Friends will be friends
Online conference
for English teachers by Grade
10–11 June 2023
Join us for an extraordinary online event, hosted by Grade Education Centre, a distinguished Platinum Cambridge Assessment English Centre located in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Featuring a lineup of experienced and renowned speakers in the field of ELT — our old and new friends — this conference offers an opportunity for teachers to learn from each other's experiences and gain valuable insights into teaching strategies and techniques.
Together, we will celebrate the essence of friendship, a cherished source of both professional and emotional support, and a vital means of exchanging innovative ideas and best practices in English language teaching.
Who is this conference for?
Whether you're an experienced teacher or just starting out, this conference is a great opportunity to expand your knowledge and connect with like-minded professionals from around the world.
Let's come together to pay tribute to the unbreakable bonds of friendship that have sustained English language teachers across the globe, especially during challenging times.
This event is an opportunity to honour their unwavering dedication and showcase their incredible resilience in the face of adversity. Let's celebrate their achievements, learn from their experiences, and strengthen our commitment to supporting one another as we continue to shape the future of education.
A good tradition
This is the third conference organised by Grade Education Centre, following the success of our previous events, "21 Lessons for the 21 Century" in October 2019, and "Lessons for the Future" in June 2022.
We are aiming to build on the success of these events and continue to support English teachers in Ukraine and beyond. Providing a platform for educators to come together and share their insights, expertise, and passion for teaching has already become a good tradition.
Programme
We expect the speakers to inspire and motivate participants with their expertise and passion for teaching, while also fostering a sense of community and collaboration among English language educators. We are going to discuss a range of important topics, including the psychology of the learner, educational technologies, learning environments, professional development, assessment, and approaches to teaching. We are sure this is going to be an engaging and insightful event that will benefit English language teachers and their students worldwide.
Day 1
June 10, 2023 (GMT +3)
10:30–11:00
Welcome to the conference
Maryna Gordiienko & Yuliia Chorna
11:00–12:00
AI and High-Impact Teaching: Moving beyond tips and tricks
Christopher Reese
12:00–13:00
Engagement and cooperation in YL and teen class
Lidiya Simak
13:00–13:30
Coffee break & Quiz
13:30–14:30
Celebrating friendship and creating a community spirit!
Anne Robinson
14:30–15:30
Mindfulness in the English Classroom
Yasemin Islah Oğuzkent
16:00–16:45
Making Trends into Friends (CLIL Approach)
David Marsh
Day 2
June 11, 2023 (GMT +3)
10:30–11:00
Welcome to day 2. A journey to excellence: navigating English teacher professional development
Yuliia Chorna
11:00–12:00
Hinge Questions — A tool for improving learning and teaching
Iskra Stamenkoska
12:00–13:00
Motivating your least motivated ones
Olena Lysytsia
13:00–13:30
Coffee break & Quiz
13:30–14:30
Emergence and improvisation in teaching and training
Adrian Underhill
14:30–15:30
Diversity Matters: Fostering Kindness in the Young Learner Classroom
Sarah Smith & Claire Steele
15:30–16:00
Prize Draw & Closing
Maryna Gordiienko & Yuliia Chorna
Support Ukraine
"Friends will be friends" is the second charity conference for raising funds to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine in their ongoing fight to defend our country.
Through our events, participants can make donations, which will be used to provide equipment, supplies, and other resources necessary for the successful operation of the Ukrainian military who have been working tirelessly.
By supporting this cause, participants can demonstrate their solidarity with the people of Ukraine and help to ensure the country's continued security and stability.
Our last year's conference — "Lessons for the Future"— was attended by 446 representatives from 27 countries, and thanks to their generosity, a total amount of 88,498 UAH was raised. This demonstrates the solidarity and support that people all over the world have for Ukraine.
Dozens of shares in stories and posts, comments and personal messages confirm that all our efforts were not in vain.
Let's help to create a peaceful and stable future for Ukraine and its people!
Let's have a look inside the sessions!
Adrian Underhill
Series editor of the Macmillan Books for Teachers, author of Sound Foundations: Learning and Teaching Pronunciation, advisor in the development of the new Macmillan English Dictionary, co-founder of Demand High ELT
TOPIC
Emergence and improvisation in teaching and training
Emergence is what makes the present moment unpredictable until it happens. It affects all of our daily life, conversation, work and so on. In classrooms we see that students’ learning is emergent, interaction with classmates is emergent, language is emergent. And while planning and preparation is essential, it does not carry us through the stuff thrown up by the emergent present moment, which requires spontaneity and improvisation from the teacher. Happily we all improvise quite naturally throughout each moment of our daily lives, and though teachers get more confident at improvisation as they gain experience, that is no reason to omit attention to improvisation from the first moments of teaching on a training course.
I will argue that when training new teachers we can focus on both planning and improvisation to the benefit of both. And I will suggest ways to develop improvisational competence into teaching practice.
