I really enjoyed my recent trip to Switzerland. As promised, you can download the slides from my sessions below.

Gymnasien events (Luzern and Lausanne)

Bringing lessons to life

It is not always easy to capture the imagination of teenage students, but by embracing the communicative potential of each lesson, we can strive to make our lessons both more interactive and more personal. In this session we will consider the ways in which the materials and technology at our disposal can be used to unlock our students’ imagination and creativity.  We will see how narrative, speculation and anecdote can enhance the way language is used in our lessons – especially if we are able to use a combination of texts, images and videos to provide input. With so many options available to use, we will be looking at some practical tips for getting the most out of our materials – as well as establishing some common-sense guidelines about using technology effectively.

The slides are here:

OUP Teachers’ Day (Bern)

Revising, recycling and ‘pre-cycling’ materials

This talk will consider the question of how we can revise language, vocabulary and topics effectively while keeping monotony at bay. We will look at some simple techniques for ‘squeezing more juice’ out of the coursebook and will consider effective ideas for recycling materials – ideal for situations when you need to revise. We will also find out what ‘pre-cycling’ is – and look at some ways to apply it to the English teaching classroom.

The slides are here:

It was also great meeting up with friends and colleagues from Switzerland and further afield.