LATE ran a project during the autumn school holidays in Latgale in 2023 called the British Culture and Teaching Roadshow.
The seminars were organised by the Latvian Association of Teachers of English in cooperation with the British Council in Latvia.
The seminars were open to all teachers in the region, not just LATE members.
- in Daugavpils on the 24th of October 2023 at Daugavpils Valsts ģimnāzijā
- in Rezekne on the 25th of October 2023 at Rēzeknes Valsts 1.ģimnāzijā
- in Ludza on the 26th of October 2023 at Ludzas pilsētas vidusskolā
- and in Balvi on the 27th of October 2023 at Balvu Valsts ģimnāzijā
The Seminar Programme
9.00
Seminar Opening
09.15 -10.45
New Approaches to Accelerating and Improving Learning Through Media Literacy, Critical Thinking and Digital Citizenship
Robert Buckmaster looked at media literacy and suggest practical ways to question media, do photography-based projects, and highlight fake news. He will show how to use the total text comprehension and the 650 text approaches to develop critical thinking in our students. Finally he will show how to use case studies to develop good digital citizenship skills.
11.00 -12.30
Creating Inclusive and Differentiated Learning Spaces
Creating a learning environment in which every student thrives and reaches their potential is the ultimate goal of every teacher, but probably the one which the vast majority of teachers find the most difficult. In this workshop, Andrew will assist you in gaining a deeper understanding of inclusion and differentiation, supported by key educational theories, and introduce strategies teachers can adopt when teaching mixed-ability MFL (Modern Foreign Language) students. Attendees will then have the opportunity to collaborate with peers to develop sample lesson plans that cater to diverse learners.
13.15 -14.45
Incorporating British Culture into the Curriculum
Craig Rose talked about what culture means to British people and will show you have you can add elements of culture to your courses in creative ways so that the students can learn about British culture, and their own, and about how life is changing in multicultural Britain.
15.00 –16.00
Round Table Discussion: Your chance to ask the trainers any questions you like about teaching, growing up and living in England, and living and working in Latvia.
16.00 –17.00
Project work: Vox Pop Video Recording: This is your chance to interview and record the trainers answering questions for your learners. You will script the questions and then we can video you asking the trainers these questions. We will edit these recordings and provide them to you to use with your students as authentic video tasks.
17.00 – 17.30
Q and A; Certificates; Closing
After the Seminars
As part of the event, we offered the teachers the opportunity to join a Telegram-based Community of Practice which will offer ongoing follow-up support from November 2023 to the end of March 2024.
The Trainers
Our three trainers are all British native speaker teachers who have chosen to live and work in Latvia.
Robert Buckmaster
Rob was born near Birmingham in England and has traveled the world since then. He now lives in Jelgava. He has been teaching English and training teachers for over 30 years. His main interests are in better descriptions of English, better teaching materials and better methodology.
Andrew Doxsey
Andrew was born and educated in a town in the north of England called Bolton. He trained as a mathematics teacher and started teaching in 1999; he now teaches English in Limbazi. He is passionate about convincing students to view success as the progress they are making rather than a grade. In doing so all students can feel positive about their achievements.
Craig Rose
Craig grew up in Enfield, North London and now lives in Jelgava, where he has lived for the past 10 years. He works in a private language school based in Riga. His main interest in the classroom is making the environment fun and giving the students ample opportunity to express themselves vocally and gain confidence and fluency.
Organised in cooperation with the British Council in Latvia.