Hello

Hello,
I'm very late with this introduction. I was away on a trip for two months and couldn't do it before.
My name is Sanja. I come from Croatia. I've been a teacher for 22 years. I run my own language school in Croatia where I teach children from 2,5-18 years old. I run workshops at the conferences and I would like to learn how to create my own materials.

Hello everyone!

Hello everyone! I'm Elena from Greece, I've been an English Teacher and a Language school owner for 35 years and I'm so excited to be a member of this group of amazing people!
Since the beginning of my career I've been searching for innovative teaching methods and I was very lucky to have been trained by exceptional teacher trainers. Continuous studying, training and self evaluation have resulted to my having great awareness as a teacher. Additionally, I 've attended courses on Psychology ( Children Development ) and last year I completed my university studies on Coaching. I equally love Teaching, Psychology and Coaching and I believe that a teacher needs to be most of all a Coach in class and help the children discover the best way for them to learn.
I mostly work with young children and teenagers (aged 5 - 16) and since these are the years that they develop as personalities I love creating teaching material that gives them the opportunity to express their feelings, their fears or their doubts, material that motivates them and also gives them cultural and social skills and knowledge.
I'd love to be connected with those of you in the group who can help each other develop as teachers, writers and educators and create beautiful things together!
Please feel free to contact me at: Email: metaxa.lena@gmail.com

Hello everyone, my name is Arimbi but please call me Bea.

Hello everyone, my name is Arimbi but please call me Bea. Apologize for the late introduction as I have been away for the past few weeks, but I will definitely try to catch up with everything!

I'm originally from Indonesia and I'm a newbie in the ELT field :) I have been teaching English for only about 4 years, but now I'm currently on study leave. I taught at a private English course provider so I've had to teach English for all levels, ages, and various purposes.

I'm eager to catch up and learn from everyone here!

Cheers,
Bea

Hello everyone!

Hello everyone!
I think I'm officially the last one to post an introduction. Sorry for being so late. My schedule has been horrific.

I've taught English in 5 different countries (Japan, Hong Kong, China, the US, and Saudi Arabia). Taught English to Elementary kids for 6 years. For 14 years, I've taught Business English at major corporations, and for 5 years, I've taught Academic English at colleges and Universities. Recently started to train students in TEFL and IELTS exams and was also an invigilator.

Got bored and now am doing academic research for kicks and had a few articles published on accents and their effects on employability and teaching swearing during the past few years.

Recently, got a job in India via the State Department teaching applied linguistics at a major university, which starts next month.

I want to get into the publishing side of things as I kind of want to get out of the teaching side of it. Moreover, I've published a children's book and an awful romance novel under a pseudonym. I figured I should tackle writing a textbook on swearing that'll hopefully be better than the romance novel.

Hello everybody!

Hello everybody!
I'm Maria and I'm an ELT materials creator and English teacher. I'm originally from Russia, but have been living in Croatia for the last 5 years. I work online for a big Russian company that provides online ELT services to learners of all ages. I'm in charge of a team of materials designers for VYL and YL aged 4 - 9. I'm very happy to join this course and I hope it'll be very useful for me.
Cheers,
Maria

Really late introduction.

Really late introduction. Really sorry for that. I tried posting one before but my phone started acting up so I'm posting it now from the convenience of my laptop. I am Manoj and I work in Punjab, India. I've been working as an English trainer in the region for the past 5 years now. Earlier I used to teach IELTS, PTE and TOEFL. I currently prepare students for the verbal section of GRE, GMAT and SAT. Though I have moved to some highly competitive academic exams where English skills are a pre-requisite, I am still interested in developing materials for ELT, the reason why I am taking this course. I'm TESOL from Arizona and MA in English Literature.
I am really interested in learning from this wonderful community where a lot of people share excellent materials. I wonder when will I be able to create such materials... :
Thanks

Hi everybody!

