Super intensive course

 

XXXIII CTS event

 This event was a real blast thanks to all the participants. I feel blessed for having chosen this career. Thank you so much!!

A friendly reminder

 

 If you need some strategies and ideas on how to help your students´ learning process and deliver a more effective approach towards teaching, this event is for you. We look forward to seeing you then.

Ending the IX Summer Course for Top Teachers of English.

Today is Project submission day for the participants in the IX CTS Summer Course for Top Teachers of English . These two past weeks have been such a delight with so much discussion and exchange of ideas. I am so proud of these teachers who are so concerned about getting ready for the school year investing time and effort in improving their teaching practice. So much to learn, so much to thank them!!

Summary of 2021

 Below there is a summary of the CTS activities  (second part) we had in 2021. It was quite a year!!! Lots of challenges and decisions, lots of love, caring and sharing. It ended with hope for a wonderful 2022. 

Why a Summer Course in CTS?

 

We are really happy to start 2022 with our customary Summer Course aiming at helping our teachers of English community here in Peru. 

CTS´s IX Summer course (online)

 SMART is an acronym that is often used in business as a guide for setting business objectives, but can be applied to language outcomes. The "new normal" in our country is something blurred and although we were the last country in Latin America to resume in-person classes, we are not sure the conditions are the best to support teaching to a group of students who have been affected both emotionally and academically by the pandemic. 

However, I believe we can learn from our mistakes, improve the strategies we learned and used and get ready for whatever situation may come up. This is the rationale behind this summer course where we expect to exchange ideas and enrich our repertoire with what our colleagues have to share. 

XXIX CTS Academic Event

Paradigms, mindsets and tools have changed now that most of us are teaching online. The "new normal" is being planned as hybrid teaching (online and in person) and that brings about its own challenges. We´ll discuss some of these and we´ll all try to work out solutions to overcome them in the two workshops of this session.

Getting REady for FCE

Cambridge has changed the name of the B2 Upper Intermediate level Certificate they issue after sitting for the exam. It used to be called FCE (First Certificate in English), Cambridge English First and now B2 First; however, it has been FCE for so long that the name stuck.

What is important is what you can do once you reach this level of proficiency in English and it is a lot, read, write, listen and understand, speak, you can go around in any English speaking environment with confidence. This is why we, in Customized Training Services, the training company I work for, were asked to design a course to help teachers prepare for this examination. 

Since due to Covid 19, there are no openings for this exam in Peru, we thought of preparing modules of the different papers while waiting for exam dates. This is the first and it is on one of the hardest papers: Use of English. But we also wanted to support our teachers who already have the Certificate or are not interested in it but do want to improve their communicative abilities and so we are covering certain aspects that not only help with this exam paper but also support their communicative skills. 

 

 With a world changing so quickly in terms of technology, climate and- these days- health safety, our students, particularly teens, will need more than intellectual subject knowledge. They have lost their social peers near them and they cannot do regular “teen” things like sports, clubs, cinemas, they also  had to learn to adapt to a new kind of instructional format. How can we teachers help our students to acquire and develop skills for them to thrive in this context?

 Life competencies are now an integral part of education; our students need to develop emotional reasoning and critical thinking but we also need to know how they feel, what they want and how to face the future. We´ll try to provide some insights into this in this academic event.

Earth Day Bali

 

Earth Day 2021

 

Summer Summary

 

Classes have started in Peru and in CTS we are happy to know that this time our teachers are better prepared to deal with the challenges that online teaching brings along. As we like to keep in touch with our CTS family and friends, we started 2021 with activities (courses and seminars) aiming at supporting teachers with closing the gap for those students who could not reach the same level of progress as their peers. Here is what we did from January to March.

CTS Academic activities August-November 20202

2020 is a year to remember. Most of us had to learn new skills or adapt them to meet the challenges of lockdown, social distance and online work. In CTS we have tried to meet the expectations of our colleagues, our CTS family, and for that reason since March  we have been reading, attending courses, seminars and workshops trying to learn as much as possible about the different issues involved in teaching online to share it with them.

The video below summarizes the activities we ran from August to November.

 

Dear colleagues

Thanks very much for welcoming our CTS Review Courses. Because of the demand we are opening another series that starts in June. Look forward to seeing you there.

XX CTS Academic Event

Correction is a question of balance, students know they need help to support their learning. This workshop will help you to choose when and how to correct and what approaches to take. It will also provide some useful tips to guide you through the skill of correcting errors.  

Some mementos of our last Academic Event

On May 25th, Customized Training Services held our XIX Academic Event. We need to thank all those who made this possible: our participants, Macmillan, NUTESA and our two lecturers Ms. Liliana Burga and Ms Ellen Berry. Special thanks to RELO Andes for their FORUM magazines and for allowing the participation of their fellow Ms Ellen Berry. 

CTS Academic event

On May 25, Customized Training Services will offer its XIX Academic event. The theme of this year is Evaluation so it is natural to develop the two sessions on providing feedback as part of Formative Assessment. 

The first session will be about Feedback for Writing and the second about Feedback for Speaking. We have the pleasure to count on the expertise of Ms Ellen Burry, English Language Fellow (RELO Andes)  and Ms Liliana Burga, a teacher with many years of experience. 

As always, we keep the number of attendees short because our workshops are hands-on and we really want our CTS family to take full advantage of these events so hurry and register as soon as possible. 

Tools for Formative Assessment

This session will have two parts: the First Part will be about strategies and tools for formative assessment and the second will help participants with the preparation of Rubrics. In both cases we will be taken into account the recent guidelines given by MINEDU.