I know I am on in the same room later, and the techno-deficient presenter decides that that fifteen minutes they wasted will just be passed along to future presenters to deal with. Grrrr…
Jeremy – I agree… time to absorb, reflect and discuss is vital. I compare a conference to a rock festival… I remember my first Glastonbury, circling bands and planning a schedule, running from field to field… very hard work. Subsequent festivals I took at a much slower pace, as I recognised the value of sitting still. And as I write this I feel slightly depressed that IATEFL / JALT is now as much fun to me as three days in mud and warm lager…
Angela – I thought I disagreed with you, but on reflection I actually don’t. In the past few years, one of the absolute best presentations I’ve seen was Russell Stannard’s here in Nagoya. Not only because he is an engaging and likeable speaker, but because he introduced a fantastic idea which I have subsequently used (screen grab software for feedback – now ELTON award winning! http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/).
Having said all that, it’s rare to hear an absolutely fresh idea at a conference, isn’t it? In which case, I like to have some theory clarified (James Lantolf on Sociolingustics at JALT 2009 was great, for me) or just to be entertained (Ken Wilson is always worth seeing… not only because he is funny, but it doesn’t half help after lunch!)
Russell Stannard’s website is one of the best, in my view. It is entirely down to him that at my institution, we are now all using Word magnets for the IAWB (which everyone loves!), Dvolver for film-making, and Elllo.com for international listening exercises (etc). I haven’t got to grips with Jing yet, but it’s on my to do list.
Re your reply: I agree, you don’t always get fresh ideas, and in fact I love a good plenary as much as the next man, but it’s just wonderful when you are in a room with some like-minded teachers, a great speaker (Mark Helgesen sticks in my mind) and then they suggest something, even if it’s just a slightly different take on the way you usually do things, that just makes you look at it afresh and then you can’t wait to have a go.
I haven’t seen Ken Wilson speak, but he must be great. I love his blog and we’re still regularly doing his sketches with our students