TOPIC
Claire Steele
Sarah Smith
Sarah has worked as a teacher, teacher trainer and materials writer in Senegal, Japan, Ecuador, Turkey, Thailand and France and is now based in Greece.
She is interested in reflective practice, teaching creative thinking and human rights in education.
Claire has worked as teacher, trainer, manager and consultant worldwide, but mainly in the UK, Australia, Colombia and Greece.
Claire is interested in student-centred learning, fostering creativity and critical-thinking in the classroom, reflective practice, and social justice education.
Sarah Smith and Claire Steele are co-founders of eltonix.
Eltonix is an online mentoring, professional development and support service for educational bodies and ministries, universities, schools and teachers who teach English or subjects through English. We have a unique approach to teacher development that incorporates the students' and teachers' voices — www.eltonix.com
Iskra Stamenkoska
Iskra Stamenkoska, PhD is adjunct professor of Applied Linguistics and a teacher trainer. She is based in North Macedonia, and teacher ESP and EAP courses at the state university in Skopje. She has worked as a teacher trainer in Tunisia, Djibouti, Mexico, and Venezuela. Iskra is also a CELTA trainer. Her primary area of research is EFL assessment, though she researches other issues in second language acquisition. She is particularly interested in exploring innovative instructional strategies, such as arts based pedagogy and team-based learning.
TOPIC
Hinge Questions - A tool for improving learning and teaching
In this session, we’ll be talking about formative assessment and why it’s imperative to learning.
We’ll discuss assessment for learning and the nitty gritty of various forms of feedback, and we’ll focus on hinge questions as one way to give and receive feedback from our learners.
Christopher Reese
Chris is an experienced English teacher and academic manager who has experience teaching and managing language programmes in Ukraine and Thailand. He has taught a wide range of students, including primary, secondary, and adult learners in General English, Business English, and Exam Preparation, specialising in Cambridge Exams. Chris is also an experienced teacher trainer, having worked as a tutor on courses such as young learner qualifications (the former CELT-P/S qualification) and the CELTA since 2018, as well as tutoring for the Delta Module 1 exam, and in this time has helped teachers from over 20 different countries to develop professionally. He is also a published materials writer, having co-written a coursebook to help Ukrainian students prepare for their school leaving exams, and has also authored materials for teachers aimed at helping them teach more effectively and to prepare them for the CELTA course. He is a frequent conference presenter, and has given sessions in countries such as Ukraine, Czechia, and the UK.
TOPIC
AI and High-Impact Teaching: Moving beyond tips and tricks
In the past several months, open source AI programs such as ChatGPT have been blowing up in popularity, and a large amount of time has been spent on learning how to use them, as well as teaching others. As educators become more proficient at using such tools, there is also a need to look at how to not only facilitate learning, but maximise it.
In this practictical session, we're going to look at possible applications of open source AI programs in areas of education that have been proven to lead to deeper, more visible learning, such as feedback, engaging with emergent language, and helping learners to become more independent in their studies. Participants will leave with a better understanding of how to apply these concepts in their classes and a set of ideas to implement in their next lessons.
Key takeaways from the session:
- A deeper understanding of how AI integrates with modern theories of language learning
- A set of practical tasks you can use in your classroom
- A set of guiding principles you can use in designing / creating your own tasks and lessons
Lidiya Simak
Lidiya Simak is a highly experienced English language teacher with a passion for helping others develop their language skills. She has taught English for 15 years, starting as a school teacher and later expanding her expertise with a CELTA and Delta certification.
Currently, she works at as YL DOS at Grade Education Centre, where she has taught a diverse range of age groups and language levels, including exam preparation courses.
She is also a Cambridge CELTA, CELT-P, and CELT-S trainer and a Cambridge speaking examiner, offering her expertise to others in the field.
TOPIC
Engagement and cooperation in YL and teen class
In order to learn, students need to use the language as much as possible during lessons. To make learning meaningful, it must be communicative. Cooperation and engagement are crucial in YL and teen classroom since they help students practice new language in pairs and groups.
We will look at how to introduce and develop cooperation and engagement in YL and teen classes to make the learning both effective and enjoyable to the max.
Olena Lysytsia
Olena has been teaching English for about 24 years already. During her teaching career she has taught a wide range of ages starting from 3 years old and a wide range of courses including General English, Business English and English for Specific Purposes. Olena has been a teacher trainer for about 15 years specialising in teaching VYLs, YLs and Teens and has written teacher developmental courses focusing on teaching primary learners and teens as well as exam preparation classes. She has also given workshops at international conferences in Spain, Portugal, Malta, Czech Republic and Turkey. Olena is a CELTA trainer and a Cambridge Speaking Examiner, too.