Hi everybody! My name is Danielle, I´m an ELT editor here in Brazil working for StandFor. My main interests are Very Young Children and children´s literature. Nice to meet you all!

Hello everyone, [a repost since I didn't make it last time!]

Hello everyone, [a repost since I didn't make it last time!]

Late as always! My name is Charlotte and I am currently teaching in a vocational high school for girls in Abu Dhabi. Most of my experience has been in building EFL programs from the ground up in Nepal and Bangladesh and preparing students from the South Asian region for higher study in the US. That's where my interest in materials development comes from. Even now, in Abu Dhabi, our curriculum is very "thin." We are also left on our own to develop formative assessments, so I want to learn how to make the best of this gap and make it into a learning opportunity.

Hi there!

Hi there!

I'm Tatiana from São Paulo, Brazil. I've worked for several years as a Spanish teaching professional (mainly teacher, author and materials editor), but I've been working as an ELT editor for the last year as well. I'm glad to meet so many knowledgeable people in the ELT world and share experiences with them.
I'm looking forward to learning a lot with this community and with you, Katherine Bilsborough. :-)

Hello

Hello,
My name is Lama. I am a teacher and teacher trainer. I work in Tunisia. I am looking forward to learning more about the subject of developing ELT materials and I am glad that I could join this great community.

Hey everybody

Hey everybody,

Very happy to be along for the ride on yet another iTDi advanced skills course. Not sure how many I've taken now but it's a handful over several years - starting with Breaking Rules w/ John Fanselow. I'm also an occasional iTDi blog author and, well, overall enthusiast. Barb and Steven and everyone else involved with iTDi have created the kind of teacher-friendly vibrance in a professional learning and development community that just feels so...right. To the point it kind of makes you scratch your head and ask "why in the world is this so unique?!?!".

Anyway, I started in ELT in 2004 in Sri Lanka, moved to Thailand in 2005, back to the US in 2011, and returned to Thailand this year. I'm currently at Silpakorn University in a small city an hour west of Bangkok supervising young local future English teachers and teaching English to college students. Beyond participating in iTDi happenings I engage in various online professional community activities like ongoing discussion on twitter, IATEFL TDSIG's annual web carnival and bi-monthly podcast, #ELTchat, etc.

It's late Friday night and somehow during a very busy week I managed to get the basics of my Week 1 assignment thrown together but it does need more attention. So, hope to be able to post it tomorrow night or at the latest Sunday morning (on the late side, I know!) and catch up with the pack.

It's been great so far!

The picture is me earlier this evening - my wife took me out for a (gulp!) 40th birthday dinner, and although I love, love, love the local Thai food it was special occasion that called for American beer and a big ol' cheeseburger! :P

The restaurant really had STYLE, which makes me think about one thing I'd say I like about certain materials (not sure if it's quite a 'principle' or not) is actually style. It seems maybe superficial, but I think good aesthetic quality can really support cognitive engagement and flow. And what type of style? I think many...but I have found myself inching more and more towards appreciation of more minimalist, streamlined design (maybe this has something to do with turning - gulp again! - 40?).

I think this is because I want the 'action' to happen within and between the people in the room, not 'stuck on the page'. I think a streamlined, basic approach to written materials puts a certain trust in the teacher and the students to have the ability and the energy to make something happen with just enough input, delivered in style.

Speaking of energy, I'm out of it! Goodnight and I sincerely look forward to the rest of this course! :)

Hi everyone

Hi everyone

I'm officially the last person to post an introduction (not proud!). I'm Ahlem and I'm from Tunisia. I have been teaching for over a year at The British Council in Tunis, so this is all kind of new to me. I look forward to learning with you all. :)

Hi, everyone!

Hi, everyone! I'm an ELT editor and materials writer from Brazil. I hope to learn lots about materials design during the course and also hear about how they are developed in different teaching contexts.

Hi everyone.

