The King and I @ IATEFL Brighton 2011

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The King and I
You may be wondering why I chose this title. Well I had a picture taken with the King of Rock at the Honey Club in Brighton!! Elvis Presley was there!! Well, actually an Elvis impersonator who was very, very good indeed. I couldn't resist it, but I had to have a photo with him. As soon as I saw him, this blog post title flashed through my mind and here it is!! That's the way my mind works. Title first, blog post second.

The occasion was the onestopenglish 10th anniversary birthday party celebration on the beach front. The wine was flowing, the food was delicious, and the partygoers were lively and dynamic! I went on my own but within seconds I had met up with lots of lovely people, who I chatted to throughout the evening.

Janet with Shelly

Sue, Tara, Brad and Marisa

Sue, Petra, Janet and Burcu

The Tagxedo below in the patriotic shape of England is a summary of my thoughts and feelings of the 45th IATEFL Brighton Conference. I have read so many fantastic summaries already that I'm afraid I feel that I wouldn't be able to add anything new or fresh, so I have decided to sum it up briefly using a few Web 2.0 tools, images and links to some fab blog posts with great reviews.
Every single session I attended was inspiring, and you can view most of the presenters' materials and resources in the index here.

I was in 7th heaven throughout the 4 days in Brighton. Or more to the point, on cloud 9!! There was so much to see and do that I was spoilt for choice!! The weekend was like the merry-go round below - full of action, fast and furious!

Now I am slowly but surely going through the links to presentations and slides that presenters have kindly uploaded on their session page on the BrightonOnline site.

I couldn't attend all the talks, but I have been reading a lot of summaries from my PLN. One talk I missed was "Web 2.0 Tools for IELTS speaking and writing success" by Amanda Wilson and Susan Dempsey. This is interesting for me because I have taught a lot of IELTS examination classes and anything to make them more dynamic, is most welcome!! I like all the web 2.0 tools that are suggested in this session.

Tech Gurus
I met someone I owe a lot of my technology awareness to: none other than Mr Russell Stannard himself. His presentation was wonderful and I enjoyed finding out so much about different web 2.0 tools and their applications. A Channel Live reporter from Tuxpi was able to snap the photo below!

The room was packed full and I enjoyed the talk immensely. Click on Teacher Training Videos to see all the fabulous tools that Russell shows us how to use.

I also attended another of my Tech Gurus presentations. Nik Peachey's fab talk on "Digitising your ELT Course Book" proved to be very exciting, and it was great to see him in action in person. You can view the full session details here.

World Premiere
The world premiere of An Idiomatic Story 2011 took place in Brighton & Hove. It has now been made into an award-winning film!! You can view the original screenplay on Slideshare here.
Please click on the promotional film poster produced by BigHugeLabs in order to view it better.






Brighton Images

The Brighton Pier was lovely by night. I had to have fish and chips as soon as I arrived and I bought them from the Pier. The chips were absolutely delicious!

Brighton beach was empty while I was there, as you can see. I enjoyed eating my sarnies on the pebbles, and just watching the ebb and flow of the waves. I also reflected on the variety of the pebbles
The sunsets were lovely.

The B&B was conveniently located near the seafront and Brighton Conference Centre.

A Busman's Holiday
Brighton's colourful red buses reminded me that I was having a "busman's holiday".
A busman's holiday is when you go on holiday and do the same thing that you would normally do in your job. In my case, I am a teacher and I had my first proper holiday in ages in Brighton by attending a Teachers' conference, so I was actually learning and talking all about my job the whole weekend!! I am not complaining, though. Iwould do it all over again and I feel lucky to have been there.

Some Feedback Blog Posts
Finally, for some links to some fab feedback blog posts please see below!

Phil Bird's Classroom 201X - IATEFL - On Tech
Brad Patterson's A Journee in Language - The WHY, WHY NOT, and WILL of IATEFL
Tara Banwell's My English Club - IATEFL Wordle Reflection
Mike Harrison's collection of feedback on his FaceBook Blog
Mike Harrison's collection of feedback on Scoop It!
Marisa Constantinides' TEFL Matters -Reporting after IATEFL Brighton
Shaun Wilden's Blog - What I Learned in Brighton
Sharon Hartle's Blog - Post Iatefl Blues
Profesorbaker's Blog - IATEFL 2011 Highlights: Magical memories

This Youtube video by OUPELTGlobal sums up the wonderful Brighton conference. Thanks also to Eva for her very kind words about my session!!



Tying the Knot
Sadly, Frederick was denied the pleasure of tying the knot with his beloved Isabella, so I'll have to make do with the Royal Wedding instead, which takes place on Friday 29th April.

I'll be in Abruzzo on the actual day. I wonder how Italian telly is going to cover the Big Day? Watch this space!!