You Sound like You’re from London!

English, English, and more English this weekend! I was invited to attend the British Council’s BBELT annual conference on English education. The British Council has a big presence here in Mexico. When I arrived in August, I was given supplementary material for my English classes and the majority of the books and posters are in British English. The conference was fabulous! I was very well planned and executed. The best part about the conference? Free hotel, food, and learning! Well free for me. The English office I work it can invite a certain about of people which included the ETAs! There were a variety of events and they actually started on time. A foreign concept here in Mexico!

We drove to Mexico City from Toluca Thursday night. The conference was at the Hilton hotel but we stayed a couple blocks away. We checked into our hotel then walked to the Hilton to check into the conference. We got so much swag: books, paper, pens, a bag. When we got back to our hotel, a delicious dinner buffet was awaiting us. And I wonder why I’ve gained weight. It’s just that I love my abs so much that I protect them with a layer of fat. The conference didn’t start until Friday so we had some time to kill after dinner which we occupied with good ‘ol American drinking games. “Signs” was a crowd favorite.

The conference started bright and early Friday morning with a speaker about the work of teachers. She talked about influential people in the education world and pedagogy. I was impressed with all of the speakers. They were very engaging and gave us helpful information. Then we broke up to attend different sessions. There were commercial presentation, workshops, and presentations. I didn’t read the program well enough because for the first one I went to a commercial presentation. Then we had a coffee break and another whole group speaker about how to be a better teacher and involve your students. After, we went to another break out session. The second one I went to was about English pronunciation. Yes, I’m fluent in English but teaching pronunciation is a skill that I am still acquiring. The workshop was great and I’m actually going to try to give it to some groups of my students. I had a question about how to pronounce a word so I asked the presenter and it ended up being a mistake. I felt bad correcting him and I know he was embarrassed. Oops. We had a yummy lunch and got to see a theater production after lunch aimed towards ELLs.

For the third and final breakout session, I attended one about getting students moving. The presenter gave us speaking activity ideas for getting students out of their chairs. I’m working on putting them in my lessons. They are great not only for kids, but adults too! Then we went to a whole group speaker presentation about 10 quotes to make you think. I love quotes so I was in heaven. My favorite quote was “The teacher is much more important than the tool”. Deep. The last event, after a coffee break, was a TED talk. I had never been to one before so I was happy to be there. The speaker presented on leadership and innovation in scientific research. All of the people who presented were expert PowerPoint makers. It was inspiring. The key is minimal words and lots of pictures! We ended the night with a cocktail hour which was very chic and needed after a long day.

The second and final day was a full one, as well. We kicked off the day with a speaker about communication skills, then a breakout session. I went to one about a woman’s research about English writing by ELLs. That was followed by a whole group speaker about teaching humans. A point that she and other speakers made was that students are not empty vessels waiting to be filled. They come with knowledge and experiences and we need to build off of what they bring to the table. During the next session I learned about a new-ish teaching method called Whole Brain Teaching. It had a lot of call-and-response. The example video used this technique on college students but I think it would work better with younger students. After lunch we attended our last breakout session. I went to a very engaging one about listening activities. I’ve already used some of them in my conversation classes. The best part is that they are for all levels of speakers. One that I like is to have students write a sentence about something they want to do. The students then go around the room and collect excuses as to why they can't do it. The students get to work with the vocabulary they already know, move around the classroom, and practice, practice, practice. After another speaker, the conference ended with a raffle and poetry. The poet was great and so were the raffle prizes: test waivers, books, conference admissions, and a trip to study English in England. Unfortunately, I didn’t win but the more deserving people did. Overall, it was an excellently executed event that I was delighted to attend! Does that make me nerdy that I like conferences? I’m OK with it.