Global Teachers’ Festival 2023 – Macmillan Education

André Hedlund is a Chevening Alumnus, MSc in Psychology of Education (University of Bristol), Educational Consultant, Speaker, and Guest Lecturer on Bilingualism and Cognition. He’s a board member of BRAZ-TESOL’s Mind, Brain, and Education SIG, and Academic Director of EdYOUfest. He’s the author of The Owl Factor: Reframing your Teaching Philosophy, and he blogs at edcrocks.com. 

Read about Andre’s session: Past and Future of Teaching: A Science of Learning Perspective

Prof. Paul A. Kirschner is professor emeritus in Educational Psychology. He is an internationally recognized expert in his field and has published approximately 400 scientific articles as well as hundreds of popular scientific articles and blogs for teachers and school administrators. His two most recent books are How Learning Happens: Seminal Works in Educational Psychology and What They Mean in Practice and How Teaching Happens: Seminal Works in Teaching and Teacher Effectiveness and What They Mean in Practice, Evidence Informed Learning Design.

Read about Paul’s session: What Our Brain Does When Learning, and Why it Matters

Rhona Snelling is an ELT teacher, editor, and author. She qualified with International House and has extensive experience teaching in Europe and New Zealand. She has worked as a content editor for two leading ELT publishers, and has a Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition from the University of Oxford. Rhona has authored numerous ELT courses including Speak Your Mind and Gateway to the world A1+ workbook.

Read about Rhona’s session: ELF – English in International Working Environments

Prof. Michał B. Paradowski is a professor and teacher trainer at the Institute of Applied Linguistics, University of Warsaw and a research and language teaching consultant. His interests include second language acquisition and instruction, English as a lingua franca, Study Abroad, and social network analysis. He gave over 210 invited lectures, seminars and workshops in Europe, America, Asia, Oceania and Africa. Michał’s edited volumes are Teaching Languages off the Beaten Track and Productive Foreign Language Skills for an Intercultural World; his monograph is titled M/Other Tongues in Language Acquisition, Instruction, and Use. He is currently PI in projects https://peerlang.ils.uw.edu.pl, https://schoolclosure.ils.uw.edu.pl, and https://L2grit.ils.uw.edu.pl.

Read about Michal’s session: Which English Will Give our Students the Best Mileage?

Lorena Peimbert studied Pedagogy at the Universidad Panamericana in Mexico City and became an English teacher in 1995, specializing in early childhood stimulation, learning disabilities, psychomotor skills, and logical-mathematical thinking. With more than 20 years of experience in teaching and working in schools, she now trains and coaches teachers, content edits, manages educational projects, and writes in collaboration with Macmillan. She has written different books to teach English to students in different levels from preschool to high school. Her mission is for educators and students to become the best version of themselves..

Read about Lorena’s session: Mastering the Five Competencies of Social Emotional Learning

Emma Reynolds is an accredited Mindfulness Teacher (MBSR), who is also trained to teach Mindfulness to children. Apart from the various webinars on Mindfulness for teachers and their students, Emma also wrote the new Mindfulness course for Macmillan included in “Lead the Way” for primary students. She regularly appears on the App WellnessCoach, has created an online Mindfulness course for Menopausal women and teaches both privately and in the corporate sector. www.mbsr-mindfulness.com

Read about Emma’s session: Stress-busting Meditations for Busy Teachers

Ethan Mansur is the author of the teacher’s books for the new 4th editions of Ready for B2 First and Ready for C1 Advanced. He currently teaches at International House Madrid, where over the years he has prepared dozens of students for the Cambridge exams. He has an MA in Applied Linguistics and TESOL from the University of Leicester.

Read about Ethan’s session: Past and Future of Teaching: A Science of Learning Perspective

Prof. David Crystal is honorary professor of linguistics at Bangor University, and works from his home in Holyhead, North Wales as a writer, editor, lecturer, and broadcaster in language and linguistics. He is patron of IATEFL, and author of over 100 books on various aspects of English. He lives online at www.davidcrystal.com.

