Keys to Academic Success

10th May
5pm - Russian Time

Preparing students for academic success in college requires more than teaching grammar and vocabulary. To fully equip students for college work requires relevant and meaningful content that motivates students and promotes critical thinking, academic language skills that prepare students to communicate and thrive in academic settings, and a strong vocabulary base of words across several disciplines. Join us as we discuss how Pathways Second Edition ensures academic success through these three areas.

Presented by:
Laura Le Dréan

Laura Le Dréan is Executive Editor at National Geographic Learning, in charge of the academic and professional development lists. She has an M.A. in TESOL/TEFL from San Francisco State University. She has over 20 years of teaching experience in ESL/EFL programs in the Middle East, Europe and the United States. She has also done teacher training in the U.S., the Middle East and in Vietnam. She has been working in ELT publishing as an editor for the last 19 years creating learning materials for students and teachers.

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Giving students a voice. Critical thinking in English classes

Thinking critically is seen as an essential 21st century skill, but what exactly is it and can it be taught? In this session, Andrew Walkley, co-author of National Geographic Learning’s Perspective series, will briefly address these issues and suggest critical thinking tasks that fit well in communicative English classes as they offer interesting opportunities for discussion, teaching language and giving young people a voice.

Presented by:
Andrew Walkley

Andrew Walkley has almost 25 years’ experience as a teacher, trainer and materials writer. He is co-author of National Geographic Learning’s adult series Outcomes and Upper-Intermediate Perspectives – part of NGL’s secondary course featuring TED talks. As a trainer, he's interested in getting teachers to engage more with language and consider their students' language needs and wants. He's the co-founder with Hugh Dellar of Lexical Lab, a company promoting excellence in lexical materials and teaching.

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Sowing the Seeds for Success – enhancing active learning with young learners

We want to set our students up for success in their lives, in their future; and their education is vital to that. The key message is that as teachers we need to prepare and educate students to the highest level as the future is in their hands. We need to set them up for success in school and success in life. By no means is this a journey they go on by themselves, they need the guiding hand of the teacher to help them be prepared. Using examples from National Geographic Learning’s Our World series, as well as the accompanying professional development program, we’ll explore how, as teachers, we can help sow those seeds for success.

Presented by:
Alex Warren

Alex is the Teacher Trainer here at NGL. He studied history at university and worked as a journalist for several years. After travelling the world he returned to the UK to complete his CELTA qualification in Bournemouth. For the last six years Alex has been working as an Academic Director and teacher trainer at a successful private language school. The move into teacher training on a permanent basis was only a matter of time and Alex is now enjoying developing teachers on an international scale.

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Contextualised language learning – a what, why, how to teach grammar in context

Grammar is central to the teaching and learning of languages. However, many people, including language teachers, hear the word grammar and think of a fixed set of word formations and rules of usage. Teachers who adopt this definition therefore teach grammar by explaining the forms and rules before drilling, and boring, students on them. This results in disaffected students who can produce correct forms on exercises and tests, but make errors when they try to use the language meaningfully. In this session we'll look at what contextualised grammar teaching is, why we should be doing it and how to incorporate it into your classes; thus making grammar lessons less 'yawn' and more fun.

Presented by:
Alex Warren

Alex is the Teacher Trainer here at NGL. He studied history at university and worked as a journalist for several years. After travelling the world he returned to the UK to complete his CELTA qualification in Bournemouth. For the last six years Alex has been working as an Academic Director and teacher trainer at a successful private language school. The move into teacher training on a permanent basis was only a matter of time and Alex is now enjoying developing teachers on an international scale.

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TED and the English Language Classroom

As we all know a successful lesson is one where students leave the classroom talking about what they’ve learnt… in English. And in recent years there has been a move towards content that is not only authentic but relevant to the lives of our students, whereby they are learning more than just English; they are learning about the world and developing the skills that will help them succeed in a global community. After all there are now 3 billion (and growing) non-native speakers in the world with whom they will need to communicate and collaborate with. And so they need content that reflects these values, these global themes. Which is where TED Talks come in. In this session we’ll look at what TED is, why you should be using them in your classes and how you can use them to not only develop their English, but also their 21st century skills.

