Dear HLT Readers.

Welcome to the December issue.

Let me start by recommending Pilgrims News: A Fresh Wave of Energy Seizes Pilgrims! by Till Gins, Lead Officer. We are doing well and getting ready for Summer 2025. You can see our offer here.

The energy Till is talking about is, among others, reflected by the trainers’ participation in conferences Learn & Lead Innovation Business Conference, Trnava, Slovakia, 33rd IATEFL POLAND International Conference Gdańsk, 20th – 22nd September 2024, RO-HU Regional ELT Conference in Oradea, Romania. See you at the next conferences we will attend: The MATSDA/IGSE Conference 2025: Humanising Language Teaching Materials, TESOL Spain 2025, TESOL Greece 2025, and, of course, IATEFL in Edinburgh.

The Trnava conference has paved the way for our new cooperation and initiative – for more read Learn & Lead with Pilgrims by Jana Chynoradská. 

Also don’t miss the information that we have launched Pilgrims Teacher Training Recruitment.

You will find more ELT news in the To the Editor section.

We have just had our second Pilgrims Café. If you missed it you can view the session on our fb page. The next one to come is in New Year. More details below. See you then.

Sadly, in this issue we say good-bye to N.S. Prabhu. In ‘We Stand on the Shoulders of Giants’: In Celebration of the Life of N.S. Prabhu, this wonderful person and great scholar is remembered by Alan Maley.

The articles in this issue deal with a variety of subjects such as motivation (Strategies to Promote Grit in the Classroom by Stephanie Ptak, SEN (Visually Impaired Students Train Teachers How to Teach Them by Stephen Reilly Jr), and the teaching profession (Lessons Learned Teaching Abroad Part 4 by Stephen Mullen).

There are four texts relating to AI: Promoting Meaningful Learning in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Flora Debora Floris, Insights Index Newsletter: Artificial Intelligence from Macmillan, a review of Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans a book by Melanie Mitchell, from Picador, and a review of Artificial Intelligence in the Primary Classroom. 101 ways to save time, cut your workload and enhance your creativity by Gemma Clark, from Crown House Publishing

Th Eco issues section is doing really well. In this issue it is 5 articles strong: Be Climate Aware – An Interview by Albert p'Rayan, India and Alan Maley, Going Public on Your School’s Green Credentials by Adrian Underhill, Eco Christmas, and reviews of Is it really green? Everyday eco dilemmas answered, by Giada Cortese and 50 Ways to be a Greener Teacher by Alan Maley.

There are great practical ideas for the classroom in Beyond Curriculum:  Teaching ELT through a CLIL Multidisciplinary Class by Eugenia P. Iskos, and Joanna Chletsi, Materials Writing form ETPaedia, The Implementation of Teaching Speaking Through Vocabulary Memorization: ReflectiveTeaching With Santri at Jalaluddin Ar-Rumi Institute by Muhammad Affan Ridho, and Enhancing Knowledge of English Language and Culture Through Music In a Radio Show by Juan C. Domínguez López, Alina González Hourruitiner, and Arelis Tamayo Verdecia.

Don’t miss articles with voices about the English Language: One is Most Bemused: Hedging and the Strange Function of ‘One’ by Hugh Dellar (Lexical Lab), Like to or Like ing? by Steve Krajewski and Language Learning and Football: What Football Taught Me About Language Learning and Teaching?, Dylan Gates.

You can find book reviews in the AI and Eco issues sections; there are more in the Publications section: Mentoring Teachers: Supporting Learning, Wellbeing and Retention by Angi Malderez, review by Mariana Serra, and Short Book Reviews by Hanna Kryszewska.

Enjoy this jam-packed issue of HLT.

Sending you the best of Season’s Greetings

 

Hanna (Hania) Kryszewska
HLT Editor
Email: hania.kryszewska@pilgrimsteachertraining.eu