IHWO News – Spring 2010
Lucy Horsefield – Chief Operating Officer,
International House World Organisation lucy.horsefield@ihworld.co.uk
We enjoyed a busy and exciting start to 2010, starting with the Director of Studies Conference on HMS Belfast in January and then the Young Learner Conference hosted by IH Kyiv in March. This was quickly followed by attendance at the British Council ELTon Awards because our Online Teacher Training Institute received a nomination for innovation. In March 2010 we welcomed two new schools to the organisation – IH Benghazi in Libya and IH San Diego. Finally, in April, the IHWO team headed up to Harrogate for a fantastic few days at IATEFL.
IHWO DOS Conference – January 2010
Despite the extremely adverse weather conditions our annual Director of Studies Conference held on the HMS Belfast was an enormous success. Delegates thoroughly enjoyed the unique venue and were treated to some inspiring and informative presentations from both IH DoSes and external speakers such as Jeremy Harmer, Russell Stannard and Hugh Dellar. This event was particularly special because it was the first IH Conference to be filmed. Videos of sessions from the conference were uploaded onto the homepage of the IH World website for all interested parties to view and the response from IH schools and external parties was extremely positive. Twitter coverage of the conference was so extensive that author Lindsay Clandfield was inspired to create a tribute video in our honour called ‘Battleship ELT’!
IHWO YL Conference hosted by IH Kyiv – March 2010
The IHWO YL conference was hosted this year by IH Kyiv and was well attended by YL teachers from around the IH network of schools.
Those attending were treated to a variety of fantastic presentations in the areas of Very Young Learners to Teenagers. Prominent among the discussions were the future direction of the IHCYL course and rewrites to modules. Also, a presentation by two IH Kyiv teachers on ‘Power Teaching’ was a special highlight among the Saturday sessions which were held in the teaching premises of IH Kyiv.
IH Kyiv made everyone feel very welcome and we were all fortunate to be able to experience a tour of Kyiv and, of course, Ukrainian hospitality during our visit!
IH Online Teacher Training Institute (OTTI)
The IH Online Teacher Training Institute (OTTI) was established in 2008 to provide the opportunity for teachers throughout the network to follow IHWO courses in an online format. In the past few years IH OTTI has flourished and now offers training courses for every stage of a teacher’s career, from the initial training certificate through to specialist training such as Business English, Young Learners, Advanced Methodology and Director of Studies training. Our pioneering IH Certificate in Online Tutoring (IH COLT) has been used by many organisations to train their online tutors.
We were thrilled when IH OTTI was nominated for an ELTon, the only international awards ceremony that celebrates and rewards innovations within English Language Teaching. To find out more about IH OTTI courses visit – http://www.ihonlinetraining.net
IH Journal goes digital
We are delighted that the IH Journal has now gone digital and has its own dedicated website accessible by those within the IH network and beyond! Since its creation in 1996 the IH Journal has been written by teachers, for teachers and we have always valued and welcomed articles from newly qualified teachers, teacher trainers and directors of studies alike as well as well known authors, materials writers and applied linguists. Over the years the pieces written for the IH Journal have built up to create a treasure trove of interesting and insightful articles. We are very keen to share the expertise and knowledge from within IH with the outside world and what better way to do this than by having the IH Journal online for all to access.