Presented by:
Alex Warren

Alex is the Teacher Trainer here at NGL. He studied history at university and worked as a journalist for several years. After travelling the world he returned to the UK to complete his CELTA qualification in Bournemouth. For the last six years Alex has been working as an Academic Director and teacher trainer at a successful private language school. The move into teacher training on a permanent basis was only a matter of time and Alex is now enjoying developing teachers on an international scale.

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More Than Just the Answers

One of the great unsung skills of teaching involves providing more than just the answers when going through classroom exercises. In this session, Outcomes author, teacher and teacher trainer Hugh Dellar, will explore the challenges posed by different types of vocabulary exercises. He will also consider what we can add when working with each type, providing plenty of practical ideas to take away.

Presented by:
Hugh Dellar

Hugh grew up on the south coast of England and in South London and graduated in English Literature from Goldsmith’s College, part of the University of London, in 1991. He completed his DELTA and then an MA TESOL in London and moved soon afterwards into coursebook writing. As well as the series Outcomes, now in its second edition, Hugh co-wrote the series Innovations, which was shortlisted for the ELTons and the ESU Duke of Edinburgh award. He is currently working with National Geographic Learning on a secondary course Perspectives, which features TED talks.

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The Age of Discovery – the importance of discovery in the English Language classroom

No teacher can learn for the students. The students must learn for themselves. Therefore, if students can discover information on their own rather than being lectured at by a teacher, learning is more effective because each student is actively involved in the process. Referencing National Geographic Learning’s latest secondary series, Perspectives, in this webinar we’ll explore the power of discovery, and therefore its importance, on learning within the English language classroom. Focusing on two specific areas, first, we’ll look at the idea of discovery learning in relation to language – both grammar and lexis – and the advantages it has for the learning process. Secondly, given that English is the de facto lingua franca of our global society, we’ll explore the idea that the English language classroom is the perfect place for learners to discover more about the world they live in, and in doing so giving them an all new perspective on that world.

Presented by:
Alex Warren

Alex is the Teacher Trainer here at NGL. He studied history at university and worked as a journalist for several years. After travelling the world he returned to the UK to complete his CELTA qualification in Bournemouth. For the last six years Alex has been working as an Academic Director and teacher trainer at a successful private language school. The move into teacher training on a permanent basis was only a matter of time and Alex is now enjoying developing teachers on an international scale.

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The Long & Winding Road- Developing Successful IELTS Candidates

IELTS is one of the most popular international English exams in world, but it’s also one of the hardest. Yet, paradoxically, it’s impossible to fail – the score is only ever relative to what you need it for. But the question remains – how do we develop successful IELTS candidates? What is the magic ingredient that students need to succeed and achieve the score that they want to study, live or work abroad? Using National Geographic Learning’s Complete Guide to IELTS, in this webinar we’ll explore what these ingredients might be and come up with a recipe for IELTS success.

Presented by:
Alex Warren

Alex is the Teacher Trainer here at NGL. He studied history at university and worked as a journalist for several years. After travelling the world he returned to the UK to complete his CELTA qualification in Bournemouth. For the last six years Alex has been working as an Academic Director and teacher trainer at a successful private language school. The move into teacher training on a permanent basis was only a matter of time and Alex is now enjoying developing teachers on an international scale.

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Making an Impact - Developing 21st Century Teenagers

What is a 21st century teenager? Ask that question and you’ll get a myriad of different answers. What we do know however is that the world has changed dramatically since the dawn of the 21st century and as such what a 21st century teenager needs to be has also changed. Referencing National Geographic Learning's Impact series, this session will look at the skills and knowledge that teenagers need to succeed in school, succeed in life and succeed in a global community and how we can help develop them to achieve the success they deserve.

