SPONGE ELT Sponge ELT

In the latest Sponge Chat, I had the pleasure to sit down and chat with the business mindset queen, Rachael Roberts. I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

I have the great pleasure to speak with TBLT researcher and teacher educator Lara Bryfonski. We went into detail about teacher education considerations, working with individual differences, TBLT and young learners, and many other cool stuff.

00:00 Introduction
03:00 Sponge Chats
04:00 Who is Lara?
08:00 How and why did Lara move into research?
11:00 Why should teachers be aware of TBLT?
14:30 How do we bring TBLT to teachers?
17:45 Assessment
20:00 TBLT or tblt?
24:00 Individual teacher differences
28:00 TBLT observation schemes
34:00 The impact of courses on teachers' implementation of TBLT
37:00 Tasks and young learners
45:00 A return to assessment
48:00 Lara's recent projects!
55:00 Lara's piece of advice for TBLT teacher educators
59:00 Book recommendations (and Lara's upcoming book!)

In this Sponge Chat, I had the pleasure to sit down with renown teacher training and author, Peter Lucantoni. Peter was kind enough to share his thoughts on teacher training, with a specific focus on early-career teacher trainers. We spoke about how one might move into teacher training, how trainers can develop, and also the importance of being proactive as a teacher who wants to be a teacher training position.

00:00 Introduction
03:00 Sponge Chats
03:55 Who is Peter?
06:00 Teacher training qualifications
13:20 Difficulties early-career teacher trainers face
17:15 How do trainers develop?
20:30 Is training 'giving ideas'?
25:00 Peter's preference: INSET or PRESET or Train the Trainer?
29:30 The importance of breadth and depth as a trainer
33:30 The importance of context
37:00 Peter's advice for those looking to move into teacher training
42:00 Peter's book recommendations (and an overview of From Teacher to Trainer!)

In the latest Sponge Chat, I had the pleasure to talk with EdTech specialist, Joe Dale. We talked tech, predictions for the future and, of course, Chat GPT.

In this Sponge Chat, I had the pleasure to sit down with Daniel O. Jackson so discuss his views on TBLT. We spoke about the 'what' of TBLT, the role of implicit and explicit learning, teacher noticing and many other good things.

00:00 Introduction
02:30 Hi Daniel!
05:30 Sponge Chats
06:00 Who is Daniel?
11:15 Daniel's PhD journey
17:30 Where did Daniel's interest in TBLT start?
27:00 What is TBLT?
35:00 TBLT and needs analyses
42:00 Implicit learning
53:30 Teacher's role in TBLT and Teacher noticing
01:06:00 TBLT and critical pedagogy
01:15:00 Advice to teacher educators
01:18:00 Daniel's recommended reading

In this Sponge Chat, I was lucky enough to sit down with assessment expert, Fatime Losonci. We discussed the what and the why of assessment, looked at some important concepts, and even spoke about test item writing. As usual, I hope you enjoy this Sponge Chat!     

00:00 Introduction  

03:05 Sponge Chats  

05:15 Who is Fatime?  

10:25 What is assessment? 

18:00 The learner's perspective  

25:00 Item writing  

32:00 Teaching vs. Testing skills  

36:00 What are sub-skills? 

41:00 Fatime's Masterclass  

44:30 Test-taking strategies  

51:30 Fatime's book recommendations