In this post, Liz Robinson introduces the 5 Teaching Challenges from Cambridge English, designed to help teachers further their professional development in just five simple steps. Drawing on a wide range of digital teacher-training content, the challenges offer a simple and engaging way for teachers to grow their confidence and continue to inspire their learners.
What are the challenges?
Each challenge relates to one category of the Cambridge English Teaching Framework. We based our final 5 choices on feedback from teachers and the main concerns they highlighted.
The five challenges are:
• Create a professional development plan that works for you
• Find new ways to motivate your learners
• Find new ways to identify and correct your learners’ mistakes
• Be more confident using digital resources
• Grow your confidence using English in class
How do the challenges work?
Teachers choose the challenge they feel will help them the most and sign-up for it on the Cambridge English website. The challenge starts as soon as they sign up and a new step will follow each week via email.
Over the five weeks we will help teachers achieve their goals by providing videos to watch, articles to read, tasks to do and ideas to reflect on.
Once they’ve completed the challenge, teachers will receive a Record of Achievement to complete and add to their portfolio.
How long do they take?
On average teachers will need to spend one or two hours a week on each step, and a little longer if they do the extension activities, which we developed especially for more experienced teachers. Some weeks teachers will be asked to try something new with their learners. These steps take a little longer as teachers are required to add the activity to their lesson plans, deliver the lesson and then reflect on it afterwards.
Who are the challenges for?
The challenges are aimed at teachers at the foundation and developing stages of the framework, who are keen to develop their teaching knowledge and practice.
How do participants record their progress?
Throughout the challenges we will ask teachers to record their thoughts and ideas in a learning journal. This may be private or public, but we suggest keeping a blog so colleagues and other teachers can follow their progress too.
We will also encourage them to share ideas and experiences, or simply join in the teaching challenge conversations by using the hashtag #5teachingchallenges.
What happens next?
After a challenge is complete, try another!
Take a peek into one of our challenges…
We know that many teachers would like to use digital resources more but lack the confidence to do so. Many feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of material available and don’t feel they have the necessary skills to handle the technology. As with all the challenges, we take a step-by-step approach to help teachers feel more confident when using digital technology.
In week one, teachers start by making notes about the types of technology they use in their lessons and their reasons for using it (if they don’t use much technology then they reflect on the reasons for this). They then read an article about integrating technology and try an activity out in class where they ask their learners to find out about digital tools and report back.
There are extension activities each week too – in week one these involve reading about and reflecting on the differences between ‘digital natives’ and ‘digital immigrants’. We encourage all teachers to keep a learning journal of their progress and thoughts during the challenges.
Over the five weeks teachers get input from a range of online sources to:
• learn more about digital skills
• find out about the kinds of digital resources they can use
• plan new activities to use with their classes
• learn about how they can reflect on their classroom practice
• try out new activities and reflect on their effectiveness.
Why not sign up now on the Cambridge English website?
Find out more about the wide range of high-quality digital content from Cambridge English, including online and blended teaching qualifications and courses, webinars, and resources on Cambridge English Teacher.