Presented by:
Alex Warren

Alex is the Teacher Trainer here at NGL. He studied history at university and worked as a journalist for several years. After travelling the world he returned to the UK to complete his CELTA qualification in Bournemouth. For the last six years Alex has been working as an Academic Director and teacher trainer at a successful private language school. The move into teacher training on a permanent basis was only a matter of time and Alex is now enjoying developing teachers on an international scale.

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The Importance of Extensive Reading and How to Foster It

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” -- Dr. Seuss

It’s often said that reading is one of life’s true pleasures and certainly one quick search of the internet reveals enough inspiring quotes about reading to fill its own book. However, reading in one’s own language is one thing; reading in another language is altogether different, bringing with it its own challenges for students. However, for those who take on this challenge the rewards are bountiful – not only is it a pleasure, but it’s also incredibly empowering and beneficial to language learning, leading to educationalist and philosopher Stephen Krashen describing it as “maybe the most powerful educational tool in language education” (2003). As such it’s no surprise to see the popularity of extensive reading programmes in schools and universities booming around the world.

But what exactly do we mean by extensive reading, why should we be encouraging it and what are the benefits to language learners? In this session we’ll look to answer these questions and explore some of the common beliefs and principles about extensive reading. We will also explore ways in which we can successfully implement an extensive reading program, simultaneously getting our students excited, enthusiastic and passionate about reading. If we can do that, and turn them into independent, extensive readers, we’ll also turn them into successful language learners.

Presented by:
Alex Warren

Alex is the Teacher Trainer here at NGL. He studied history at university and worked as a journalist for several years. After travelling the world he returned to the UK to complete his CELTA qualification in Bournemouth. For the last six years Alex has been working as an Academic Director and teacher trainer at a successful private language school. The move into teacher training on a permanent basis was only a matter of time and Alex is now enjoying developing teachers on an international scale.

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Developing Autonomous and Active Teenage Learners

Monday 15th May, 17.00 MSK

With more and more employers complaining about the spoon-fed nature of graduates, there is a very real need to make sure that students leave school with the necessary skills to succeed in the 21st century as independent and free-thinking global citizens. And so as teachers we need to encourage autonomy within the classroom; we need to learn to let go and give students the power, the control to learn in a more independent, autonomous fashion. In the modern world it is a 21st skill they cannot afford to leave school without.

The question is how can we as teachers help them on this journey? Referencing National Geographic's Impact, this session will look at the question of autonomy, what exactly it is, why it's important and how we can foster it in our classroom.

Presented by:
Alex Warren

Alex is the Teacher Trainer here at NGL. He studied history at university and worked as a journalist for several years. After travelling the world he returned to the UK to complete his CELTA qualification in Bournemouth. For the last six years Alex has been working as an Academic Director and teacher trainer at a successful private language school. The move into teacher training on a permanent basis was only a matter of time and Alex is now enjoying developing teachers on an international scale.

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Fostering Global Citizenship with Young Learners

Thursday 11th May, 17.00 MSK

Today’s students are growing up in an interconnected, fast-changing global world. As such it is our job as English language teachers to not only help them speak the lingua franca of the world, but to help them become responsible global citizens and leaders of the future. Using National Geographic Learning’s Our World series, this webinar will look at how we can teach the three essential areas – global knowledge, global skills and global values – that students require to be active and successful global citizens.

Presented by:
Alex Warren

Alex is the Teacher Trainer here at NGL. He studied history at university and worked as a journalist for several years. After travelling the world he returned to the UK to complete his CELTA qualification in Bournemouth. For the last six years Alex has been working as an Academic Director and teacher trainer at a successful private language school. The move into teacher training on a permanent basis was only a matter of time and Alex is now enjoying developing teachers on an international scale.

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Better Speaking Outcomes

Thursday 19th May 18.30 EST

Today we will look at the ways in which understanding why students come to class - and what classroom-based ways of studying offer than other ways don't - can help us understand how we can meet students' spoken needs and wants. We will consider how traditional coursebooks often exacerbate the problems students arrive with - and find inspiration in an unusual source: the humble phrasebook! Finally, we'll consider how the kind of approach adopted by phrasebooks can help us better structure input that leads to better spoken output.

