Sunday, March 22, 2015

E-merging forum 5 afterthoughts

I'm finally home and rested after E-merging Forum 5 in Moscow. A week after the end of the forum I sat down to think about it again. Being registered blogger definitely changed my experience of the conference and I'm not sure in which way. On the one hand I feel like I spent most of the forum head down in my tablet trying to type fast on the elusive keyboard. In some way I even feel that the conference kind of went past me :) Although it was tough the first day, I felt upbeat and even jotted down a post in the metro in the way to the conference building. I also have a very tangible proof of my presence there -  6 (!) posts, more than I write in a usual month.
I was trying to compare emf4 and emf5, but soon stopped trying. The first time is always super-exciting and new, I remember being really inspired by the ideas and people I saw a year ago. This time around I also left inspired not so much by the ideas (many didn't seem new), but by the people, teachers who continue to create, write, present, assess and improve.The final presentations left a big smile on my face and continued humming "If you are a stunning teacher.." (search for videos in instagram with #emf5) all the way to Saint-Petersburg. I wish I had had more time and courage to talk to my fellow teachers, but it is something I'll leave for next year...

I looked through my posts again and below you can find corrected versions with added links:
Herbert Puchta "Teaching Young Learners: What's hot and what not"
Catherine Walter "Learning grammar and pronunciation: what do we know and what can we do about it?"
Rimma Chaldymbaeva "10 reasons to use smartphones and tablets at efl classes"
Anna Loseva "Flashmob in elt"
Day 3 Plenary Talks
Day 3 Discussion Groups

Check out other registered bloggers' posts:
prolific Olya Sergeeva on ELT stories
Elena Matveeva on  Language Flame blog
Natalia Almaeva on Natalia's blog
Mura Nava on EFL Notes

and an official blog + interviews with speakers on TeachingEnglish website

Thank you, British Council, for organising this wonderful event and all the teachers that made it worth visiting! Till next year!


2 comments:

  1. I quite agree that the first forum is always remembered more. My first E-merging forum was the third one and I can't describe how excited I was. But the more forums we attend, the more we I understand and the experience is different indeed. Thank you for mentioning my blog :-)

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    1. Hi, Elena! Yeah, I think when you come second, third time you learn to really "use" the forum, to get as much as possible from it as opposed to being ovewhelmed with everything on your first one :)
      A pleasure!

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