About The Event

“TIME TO LEARN, UNLEARN AND RELEARN”

English Departments of YETEV Schools are proud to have YETEV ELT Conference that will take place online, on the 10th of April.

Globally, over 1.2 billion children are out of their classrooms for a long time. Through these challenging times, teachers have tried hard to find different ways to build trust, create safety and teach as much as possible. Our students need to be more welcomed, accepted and valued now. From the beginning of pandemic, teachers have faced with difficulties beyond their control. The current responsibility of teachers is now mostly about learning, unlearning and relearning to manage the changing nature of teaching and learning.

The pandemic has pushed teachers to find alternatives to make the learning process much more effective. They have worked hard to develop their digital pedagogical skills to be able to facilitate learning. They have also tried to develop their competency to use educational technology tools.

The theme of our conference is “Time to Learn, Unlearn and Relearn”. As Epicurus says “Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little”.

We promise you a memorable day and invite you to join us in this event on Saturday, April 10, 2021

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Speakers

© 2021 Yetev

© 2020 Yetev.

John BARTH

Since 1993, John has been teaching across extraordinarily diverse subject areas, curricular settings and almost every grade level imaginable. His wide experience as both a teacher and administrator in both Canada and Turkey encompasses cross-curricular, IB, AP, international, bilingual, team-teaching, differentiated, IT-integrative, and even multi- grade instructional contexts. The grey hair is deceiving – it’s actually why he feels so young!

Throughout his teaching career, John has been continuously involved in teacher-training and professional development initiatives, working as a coordinator, mentor or program developer. He now serves as the Director of Academic Services, Senior Teacher Trainer and Program Consultant at İnkaş A.Ş., assisting school organizations of all types across Turkey. He proudly presents dozens of seminars and workshops annually at national and regional conferences and local school sites on behalf of İnkaş and our partners across ELT, ELA and international curricula: Express Education, Collins and Trinity College London.

ABSTRACT

Mindfulness: A focus on social and emotional well-being

Being a teacher is to be deeply connected by innumerable threads to the fabric of a school and all of its community members. Our teaching and learning communities have rarely experienced the same stress, uncertainty and upheaval as they have in 2020/2021.

On ZOOM one month, back in the classroom the next, running ‘hybrid’ lessons – our comfort zone has fallen out from under our feet. Perhaps worse, the collegiality and support normally derived from the ‘Teachers’ Room’ has vanished and, in its place, we’ve struggled to regain that sense of identity and shared purpose that propels us through our work days. The pandemic has exposed the fragility of our education system, how poorly prepared for the social and emotional demands of today’s teaching context we were. These stressful conditions – testing, wi-fi connectivity, presumptuous parents or disengaged (even invisible!) students – has led many of us to feel discouraged, burnt-out, ready to quit.

Mindfulness offers us a way to address the difficult, ill-defined problems and pressures of present life, for both teachers and students. While most teacher training will focus on content and pedagogy, the danger of ignoring our social and emotional needs is very real. This session will focus on how simple mindfulness techniques can effectively reduce the stress around us by developing proactive habits and essential classroom rituals. Let’s train ourselves to be more conscious of our total experience, and regain a positive path forward!