As teachers, we tend to focus so much on our learners that we often forget to think about our own wellbeing. Yet, teachers’ wellbeing is as important as learners’ and should be considered as an end in itself (Gregersen & Mercer, 2020). Williams et al. (2021) illustrate the importance of teacher wellbeing well by means of a metaphor: “As they say in airplanes, please put on your own oxygen mask first, before you try to help those who need your help (your learners). Your psychological wellbeing is precious and worth nurturing for your own sake as well as that of your learners” (p. 12). In this workshop, I will introduce some activities related to positive psychology that foster teachers’ wellbeing and enable teachers to focus on themselves. Participants in the workshop will have the opportunity to engage in and to reflect on those activities.

References Mercer, S., & Gregersen, T. (2020). Teacher wellbeing. Oxford University Press. Williams, M., Puchta, H., & Mercer, S. (2021). Psychology in practice. Helbling languages.

This workshop will introduce some practical activities to help teachers incorporate Latin and Greek word roots into university and high-school classes in an educational, yet enjoyable way. Since it has been estimated that over three-fifths of Modern English words have their roots in Greek, Latin, and the Romance languages (Hook 1975), presenting these types of activities can be a way to bolster our students’ vocabularies and help them recognize patterns in the English lexicon. In addition, activities and games will be provided that teachers can use to introduce the origins of words and expressions from history (e.g. Armageddon, ‘turn a blind eye,’ etc.), as well as the origins of some words that most English speakers take for granted (e.g. the days of the week and months of the year). It is hoped that these activities will spark the students’ interest, help them remember more of the words they learn, and give them practice speaking English.

Depending on the learner and faculty support at the secondary and tertiary levels, students and teachers can be isolated in their environments because faculty development is not readily available. Nevertheless, the isolation can provide time to explore creativity and collaborative autonomy that is refreshing for students and teachers alike. Therefore, in this workshop, we will explore ways of developing and sustaining collaborative autonomy where creativity and innovation can flourish for effective change in various academic settings essential for vibrant learning organizations. Feeling under pressure from organizational constraints leads to stress, undermining the creative force vital for innovative learning environments. To combat academic stressors, workshop participants will actively engage in and reflect on thought-provoking work, receive creative encouragement, and use innovative resources that stimulate their creativity.

In this workshop I will focus on Schön’s (1983) concept of "Reflection on action". This means looking back at what you have done to understand and improve upon it. Over the last 6 years, I have had all my students complete a self-reflection and participation log during each semester. The purpose of the log is to encourage students to consider what they did in class, why they did it, what went well, what did not go well, what was difficult, and most importantly, what they should do to make positive change and improve themselves for the next time. During the course of a semester, I read the student logs and make comments or pose questions about the content. The logs have helped me understand my classes in a deeper way and sometimes make changes to my teaching practice. Additionally, judging from a number of student log entries, I can assert that the logs have been beneficial for students also. Participants in this workshop will work in groups to reflect about their classroom practice, analyse my logs for critique and improvement and finally discuss and share ideas for how to better utilise the tool of reflection in any learning context.

Inclusive education is a human right, a means of realizing other human rights, and the result of an ongoing process to remove barriers to learning (Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2016). Language learning presents several unique barriers to students with disabilities (SWDs), especially those with sensory impairments and/or specific learning difficulties (Kormos, 2017). In addition, many English language teachers (ELTs) have reported feeling unprepared to teach SWDs (Hale & Ono, 2019; Smith, 2006; Sowell & Sugisaki, 2020), and inclusive practices are uncommon in pre-service ELT training (Smith, 2008; Stapleton & Shao, 2018). It is therefore imperative that in-service ELTs improve their ability to effectively include SWDs in their instruction.

Fortunately, reflective practice can help teachers gain insight into and improve the efficacy of inclusive practices (Graham et al., 2020; Higbee, 2009; Kuruvilla, 2017; Torres & Rao, 2019). This workshop will walk participants through using the Inclusive Practices in English Language Teaching Scale (IPELT) as a reflective tool to improve their awareness and implementation of inclusive practices. Participants will discuss basic concepts related to inclusive education before using the IPELT to reflect on their own teaching and create an action plan for more inclusive instruction.

With the conference goal of "how to encourage learners to engage in their learning to make a difference in their lives, their local communities, and beyond," how to engage normally disengaged students will be presented. Academic writing, whether as a stand-alone class or as required assignments in subject classes, is dreaded by many university students. It is perhaps the underlying reason many students are tempted to plagiarize and more recently use AI-assistance, like chatGPT, to help complete their writing tasks. Techniques will be presented that can help students realize the value of learning to write effectively. Also to be presented are activities to develop students' metacognition of themselves as students, such as their attitude towards studying and their behaviors that result in stress and low performance. Through such attitude adjustments and self-awareness raising, students will be better positioned to not only succeed in their studies at university without cutting corners, but to understand how the skills they develop can be applied in areas outside of university.