TOPIC
Motivating your least motivated ones
Motivating the unmotivated, cooperating with the least cooperative, engaging the least engaged, inspiring the uninspired, encouraging the discouraged, empowering the disempowered... The list goes on and on. But many of us have probably at some point in our lives left the teenage classroom thinking something similar. In this session, we will look at the underlying reasons why some of your teenage students may seem unmotivated and disengaged in the classroom. Drawing on real teaching experiences, we will examine the impact of various factors such as family, peers, and teacher-student relationships on adolescent motivation.
You will learn a range of effective motivational techniques that can help to inspire, encourage and empower your teenage students. Don't miss out on this opportunity to connect with your students and help them reach their full potential!
Yasemin Islah Oğuzkent
Yasemin is a founder of Teachaboo - A Blog About Teaching English to Young Learners, has been in the ELT field since 2007. She is a teacher trainer, ELT author and consultant. She is particularly interested in material development, storytelling and educational technologies. Lately, as a certified mindfulness coach, she is also sharing new methodologies on how to integrate mindfulness into the English curriculum.
TOPIC
Mindfulness in the English Classroom
In this session, we will focus on what mindfulness is and how to transfer mindfulness training and techniques to our English lessons to create an area for the children, where they feel truly in flow while acquiring the language.
The trainer will share tips for incorporating mindfulness techniques into the curriculum by using stories, visuals and routines as tools to support English acquisition and enrich the program.
David Marsh, PhD
Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, UK, Member of the EduCluster Finland Advisory Council and Director of MED, Finland. David has contributed to educational advancement in Finland over 25 years and worked on assignments in 50+ countries. He currently works on educational transformation in demanding environments, CLIL, and developing educational practices for digitally astute young people.
TOPIC
Making Trends into Friends
Everything you would like to know about CLIL but have not yet had an opportunity to
ask.
Exploring Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), we focus on what CLIL
is and what it is not, why it has become so significant for leading-edge language
educators, and how it can be realized.
It is said that the ‘house of CLIL has many rooms’ so David will try to respond to comments in the chat function in the hope that participants will take away ideas that can inspire, strengthen, and sustain the joy of knowing what it means to live and work as an advanced languages professional.
Anne Robinson
A very active materials creator for digital materials and publications for Cambridge English (Fun for Starters, Movers and Flyers and Fun Skills) and Linguist Ukraine (Prepare Grammar 5, Prepare around the World 5, Prepare for School Exams. 10 Grade. Student’s book, Workbook 5, ZNO Leader Tests B2).
For the past year, Anne has been a volunteer teacher for Ukrainian students aged 10–14 online. Anne writes and sources materials for these classes to encourage confidence and good vibes.
TOPIC
Diversity Matters: Fostering Kindness in the Young Learner Classroom
Every child has the right to have a voice and for their myriad identities to be embraced and celebrated. Incorporating educational approaches and practices which celebrate diversity and promote equity allows all children to be seen and most importantly, heard. This also paves the way for a kinder and fairer society.
In this session, we will explore what diverse classrooms look like, and share eltonix' Social Justice Pedagogy Framework which can be applied to the Young Learner English Language Classroom. We will also provide practical ideas and activities that participants can immediately apply in their classrooms.
A successful classroom depends on so many factors. The content, the focus, the personal appeal. How can we help students who may be going through challenging moments in their lives? How can we create a sense of belonging, of having a place in the lesson and in the world?
Let’s discover some activities to engage and connect students. To encourage them to appreciate others – both friends and strangers.
Celebrating friendship and creating a community spirit!
Support Ukraine's frontline
Join us in supporting Ukraine's frontline by donating towards repairing and maintaining vehicles that are crucial for the safety and mobility of our soldiers.
Grade Education Centre has been donating to official accounts and major Ukrainian foundations since the first days of the full-scale invasion, and we have now chosen to focus our donations towards helping the army through volunteers we know, such as Andrii Burakhovich who owns a service station that he completely reformatted as a vehicle service station for the military.
With our donations, we have been able to join the delivery of about 300 vehicles to the war front in just one year.
However, vehicles on the frontline are expendable and not all of them return. Once repaired they are used to transport the wounded, for reconnaissance, and to evacuate the population. Glory to Ukraine!
Meet our Partners
We are proud to introduce our awesome partners who are helping us spread knowledge and education in all possible ways.
From local companies to international ones, they all share our passion for education and are making a real difference. Some of them have been with us from the start, while others are joining us for the first time. We appreciate each and every one of them and are excited to work together to make education accessible to all.
Reviews
About Grade Teacher Training
Grade Teacher Training is a department of Grade Education Centre (UA007) which is the only Cambridge English Authorised Platinum Centre in Ukraine and one of the most successful and productive Cambridge exam centres in Eastern Europe. More than 5,000 candidates took Cambridge English exams at our centre every year before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. There are over 100 preparation centres in our network: schools (both state and private), colleges, universities, language schools etc.