Presented by:
Andrew Walkley

Andrew Walkley has 25 years experience as a teacher, trainer and materials writer. With Hugh Dellar he has written two series of coursebooks for National Geographic Learning and the second edition of the acclaimed Outcomes series has been published this year. As a trainer, he mixes theoretical ideas about language, teaching and learning with simple practical applications that can be used regularly in class in a variety of contexts. You can read more about his approach to teaching in the new DELTA Publications book Teaching Lexically (also written with Hugh Dellar) which forms part of DELTA's award-winning Teacher Development series.

Andrew and Hugh also founded the website lexicallab.com, which promotes excellence in teaching and lexical materials and they are currently in the process of setting up a school - London Language Lab - to continue putting these ideas into practice. He's married (not to Hugh!) and has two children.

Better Writing Outcomes

Our final webinar looks at what we can do to help ours students get better at writing the kinds of specific genres they will need in their social, academic and professional lives. We'll explore the idea of backwards design - how understanding where we want students to get to can help us best structure the journey to that destination - and what a writing lesson planned and designed this way might look like. Finally, we will also consider how - and why - we should encourage writing for fun and for language development.

Presented by:
Hugh Dellar

Hugh grew up on the south coast of England and in South London and graduated in English Literature from Goldsmith’s College, part of the University of London, in 1991. He completed his DELTA and then an MA TESOL in London and moved soon afterwards into coursebook writing. As well as the series Outcomes, now in its second edition, Hugh co-wrote the series Innovations, which was shortlisted for the ELTons and the ESU Duke of Edinburgh award. He is currently working with National Geographic Learning on a secondary course Perspectives, which features TED talks.

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Better Reading Outcomes

Thursday 12th May 18.30 EST

In this webinar, we'll consider some of the problems that can arise if reading is taught in a predominantly top-down skills-oriented way. We'll look at what the research says about what makes good readers good - and think about what the classroom implications of this may be. We will move on to a consideration of what texts in the classroom are actually for, what makes a text good for classroom use, and what we can do to best exploit texts as both vehicles for new language and prompts for speaking and other fluency work.

Presented by:
Andrew Walkley

Andrew Walkley has 25 years experience as a teacher, trainer and materials writer. With Hugh Dellar he has written two series of coursebooks for National Geographic Learning and the second edition of the acclaimed Outcomes series has been published this year. As a trainer, he mixes theoretical ideas about language, teaching and learning with simple practical applications that can be used regularly in class in a variety of contexts. You can read more about his approach to teaching in the new DELTA Publications book Teaching Lexically (also written with Hugh Dellar) which forms part of DELTA's award-winning Teacher Development series.

Andrew and Hugh also founded the website lexicallab.com, which promotes excellence in teaching and lexical materials and they are currently in the process of setting up a school - London Language Lab - to continue putting these ideas into practice. He's married (not to Hugh!) and has two children.

Better Listening Outcomes

In today's session, we explore how both gaps in language knowledge and problems hearing language that is already known can cause students problems when they listen. We will carry out an experiment that will (hopefully!) expose the limitations of a top-down 'skills' way of approaching listening lessons, and explore how a bottom-up hearing and language development approach may reap better rewards. Finally, we will look at some key principles to bear in mind when trying to help your learners listen better.

Presented by:
Hugh Dellar

Hugh grew up on the south coast of England and in South London and graduated in English Literature from Goldsmith’s College, part of the University of London, in 1991. He completed his DELTA and then an MA TESOL in London and moved soon afterwards into coursebook writing. As well as the series Outcomes, now in its second edition, Hugh co-wrote the series Innovations, which was shortlisted for the ELTons and the ESU Duke of Edinburgh award. He is currently working with National Geographic Learning on a secondary course Perspectives, which features TED talks.