Read about David’s session: Finding Lifelines of Reflection in Shakespeare

Ben Crystal is an actor, author, producer, educator, & explorer of Shakespeare, based in Wales. The curator of the ShakespeareEnsemble.com, he has collaborated with Shakespeare’s Globe, the British Council, and the British Library. He is the author of Shakespeare On Toast: Getting a Taste for the Bard, which was short-listed for the Educational Writer of the Year Award 2010, as well as the Springboard Shakespeare series. With his father David Crystal he is co-author of the Oxford Illustrated Dictionary of Shakespeare, shortlisted for the 2016 Educational Writer of the Year Award. He tweets from @bencrystal and is online at www.bencrystal.com

Read about Ben’s session: Finding Lifelines of Reflection in Shakespeare

After studying languages at Oxford University, David Spencer trained to be a Secondary School teacher. He then moved to Spain where he has been living and teaching ever since.
He continues to teach teenage students every day in a school near Madrid. Davebegan writing courses for Macmillan Education in 1994. His brand new series for teenagers is a multi-level course designed to prepare teenage students for exams and life after school. Dave has given talks to teachers in twenty-eight countries and is active on social media.

Read about David’s session: Opening Teenagers’ Hearts and Minds to the World

Jade Blue is an English language teacher, trainer, researcher and materials developer. Her primary research interests focus on learner-generated visuals in ELT, learner autonomy, and integrating life skills into classroom practice. Jade regularly creates academic training content for major ELT publishers. She has authored a wide range of ELT articles, Teacher Guides and Research Guides, and has presented at various conferences including IATEFL and as a Keynote speaker at The Image Conference.

Read about Jade’s session: Using Images to Explore Culture

Chaz Pugliese is a lecturer, author, speaker and teacher trainer. Chaz is currently Director of Education and Teacher Training at Pilgrims Global, working out of Ireland and France.
With over 30 years’ experience in the field of Foreign Language Teaching, Chaz has taught in five countries, and has trained teachers in as many as 35 countries all over the world. His publications include: ‘Being Creative’ (Delta, 2010), ‘Principled Communicative Teaching’ (with J. Arnold and Z. Dörnyei, Helbling, 2015) and ‘Creating Motivation’ (Helbling, 2017). Research interests: psychology in the learning process, creativity, motivational issues and the role of emotions in the learning process.

Read about Chaz’s session: Pre-teens blues: what can teachers do to help?

Prof. Alicja Gałązka is a Professor at the University of Silesia, a psychotherapist, psychologist, linguist, a licenced coach and an international master trainer. A President of ICI ( International Coaching Institute ) in Poland and a head of the Language Centre FUTURE in Poland. She is an author of over 300 articles published in Polish and English .An active member of IDEA, National Drama Association and IATEFL. Has been researching and practising drama for years. Her main interest is psychology and drama in the ELT classroom .A coordinator and participant of many international projects. Coordinator of two SIGs : Psychology in ELT and Drama in ELT in IATEFL Poland. A regional adviser for Trinity College London in Poland, teacher trainer cooperating with many international educational organisations. Working in two main sectors: Medicine and Education. She actively works with teachers, school managers and pupils on developing their well-being and resilience.

Read about Alicja’s session: The Passage to Adulthood

Nik Peachey has worked all over the world training teachers and developing innovative and creative products. He is a two-time British Council Innovations award winner and has been shortlisted six times. His more recent projects have included two years as pedagogical manager for a 100% online school delivering language learning remotely to students in Brazil, Head of Content Development for EtonX a 100% online school owned by Eton College and content developer for an English and Interfaith Dialogue course designed for the British Council and Al-Azhar University in Cairo.

