Sessions

Presentation Skills 101

Presentation skills are a form of public speaking, and skills such as maintaining eye contact and providing effective feedback are important for the classroom. Whether you are a new or a very experienced teacher, everyone can benefit from this workshop. The presentation skills that will be included are eye contact, gestures, body language, vocal variety, clarity, audience awareness and engagement, comfort, filler removal, grammatical variations, speech/presentation planning, and how to evaluate and provide effective feedback. Additional information will be provided on how to continue using these presentation skills in the online setting and how to adjust them appropriately. Using the resources available through the Toastmasters International website, participants will have access to real tips that will help them improve their speaking. After talking about each presentation skill, participants will have the opportunity to practice it with a partner and evaluate each other’s improvement throughout the workshop.

The Burnout Workshop: Strategies to Help Heal the Burn

Burnout is a common experience among many EFL instructors, but it is relatively unknown how to ease, prevent, or eliminate burnout. The objective of this workshop is to provide a variety of strategies that teachers can use to alleviate their feelings of burnout. These strategies have been collected from scholars such as Christina Maslach, Michael Leiter, Richard Davidson, and Tammy Gregersen, in addition to the valuable knowledge and experiences shared by real teachers in their own published works. Strategies collected are broken down into five categories, including authentic self-care, self-awareness and improvement, relationships, technology, and books. Participants will engage in four different interactions. Each interaction will provide an opportunity for participants to think about the practical application of these strategies at home and in the workplace using the provided workbook. The workshop will conclude with a reflective activity in which each teacher will create their own burnout recovery plan.