Watch the Webinar here

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Better Vocabulary Outcomes

Thursday 5th May 18.30 EST

In this practical classroom-focused session, we will look at how our boardwork influences student beliefs about language and how it affects their ability to use the new words we try to teach them. We will consider the importance of collocation, context and colligation - and discuss how we can give better examples in class. Finally, we will look at the kinds of questions we can ask about vocabulary that will engage our learners and help us explore usage further.

Presented by:
Andrew Walkley

Andrew Walkley has 25 years experience as a teacher, trainer and materials writer. With Hugh Dellar he has written two series of coursebooks for National Geographic Learning and the second edition of the acclaimed Outcomes series has been published this year. As a trainer, he mixes theoretical ideas about language, teaching and learning with simple practical applications that can be used regularly in class in a variety of contexts. You can read more about his approach to teaching in the new DELTA Publications book Teaching Lexically (also written with Hugh Dellar) which forms part of DELTA's award-winning Teacher Development series.

Andrew and Hugh also founded the website lexicallab.com, which promotes excellence in teaching and lexical materials and they are currently in the process of setting up a school - London Language Lab - to continue putting these ideas into practice. He's married (not to Hugh!) and has two children.

Better Grammar Outcomes

In this webinar, we consider the problems there might be with a traditional grammar + words way of looking at language, before moving on to explore what alternative approaches might exist. I will outline what a lexical way of thinking about grammar teaching might involve, what best practice when going through grammar exercises in class might be - and how teaching vocabulary better can also result in better grammar outcomes too.

Presented by:
Hugh Dellar

Hugh grew up on the south coast of England and in South London and graduated in English Literature from Goldsmith’s College, part of the University of London, in 1991. He completed his DELTA and then an MA TESOL in London and moved soon afterwards into coursebook writing. As well as the series Outcomes, now in its second edition, Hugh co-wrote the series Innovations, which was shortlisted for the ELTons and the ESU Duke of Edinburgh award. He is currently working with National Geographic Learning on a secondary course Perspectives, which features TED talks.

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Managing Change

Wednesday 6th April 19.00 EST

In this webinar, we will explore how we can use coaching to support people through change. No change model or programme can prepare people for feelings that they never expected to have or for situations that they never expected to face. Change is a moving dynamic. However, the job of the coach is not to take someone somewhere. In fact if you try to do that you will most likely engender greater resistance than already exists. We must let people make up their own minds and find their own ways. In the webinar, I will examine the need to recognize and validate resistance as a form of creative expression and adjustment. Finally, I will present some ideas for related activities that can be used in the training room.

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Knowing your Customers and Clients

Wednesday 23rd March 19.00 EST

In the global business world, clients and customers come in all shapes and sizes and being able to explain in English who they are as well as being able to use the correct language to identify them can make a big difference to the way you work, think and do business. This webinar will look at issues of identity and identification as well the language that goes with it. In it, I will explain how you can give your students the tools and lexical ability to do this following a task-based approach.

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Leading People Internationally

Wednesday 9th March 19.00 EST

In this 30 minute webinar, Steve Flinders will present the York Associates model for Developing People Internationally – 'the virtuous circle' – which can be used for the development of any team and which also serves as the organising principle for Leading People, Steve's title in the International Management English series published jointly by Delta and York Associates which was shortlisted for an ELTON in 2014. The model can be applied by trainers as professionals in their own work environments, in the Business English classroom, and in the management training seminar; and will give ideas for actions and activities for each of these.

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Engaging Busy People

Providing activities that fully engage business professionals can be a challenge with the fast pace of our hectic lives. How can you make busy executives engage in classroom activities and make simple resources work more effectively? In this webinar, Julie Pratten shares ideas on how to engage business English students in a variety of activities; projects, and presentations, quizzes and challenges. As well as providing practical tips, she also explores how using a few simple strategies and tricks can lead to more sophisticated learning outcomes.

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Inspiring Environmental Responsibility in the Young Learner Classroom

Being aware of your impact on the environment, both locally and globally, is an important part of being a responsible global citizen. But for young learners growing up in a digitally-focused global society, the disconnect between their everyday lives and the natural world is greater than ever.