Read about Nik’s session: Overcoming Learner Fatigue through Creativity

After graduating with a degree in English Literature and History from Leeds University, Lucy Horsefield trained as an English language teacher and taught in Italy, the UK and Australia. In 2002, she joined International House World Organisation (IHWO) and worked firstly in teacher recruitment and then quality management, overseeing the inspection scheme for IHWO’s global network of affiliated language schools. From 2009 – 2022, Lucy was the COO and then Managing Director of IHWO. Whilst at IHWO, Lucy had the privilege of visiting many IH schools around the world as well as working with a huge network of professional teachers, trainers and managers. She is now studying full-time for an MSc in Organisational Psychology at City, University of London.

Read about Lucy’s session: Reflections on Leading a Global Network of Language Schools in Uncertain Times

Myriam Monterrubio is a certified English teacher from Instituto Anglo Mexicano and Bell College, England. She studied Psychology at “Universidad Iberoamericana” in Mexico City specializing in Child Psychology. She has been involved in teacher training since 1987 and has given numerous seminars in Latin America, the Caribbean and The United States. She is co-author of 5 Macmillan kinder series.  Mrs. Monterrubio is currently the coordinator of the bilingual program in 35 schools of the Daughters of Charity in Andalusia.

Read about Myriam’s session: Every Child Matters

Lucy Crichton graduated in Drama, Art and Design and Teaching English as a Foreign Language. She has been a teacher for 28 years and during that time have also been involved in teacher training. She writes for the primary classroom and these projects have taken me to countries in South America, Europe and Asia.  Lucy is the founder of The Secret Garden English School in Florianopolis, where she teaches children and teenagers with a focus on living the language through practical projects, music art, drama, gardening and cooking. Brazil is her adopted home.

Read about Lucy’s session: Children’s writing: Pictures, words, sentences and beyond!

Sarah Hillyard is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and holds a Master’s Degree in Teaching English to Young Learners from the University of York, U.K. She has been teacher and coordinator at pre-primary level and is now ELT academic consultant for bilingual schools. She is tutor on NILE’s online course “Teaching English in Pre-Primary Education” (UK). She delivers webinars and teacher training sessions at conferences and schools and has published articles focusing on teaching English to young learners. She is co-author and series consultant for Pearson’s new pre-primary course “Little Stars” and primary course “Our Stories”. She used to be an actress with The Performers (TIE – Theatre in Education) and is now the company’s ELT consultant.

Read about Sarah’s session: Befriending Distractions in the Young Learner Classroom

Susan Hillyard has a B.Ed. (Hons.) degree from Warwick University in UK. She has played many roles in her fifty year career: Teacher, Head of Dept., Teacher Trainer, Conference Speaker, Workshop Facilitator, Materials Writer, Researcher, On-line tutor, TIE consultant for The Performers and Webinar Presenter. Presently she is founder and Director of SHELTA, Susan Hillyard’s English Language Teachers’ Academy and a freelance consultant on EMI for the British Council in China. Her interests lie in Inclusion, Drama for ELT, Spoken English, Global Issues, World Englishes, Teacher Development and Trainer Training.

Read about Susan’s session: What Makes Young People Tick These Days?

Dr. Amina Douidi is a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) and Intercultural Communication consultant in ELT. She holds a PhD in Modern Languages and Applied Linguistics from the University of Southampton, UK, where she investigated ways to promote diversity and intercultural learning in textbooks and language classrooms in the context of Algeria. She is a DEI reviewer for publishers and teaches pre-sessional EAP in UK Higher Education. She also acts as co-editor of the TESOL ICIS newsletter championing contributions from teachers and researchers from the Global Majority.

Read about Amina’s session: Promoting interculturality in ELT through cultural diversity

Harry Waters has been involved in English teaching for over 14 years. His passion for teaching and obsession with the planet led him to create Renewable English, an online English course, providing free classes and materials aimed at raising climate change awareness across the globe. Harry is also a passionate teacher trainer. He describes himself as an imperfect environmentalist with a love of flags and funky second-hand shirts.

Read about Harry’s session: Changing the World, One Step at a Time