Continuing Professional Development is an area of ELT that can sometimes be given less importance and acknowledgment than it deserves by organisations and by ourselves. This may be down in part to time, financial constraints, or, as is often the case for a less experienced teacher, a lack of focussed guidance and support, leading to a feeling of not knowing where to start, feeling overwhelmed by choice, and being unsure about how to realise achievable CPD goals.

This session aims to raise awareness of what CPD is, what is available and relevant to English language teachers in the first few years of their career, and how to integrate CPD opportunities seamlessly into their busy lives. An underlying premise is that in order to develop effectively we must reflect in a meaningful way and recognise our ongoing achievements in order to move forward.

In this workshop, we aim to look at the various ways we can access professional development, how to select what is useful and relevant for us and our students and how to gather evidence through reflective practices to monitor and measure the impact on our students.

We will provide practical, easy-to-implement ideas which can be embraced into the everyday working life of a busy English teacher, including a number of useful hints and reflective tools.

The workshop will also give the participants the opportunity to reflect and set professional SMART developmental goals relevant to their experience, environment and students.