How, then, can educators reconnect students with the environment, motivate them to care, and empower them to protect our planet?

In this webinar, photographer, conservationist, and National Geographic Young Explorer Gabby Salazar will share with you:

• her unique story
• her experiences working with children around the world
• and practical ideas for using photography in the classroom

to help you foster environmental responsibility, raise global awareness, and use photography in your young learner classroom.

All participants will receive a free Photography Project Pack, detailing one of Gabby's classroom photography projects, too!

Presented by:
Gabby Salar, National Geographic Young Explorer

Photographer and conservationist Gabby Salazar travels around the globe to document rare and endangered species and to raise awareness about their plight. She is a National Geographic Young Explorer, a former President of the North American Nature Photography Association, a U.S. Fulbright Scholar in Photography, and a member of the Emerging League of the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP). At 19, she founded a student magazine with Nature's Best Photography to promote photography as a way to connect kids with nature. She continues to teach photography to children and teenagers around the world.

Connect with Gabby: gabbysalazar.com

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Going Mobile: Teaching and Learning with Mobile Devices

During this webinar we will look at a number of mobile-based activities for general English, and consider how and why using devices might support our students' language learning. We will examine the choices and challenges involved in using mobile devices with learners. The example activities we share in this webinar are relevant to general English, but we will invite you to consider how mobile devices might best be used in a Business English teaching context.

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Close-Up Second Edition: A Product Introduction

With a new component array and strong digital support, the new edition of Close-up has been fully updated to be in line with the new First for Schools 2015 specifications. Close-up is still as interesting, topical and up to date as ever with spectacular National Geographic photography and facts that have been carefully selected to appeal to the inquisitive minds of young teenagers. This presentation will examine the course and the new features to help you teach it to your students.

I'm not a kid anymore! : Choosing appropriate authentic material for teenagers and young adults

Teenage learners need relevant input that inspires, educates and motivates. Rather than learning about the pets of the rich and famous or an imaginary group of friends wouldn't it be more stimulating to learn about the cultures and peoples around the world. Not only are these topics inspirational and perspective-changing but they deliver English in a context that is more relevant, interesting and motivating to teenage learners of the 21st Century.

Download Kayleigh's slides here!
Download Charlottes's slides here!
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Achieving Successful learning Outcomes

In this webinar, we'll be introducing the second edition of OUTCOMES, the General English series from National Geographic. We'll look at the ways in which the series aims to develop your students speaking, listening and vocabulary, and how its fresh approach to grammar should delight even the most jaded teachers! Underpinning these innovations is a commitment to exploring and unpacking the kinds of conversations and texts students want and need to produce - and an emphasis on natural-sounding examples.

Presented by:
Hugh Dellar

Hugh grew up on the south coast of England and in South London and graduated in English Literature from Goldsmith’s College, part of the University of London, in 1991. He completed his DELTA and then an MA TESOL in London and moved soon afterwards into coursebook writing. As well as the series Outcomes, now in its second edition, Hugh co-wrote the series Innovations, which was shortlisted for the ELTons and the ESU Duke of Edinburgh award. He is currently working with National Geographic Learning on a secondary course Perspectives, which features TED talks.

Keynote and TED: An Introduction to the Partnership

TED is a non-profit organization devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks. TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics in more than 100 languages. TED speakers range from celebrities, to include scientists, philosophers, musicians, religious leaders, philanthropists and many others.

Keynote is the new series from National Geographic Learning in partnership with TED. Through life-changing stories, respected thinkers and authentic presentations, Keynote promotes a deeper understanding of the world and gives students the courage and means to express themselves in English. Communication, collaboration and creative thinking drive students towards real 21st century outcomes and encourage them to respond to ideas and find their own voice. This talk will introduce TED and Keynote, and the benefits of using it in your classroom.

Presented by:
Victoria Taylor

Product Marketing Manager, National Geographic Learning

Download Hugh's slides here!
Download Vicky's slides here!
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