St. Paul's Bay – Creative Methodology [ALP-T]

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It's our exciting and innovative new courses aimed at forward-thinking EFL teachers wanting to improve their classroom practice for a 21st Century audience. Participants are expected to take a full and active part in all aspects of the course in order to maximise the teaching and learning opportunities on offer. A wide range of ideas will be explored, creating a forum for experienced classroom practitioners to share and discuss teaching in the modern age. Working with our enthusiastic and professional practitioners, a wide range of stimulating ideas will be considered to produce engaging and relevant lesson content.

WHO IS THIS COURSE FOR?
Aimed at: Primary, Secondary and tertiary-level teachers, teacher trainers. English level: Intermediate (B1).

COURSE TOPICS:
Course content will include the main topic areas:
A) CREATIVE CLASSROOMS
A plethora of ideas will be explored, including games, drama, music and art-based activities, to turn dry course book content into kinaesthetic, fun and memorable learning experiences.
B) FUTURE FOCUS
Staying in the creative mould, the key focus here centres around using modern technology and techno-themed ideas to appeal to young English learners brought up in a modern and social mediacentric world.
C) THE WORLD OF ENGLISH
Languages don’t stagnate – they are constantly changing and evolving so an opportunity to bring your own English skills up-todate will be included. Additionally a number of cultural aspects will be tackled to help you keep your finger on the pulse of the Englishspeaking world. Throughout the course you will also: evaluate and develop your own teaching techniques and personal practice. Be actively involved in your own lifelong learning journey. Discuss and critique your own ideas with other professionals in your field.

SAMPLE PROGRAMME:
1) Monday – MY TEACHING: THEORY
– Share your current good practice with Creative Methodology with other teaching professionals. It creates a positive starting point on which to build new skills.
– A look at the English-speaking world from a modern viewpoint, looking at its ever-changing culture and language will also be covered.
– Your Personal Teaching Journey. Sharing your experiences, ideas and expertise with other professionals; self-assessing your own classroom practice and deciding on your strengths as a practitioner – what works well for you?, What do your students enjoy?
– Your CPD Needs. Sharing what you have learnt on previous courses and stating what you would like to get out of this course; highlighting areas of professional development that you would like to improve in terms of creating a creative, modern environment where your students can learn best.
– Modern English. English is a diverse and organic language where meanings change and new words come into being on an almost monthly basis. We will explore some of this vocabulary so that you can teach your students the most up-to-date language for work and for everyday life. We would like you to use the course as a way of developing your own language skills as well – please ask your course teacher at any time if you would like to revise and review anything ‘English’.
– English Culture Vultures .To keep you up to speed with delivering the best course content possible in your institutions we will explore some of today’s cultural aspects of native English-speaking countries (i.e. the UK and the US) discovering what is ‘trending’ in their worlds.
2) Tuesday – MY TEACHING: PRACTICAL SESSIONS
The first practical session of the week will allow you to share your expertise and ideas with your fellow trainers as well as take a more in-depth look at the ‘World of English’. You will give a small presentation about one aspect of British, American, Maltese or Australian culture that will showcase the English language at its best or most unusual.
3) Wednesday – ACTIVE TEACHING: THEORY
– Students enjoy being active in their lessons and they love competing in teams. This session will focus on making even the dullest language structure exciting.
– Paper-based Games. A variety of interesting and easy-to-make ideas for bringing vocabulary, sentence structures, grammar points and conversations to life using only paper.
– Get Up and Go. Getting students off their seats to create movement helps to break lessons into more manageable chunks. In this part of the session we will explore how physically active games can be employed in most classrooms, regardless of size and space.
– Team English. We will also focus on creating friendly competitiveness amongst students in large and small groups and what to do if students are reluctant to participate.
4) Thursday – ACTIVE TEACHING: PRACTICAL SESSIONS
Using what you learnt about ‘Active Teaching’ on Wednesday, you will create a range of resources for your own classroom. You will teach your ideas to others in the group and assess them and improve them as necessary. This will be a really kinaesthetic and rewarding session for everyone.
5) Friday – TECHNO-TEACHING: THEORY
Love it or loathe it we are surrounded by technology and social media so we need to embrace it if we are going to relate to our techno-minded students. This session will focus on using technology and technology-based ideas to bring the 21st Century into our classrooms. Subjects covered:
– IWB. Using an interactive whiteboard to produce interactive lesson resources;
– iPads. Using iPads for a range of teaching and learning purposes;
– On the Web. Exploring ready-made resources and applications online and using real-life articles to cover your curriculum;
– Social Media Ideas. Using old-fashioned methods of writing and speaking exercises with a social media slant – appealing to students with teaching ideas based around Facebook, YouTube and SMS messaging.

SATURDAY AND SUNDAY – Free days

6) Monday – TECHNO-TEACHING: PRACTICAL SESSIONS
During this session you will be ‘let loose’ on the in-class technology to research new web-based resources as well as create and deliver some inspiring techno-lessons of your own on the iPads and IWB.
7) Tuesday – DRAMATIC TEACHING: THEORY
– Using drama in the classroom is an excellent way of developing our students’ speaking and responding skills and this session will focus on making this both engaging and useful.
– Realistic Role plays. Covering real-life situations and creating fluent conversations.
– Projects and Presentations. Project ideas that cover a variety of topic-based areas and provide a platform for interesting spoken work including students becoming the teacher.
– "Lights, Camera, Action!". Encouraging students to be creative with the English language by writing mini film scripts, making Vlogs and producing video advertisements.
8) Wednesday – DRAMATIC TEACHING: PRACTICAL SESSIONS
Work with others to brainstorm ideas for role plays and project work before producing your own filmed Vlog – what will you do? How about going out into St. Paul’s Bay and making your own minidocumentary? Back in the classroom we will watch and think of ways of assessing your Steven Spielberg creation.
9) Thursday – CREATIVE TEACHING: THEORY
The final part of this course centres on the arts and media. It will also provide you with opportunities for using student peer and selfassessment. Rewards and motivation techniques are discussed and you will round off the week by assessing your own development. Subjects covered:
– Crafty Creations. Using students’ artistic skills to create languagebased art-work.
– Read All About It! Developing magazines, newspaper articles and stories using writing frames.
– Assessment and Motivation. How student self- and peerassessment can be employed in the classroom to check understanding, iron out misconceptions and provide ideas for improvement; What can be done to reward and motivate students in your care.
– Your Personal Teaching Journey Continued. Assessing yourself and how you will put into practice what you have learnt on this course.
10) Friday – CREATIVE TEACHING: PRACTICAL
Your last practical session will see you getting all art and crafty before settling down to consider the importance of assessment and motivation. You will create your own assessment packs and motivational award certificates. Thereafter you will be writing a personal development plan of what you will do in the future to utilise what you have learnt during this 10-day programme in your own teaching.

INCLUDED IN THE FEES:
– Course resources
– WiFi on school premises
– Europass Mobility Certificate
– Certificate of Attendance
– One off-site training day per week (including entrance ticket to one attraction: Malta National Aquarium / the Malta Experience / Malta 5D / the Domus Romana / St. Paul’s Catacombs)