Susan Hillyard (B.Ed. (Hons.) Warwick University, UK.)
Resourcing your difficult classroom with imagination
The objectives of this workshop are to raise the participants’ awareness of how both teachers and students arrive at the classroom door each day with their imaginations active in their minds. However, as language teachers, we rarely tap into this valuable, free resource to motivate students or enhance their acquisition of English. The presenter will open up a discussion to try to define what we mean by the word “imagination” and what it is that makes us all believe our classrooms are difficult spaces to work in. We shall analyze the nature of these difficult circumstances and explore what all of these different, difficult environments have in common. One certain commonality is that many students themselves feel alienated from participating in classes which traditionally do not delve into the inner lives of the students.
Susan Hillyard has a B.Ed. (Hons.) Warwick University, UK. In her 52-year long career in 17 countries her roles include Teacher, HOD, Trainer, Conference/Webinar Presenter, Workshop Facilitator, Materials Writer and Researcher. She is Director of SHELTA, offering consultancy, PPD, EMI and courses on teaching English creatively to Teachers worldwide.