Isabela Villas Boas, Autor em RichmondShare Blog | High quality content and interaction in the ELT world

Isabela Villas Boas

Difficult conversations about teacher evaluation

29 de janeiro de 2018

In my institution, we have a solid teacher evaluation system that has been in place for over twenty years, of course with adaptations along the way to face our ever-changing times. In this evaluation system, we try to balance the need for measurement and for development (Marzano, 2012). We also take into consideration teachers’ knowledge,...Read More

ELT Management

teacher evaluation

The challenge of wearing two hats

29 de dezembro de 2017

by Isabela Villas Boas

My whole formal educational background is academic, from my B.A. in Journalism, to my master’s in Teaching English as a Second Language and my doctorate in Education. Everything I have published so far is academic, about learning and teaching. Most of my presentations in conferences are about academic topics, ranging from second language writing, assessment,...Read More

Career, ELT Management, Reflections about Education

leadership and management

Small ways to give up control

29 de novembro de 2017

by Isabela Villas Boas

One of the best features of my job is that I get to observe teachers in their second semester in the language institute where I work. In their first semester, they go through a mentoring process and are then observed by two other academic specialists. These observations usually go very well. The teachers are very...Read More

Learner Autonomy, Lesson Ideas, Teacher Development

control, learner and teacher roles, teacher development

Ten tips for sustainable professional development – a balancing act

29 de janeiro de 2017

by Isabela Villas Boas

If you are reading this post, you are likely to be a connected educator committed to life-long learning. As such, you are probably someone who, just like me, works many hours a day in your demanding English-teaching, coordinating, or managing job and, in your free time, engages in all or some of these activities: Read...Read More

Career, Teacher Development

continuing professional development, work-life balance

Are you really teaching reading?

29 de novembro de 2016

by Isabela Villas Boas

In an integrated-skills curriculum, reading and writing can be easily neglected if curriculum developers and teachers do not make a conscious effort to focus on them explicitly and to teach them as skills on their own right, rather than mere reinforcement of grammar and vocabulary or a springboard for speaking. I have already discussed the...Read More

Skills, Teacher Development

bottom-up and top-down processing, reading strategies, teaching reading

Thirty years in ELT – some thoughts about then and now

29 de outubro de 2016

by Isabela Villas Boas

My passion for English began when I was a child and lived in the U.S. for three years while my parents went to graduate school. Upon coming back to Brazil, I was enrolled in a traditional language institute in Brasilia, Casa Thomas Jefferson (CTJ). There I went from the intermediate to the advanced level and...Read More

Career, Classroom Experiences

Should we vent about our students?

29 de setembro de 2016

by Isabela Villas Boas

Not long ago I read a blog post in Edutopia by Jason Deehan about whether venting about students should be banned. What motivated the author to write the post was the fact that he had come across a comment about a school that discouraged teachers from venting about their students because they felt that it...Read More

Classroom Experiences, Reflections about Education

venting

Five reasons why we should talk about writing

29 de agosto de 2016

by Isabela Villas Boas

In my last post, I wrote about why it seems to me that the topic “teaching writing” is avoided in ELT conferences. Now I’m going to mention why I believe it is a topic that should receive more attention, and I’m going to do so by relating it to some of the hot...Read More

Skills

writing

Why don’t we talk about writing?

29 de julho de 2016

by Isabela Villas Boas

The fabulous 15th Braz-TESOL International Conference ended a couple of weeks ago and I am still processing all the information I acquired in the many presentations I attended during the event. The program was varied both in terms of topics and presenters, and everything I chose to watch was meaningful in one way or...Read More

Skills, Teacher Development

writing

Five tips for getting the most out of conferences

27 de junho de 2016

by Isabela Villas Boas

Already thinking about the upcoming Braz-TESOL conference, last month I wrote some tips for successful conference presentations, and my dear colleague and friend Elaine Hodgson wrote about networking at conferences as a key strategy for success. This time around, I would like to focus on tips for successful conference participation, with a view to helping...Read More

Career, Teacher Development

conferences

NEWER 1 2 3 4 OLDER