Katowice

Blended learning expert, Pete Sharma, writes:

'Katowice in Poland was the venue for the second IH Country Fair. The structure of the day involved three different types of training.

Firstly, the input of new knowledge. Participants were new to the Campus, so this was training in the pure sense of the word: to teach with MEC, you need knowledge of the product.

After lunch, participants reflected on the respective roles of the teacher and the technology. This type of training, or "teacher development", is fascinating.  As the teacher trainer, I devised a task in which I predicted the answers. However, the task outcomes were different to my model answer. Such divergence illustrates the value of running INSET (in-service training) as a chance to hone your views and test your principles against those of colleagues.

The day concluded with a hands-on session. This is skills training and the session took place in a lovely self-access centre. At one point, each of the four groups was completely absorbed in the language games - undeniably one of the highlights of the Campus.

What about training in your school? Does it include all three of the above? To integrate Campus successfully, the message seems to be: train, train, train! If you don't adapt to technology, then your school might simply ... miss the train.

This day was especially significant as no school in the country is using the Macmillan English Campus, so IH Poland have a real chance to forge ahead with a visible USP.

A huge thank you to Bronwen, Director of Studies at IH Katowice, for organising the day.'

The participants

Which learning processes are best supported by the teacher and which by technology? Where do the two overlap? Leave a comment.

'We're somewhere in the middle of our monthly publishing cycle here at onestopenglish. For those of you who aren't familiar with the site, onestopenglish.com is the world's leading ELT resource site with over 420,000 users (and counting!).

Our editorial team consists of Claire Pye (Commissioning Editor), myself (Web Editor) and Lucy Williams (Editorial Assistant), so we're a bit smaller than many people imagine but still somehow manage to upload an impressive amount of content each month (all modesty aside).

At the beginning of May we published some great content, including reports by Lindsay Clandfield and Karen Richardson on last month's IATEFL conference in Aberdeen, ideas from Jim Scrivener on how to use receipts in the classroom, a reading lesson by Jackie McAvoy on events connected with the moon and, of course, our regular monthly news lesson in association with the Guardian Weekly.

In the Staff Room area of the site (our subscription service), we published a grand total of 30 different items, including 12 new downloadable interactive activities, two skills-related articles by Adrian Tennant (one on teaching writing and the other on reading), two Exams lessons, two Business & ESP lessons and a very cute lesson for Young Learners on how to make a puppet - dig out an old sock and some buttons! This was all in addition to our popular weekly news lessons and podcasts (we are currently offering the beginner-level Macmillan Reader, Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen).

Next month we will be publishing a survey to find out what our users think of the site as it is now and to give them the opportunity to tell us how we can make it even better.

We're really proud of onestop and always welcome feedback on the site. So, if you have any relevant comments, inspired ideas or suggestions, please get in touch - we'd love to hear from you. webeditor@macmillan.com

Oh, and don't forget to check out our competitions page - we need your anecdotes and lesson plans!'

Are you a regular onestopenglish user? What's your best ever onestop inspired lesson? Leave a comment.

If you experience difficulties in leaving comments on the blog please let us know and send your comment to s.earnshaw@macmillan.com. We will post it for you. 

'Since joining Macmillan English Campus as training assistant three and a half months ago, I've been on a steep learning curve. There wasn't much time to idle before I started training MEC teachers and administrators. I've been involved in one in-school training session so far, but perhaps I'll be in your school next!

MEC is a fantastic place to work with a friendly and supportive team. There's lots of opportunity to meet our customers and help them get the most out of what, I think, is an invaluable resource for anyone learning or teaching English. As a recent recruit, however, I can still vividly remember how it feels to look at Campus and wonder "How will I ever find my way around 2800 (and rising) resourses at six different levels?" Well, as many of you will know by now, it doesn't take so very long.

For those who are still feeling a little shaky about their Campus expertise, allow me to offer you five tips on getting the best from the Macmillan English Campus.

• Make sure you bookmark your favourite exercises. Use the categories so that you can sort through them easily. (Bookmarks are in your MEC work area.)
• If you need some professional development look no further than the Methodology database. This is a huge resource of seven major ELT titles, all free in MEC. (Click the link in your work area, type in the subject you're looking for and download the relevant article.)
• Try using MEC Basics worksheets as lessons, to ensure your students are effectively using their MEC work area. (Find these under resources on the support site.)
• Integrate the Dictionary into your lessons. It's a vast resource and good fun too. Just make sure your computer speakers are on so you can use the pronunciation facility! (Click the dictionary link above your work area.)
• Web projects are always very popular with students and can be set either as homework or as a group exercise in class. (Key "web project" into the word and phrase search)

If you're still unsure, take a look at the support site. There's a wealth of information there including downloadable lesson plans, the MEC guide and (for any Administrators who may be reading) the Portal guide. Part of my job is to make sure this site stays useful and is constantly updated with the information and resources that teachers need, so if you have any requests do let me know. You can leave a comment on this post or speak to us through the Contact us section of this blog.'

