It’s difficult to think of a more challenging time for the English language teaching sector globally as we all battle against this awful pandemic and its consequences. Equally, there is no more important time for us to come together, support each other and weather the storm.
The story so far...
At IATEFL our first response, following the deferral of our conference, was to stage a global online event over a weekend, to provide the ELT community with an opportunity for professional development nonetheless when the conference would have been taking place. Inevitably quite a lot of the sessions were focussed on moving to online teaching and learning, and the recordings are all available to members in the ‘Resources’ section of the website. The final panel discussion on online teaching was also made available to non-members as IATEFL continues to also support the wider professional community.
Since then our Special Interest Groups have been busy providing their members and others with additional resources, online events and publications; and some of these have again been shared with the wider ELT world. Links to many of these resources can be found here.
We’ve also seen an increase in the number of webinars and blog articles, and continuing to add additional content to our searchable online resource bank for members. To support employers and job seekers we’ve reduced the price of placing job adverts in our online Jobs Market to just £10 until the end of August for IATEFL institutional members.
I'd like to say a huge thank you to all our amazing volunteers for having provided so much in such a short time.
The IATEFL Corona Hub
Our next step is the launch of the new IATEFL Corona Hub. This is a dedicated Facebook Group for anyone connected to English language teaching to come together, share their challenges, ask for advice, support and mentor each other, signpost resources, discuss consequences and impacts, and simply be a supportive community. The more people who get involved, the bigger difference we can all make.
As we continue to battle the impacts of COVID-19, let’s come together as a profession. We're looking forward to welcoming you to the IATEFL Corona Hub Facebook Group!
Jon Burton, Chief Executive IATEFL
