It’s a new year and you are feeling all energetic to start on the right foot. Well, so are we and we’ve got a bag full of ideas to help you get the game started so that you and your students can get the most right from the beginning.

We all have them. The kids sitting at the back that make a classroom look like a gladiator arena. Kids unwilling to learn, disrupting the lesson every 5 minutes. Are they really that terrible? We’ll be looking at a few ideas that might help them and you have a better lesson.

In this session we’ll be looking at tips to help teachers and learners use computer games to enhance English language learning and promote motivation and cooperation.

It is quite common to have students who are semimotivated or unmotivated passively waiting for the end of the lesson. The question is how to make the unmotivated or
semimotivated students speak? As teachers who too has faced the problem of passivity, we will share some strategies that have proven to be effective in getting students to speak more.

Since incorporating cultural material into the teaching syllabus not only makes learners familiar with the English/American culture but helps them to recognize and combine form and meaning in their language learning, in this session we shall be looking at numerous ideas regarding how to integrate culture into the textbooks and classroom activities.

You may be teaching a class which has students who are clearly of different levels in their English language skills. In this workshop we will be looking at several strategies that a teacher can use to deal with this situation, engage all the students and make for a more homogeneous class.

How can you adapt and supplement your course book to make the class you are going to teach more exciting? How can you move from passively teaching the book you’re assigned to active teaching and active learning? And when are you going to find the time to do all of this? In this workshop we shall consider approaches to personalise the lessons and make them more engaging for both you and your students.

Being a teacher sometimes feels like being a magician and pulling some rabbits out of a hat. By this time most teachers are running out of ideas, so in this session we’ll be looking at some hands on, readymade activities you can use in your next lesson.

The school year is almost over and it’s time to start preparing for exams. Join us for some fresh activities you can use and help your students get better results while still making them feel motivated and engaged.

Portfolios are sometimes used to motivate young learners, but what about older students? In this session we’ll be looking at practical ideas and tips for using portfolios in the classroom regardless of level or age.

Frustrated, challenging, disrespectful and sometimes aggressive. Sounds familiar? You're not alone. Teachers all over face the same problem: students unwilling to learn. Are they really that bad? Is there anything we can do? In this session we'll be looking at some strategies and activities that might help you turn little monsters into learners.

The English we hear and read in class is not always the English we hear and read out there, in the real world. Would you like to use that in your lessons? Need some tips on how to make the most of it? Then this session is for you.

Classrooms are not always the friendliest of places. Sometimes they aren’t even comfortable but cramped with chairs, desks and people. This then interferes with how we teach and how students learn. In this session we’ll be looking at how classroom layout and dynamics can make the difference in students’ behaviour and learning progress.

“Good morning, everyone. Let’s start by checking the homework.” If this sounds familiar then you’re also familiar with what comes next… In “warmers, fillers and… what else?” we’ll be looking at very practical ideas for you to use any time you need.

Not many students find the experience of being tested a pleasant one. From writing to speaking and from reading to listening, we’ll be looking at activities that can be adapted to your tests, always bearing in mind that correcting a test can be turned into a learning experience for the student.

Mobiles: as teachers we hate them, but students can’t seem to live without them. So what should we do? The saying goes “If you can’t beat them, join them” and that’s what we’ll be looking at in this session: different ways of incorporating mobile devices in our class.

As teachers we are naturally communicative people, as language teachers we see it as our role to model the language we want our students to use. But are we giving them enough space to do so? In this session we’ll be looking at TTT vs Student Talking time and ways to shift the focus of our lesson so our students can make the most of it.

In our previous session “Teacher Talking Time vs Student Talking Time” we started to look at ways in which to centre our lessons more in our students. In this sessions we’ll continue developing the topic and will be sharing activities which you can use with different ages and levels to make your lessons more student centred.

We do listening activities. We do speaking activities. Textbooks aim to make a bridge between the two, yet there is so much more that can be done to take advantage of the richness of listening texts or to use authentic listenings, even at the lower levels. By getting the most out of listenings, students should be better able to get speaking.

Classroom projects require planning, coordination and analysis of possible outcomes, but they are so rich! Students can achieve a great deal and have a memorable learning experience through class projects, and in this session, a variety of classroom projects will be presented that you can later adjust to get your students engaged.

As teachers we are naturally communicative people. As language teachers, in particular, we see it as our role to model the language we want our students to use. But are we giving them enough space to speak? In this session we’ll be looking at TTT vs Student Talk Time and explore ways to shift the focus of our lessons so our students can make the most of them.

Pronunciation: it’s “oh, so” important, but “oh, so” stuck into the margins of the textbook and on scattered tracks of our CDs. In this session, we’ll explore how to make pronunciation more visual and also more prominent in our classroom. Rather than treating pronunciation as separate mini-lessons, let’s try to make it a common practice!

IH Porto shares the projects we’ve done over the year, showing how we’ve aimed to put the students in the centre of their learning. Lucky as we are to have an institution focused solely on language learning, we will share how we’ve collaborated and show our projects, while giving suggestions you might like to take advantage of for end-of-year projects.

We’ve got our “toys”, our tools and let’s take a look at some possibilities of using them. Any digital device that’s not bolted down can be used for mobile learning and we’ll share some of our favourites. This is a chance for you to bring some fresh new practices into your classroom and try out new things through the end of the schoolyear.

Reflection is such a personal thing, so how can this be done in a group? Well, let’s work together to look back at the school year, taking advantage of our successes and thinking about where we’d like to improve for the next. This is meant to be a session where you take note of what you can feasibly do in the coming year, so let’s formulate some realistic expectations together.