What are your favourite MEC resources? Do you have any tips for other teachers using Campus? What do you think of the support site resources and what would you like to see added? Leave a comment.

MEC Commissioning Editor and recent CELTA graduate, Jenny Lovel, writes:

'Day one of the CELTA course at International House is strangely reminiscent of my first day at school. Perhaps it's the new stationery I'm carrying, complete with OHP markers in colours I'll never need (pink) and an impractical notebook. There are ten of us CELTA students in the class - three men and seven women, who vary in age from 18 to 60. I had expected everyone to be a recent graduate, staving off their inevitable move into 9 to 5 drudgery with an exciting few years spent teaching abroad, but my fellow students' motivations range as widely as their ages. Some are taking CELTA before starting a university course; some for a change of career; and others are relocating abroad. The first thing our tutor does is give us each a letter from a former CELTA student that contains some words of advice. Mine opens with "Dear CELTA student, I pity you, for you have just signed away four weeks of your life". The future has looked brighter.

CELTA isn't renowned for easing students in gradually, and on day two my "teaching practice" (TP) group and I are teaching a two hour unobserved lesson as a carousel. I have to teach the students vocabulary relating to family relationships. I decide to draw a simplified version of my family tree, with a liberal dollop of poetic licence. My brother suddenly has a wife and two children, conveniently a boy and a girl. Add in a couple of family snapshots for that personal touch and I feel quite satisfied with my handiwork. A lesson is born.

Before the carousel I feel so nervous I would happily do a three hour job interview rather than walk into the classroom. But the name game we've prepared is good fun and puts me at my ease. We divide the students into five groups, and I teach each group for twenty minutes. I run out of material in the first group after fifteen minutes and have to adlib about family resemblances while the students look at me sympathetically. In the next group the conversation turns to vocabulary such as "my step-mother's fostered children" and "my sister-in-law is pregnant" making me wonder if I have bitten off more than I can chew. But the two hours go surprisingly quickly and I feel I have really got to know the students.

Over the next few days we have input sessions in the mornings, in which we are taught how to teach, and then in the afternoon we take it in turns to teach a 40 minute lesson. In week one we are not expected to do an assessed lesson plan, so preparing for the lessons largely involves queuing for the photocopier and pasting pictures to coloured cardboard. My first lessons go reasonably well, but my attempts to use gesture, mime and enthusiasm make my lessons strangely similar to a one-woman comedy routine. No matter - I've survived week one.'

Does this remind you of your first week of CELTA, or did you have a different experience? How different is the CELTA from the DELTA? Leave us a comment.

'The first MEC country fair, at IH Seville, was a hugely enjoyable event. There was a real sense of warmth and camaraderie amongst the participants, from schools across the south of Spain (Seville, Huelva, Cordoba and Malaga) as well as Madrid.

A number of things struck me during the day. One was how completely different everyone's individual experience of the Campus is. The participants (teachers, Directors of Studies, School Directors and Campus co-ordinators) have access to the same material, work for the same organisation, teach students with the same cultural and linguistic background, and yet the range of questions, ideas, thoughts and comments during the day was extremely diverse. I see this as positive. We not only discussed what Campus is, but also its potential.

Many barriers were mentioned during the day which could prevent teachers using technology successfully. At times these could seem insurmountable. However, in this group of creative practitioners, there was always a sense of "positivism" with people constantly suggesting constructive ideas.

There was a lot of excitement about the new lesson plans available on the MEC support site. These should prevent re-inventing the wheel. However, I think it is also important for individuals to work through a series of challenges first - how to set up the data-projector, how to exploit the materials, how to unleash the potential of MEC to transform classroom practice, etc. Each teacher in each school will be at a different point on their own, personal learning curve.

Some big questions also emerged: Can "best practice" be proliferated through (say) the support site? Or, are some teachers condemned to always finding technology a frustrating and ultimately negative experience? I came away with a positive glow and a sense of optimism. I believe others were also enthused by the potential of MEC.'

The participants

From left: Helen Rouse, Dos IH Malaga; Mike Green, MEC Training Manager; Linda Harper, Director IH Huevla; Christina Anistadiadis, Dos Adult Students IH Madrid; Simon Armour, DoS IH Cordoba; Jenny Dobson, Teacher and IH Campus co-ordinator IH Cordoba; Colin Dobson, DoS IH Seville; Pete Sharma.

Do you have something to say about your experience of Campus? What do you think of the support site and new MEC Basics worksheets? Do you find technology frustrating or empowering? Leave us a comment!