Hi everyone. I just joined this group after it started, but do look forward to learning throughout this month and getting to know you through this group and and the ideas.
I am a danish teacher, having taught english for the last 30 years almost, mostly to teenagers, right now I work at a danish boarding school, a sports school for teens from 15-17 years old with two grade nine classes and about ten grade 10 classes - the last years of the secondary school system. It's a schoolform special for Denmark - the "Efterskole" - directly translated afterschool - but it's a private alternative to the 9th and 10th grade public school, but still state-supported, and very popular since kids can spend one or two years away from home at such a school.
I teach English, German as foreign languages and Danish as first language. Since our curriculum in Denmark is content based and not coursebook based in any way, we often find ourselves faced with the challenge of creating our own material based on authentic texts from various sources on the internet. I'd like to work more goal-oriented to be sure I cover both the vocabulary and the grammar challenges, while still working content based, so I do look forward to a lot of learning and inspiration.
I joined the IATEFL conference in Brighton this year - for the first time - and loved it. Have been allowed by my school to go next year too, so the idea of working more internationally really applies to me. I do look forward to reading all your introductions
Lisbeth from Denmark

Hi everyone

Hi everyone,
It feels great joining another iTDi course as I know very well from the previous courses I have taken how rewarding they are, some of them were even a turning point in my professional development and career pathway !
So, let me tell you a little about myself. I'm a teacher, teacher trainer and ICT coordinator from Egypt, currently working in Tunis. I have been teaching almost all age groups and levels for more than 17 years, in which I have adapted a lot of materials (as most teachers do most of the time) to suit my learners, their interests or my aims !
That's why I am really looking forward to working on creating ELT materials more professionally , which I would hope to use to train other teachers as well soon.
Enjoy the course and let's learn from and with each other :)

Hi everyone! I'm really happy to join you all in this course!

Hi everyone! I'm really happy to join you all in this course!

Six years ago I returned to Canada after teaching in a variety of contexts in Japan for 21 years. During that time I was very involved in JALT (which I really miss) attending conferences and giving presentations. I also became a teacher trainer.

Now I'm working as a teacher trainer in an online program developed by a local college. Most of the participants are teachers from Mexico. I really love working with teachers!

I'm taking this course because I want to learn the principles of creating materials in order to develop useful materials that help teachers develop their knowledge and skills.

P.S. I have a blog which is a work in progress and hasn't been updated in awhile.
www.teachandreflect.com

Hi all!

Hi all! I am Renata from Macedonia, teaching for 24 years internationally. I am so happy to be part of such an interesting course.
This is my third iTDi course and I can say that all of them have helped me in my teaching career so far...
Looking forward to learn a lot in this course!!!

Hi.

Hi. I’m Geraldine. I also came to this course very last minute after seeing Anne Hendler’s tweet. I’m very happy to be part of this course and to be among such an interesting group. I came to English language teaching after completing an MA and PhD in French studies.I’ve been working in Andalucía for the last four years and I’m about to change schools when I return in September. Before Spain, I worked in the English department at the University of Lyon. I’ve also taught on a number of EAP courses in the UK. I love nothing more than being in the classroom but I like the fact that teaching also allows us to work outside of the classroom through research and materials development. I’m interested in creating materials and it’s something I do regularly to supplement the coursebooks I use. I’m doing this course because I think materials writing is something I’d like to do more of and I know I can do it better.

HI everyone.

HI everyone. My name is Riadh. I`m from Tunisia. I have been teaching English for five years at the British council. I`m so excited to work with teachers from different countries

Hello all

Hello all,
Nice to see a few familiar faces here (including Anne, quite possibly one of the nicest people alive)! My name's Michael, and I live and work in rural South Korea. I'm currently teaching at a small national university here, but have experience teaching most levels of public school as well. I'm looking to get some focused PD through this course on an area I'm interested but, uh, 'haven't had the time to really get into'. If I'm a little slow to respond during the first week, I apologise — wrapping up the semester and preparing a presentation for the KATE International Conference this coming weekend in Seoul. I look forward to learning with, and from, you all! :)