RMIT Teacher Talks upskills educators adjusting to online teaching in Vietnam

RMIT Teacher Talks upskills educators adjusting to online teaching in Vietnam

In response to the current global health pandemic, this year’s Teacher Talks event was delivered virtually to teachers and schools in Vietnam addressing the theme, ‘Connect & Collaborate Online’.

Organised by RMIT Vietnam’s School of English & University Pathways (SEUP), Teacher Talks is a recurring professional development series for English teaching professionals in Vietnam. 

RMIT Vietnam’s Danang Centre Manager Karen Benson said in response to the COVID-19 crisis, SEUP decided to deliver this year’s Teacher Talks event online and to shift the theme to meet the emerging online teaching needs in Vietnam. RMIT Vietnam’s Danang Centre Manager Karen Benson said in response to the COVID-19 crisis, SEUP decided to deliver this year’s Teacher Talks event online and to shift the theme to meet the emerging online teaching needs in Vietnam.

RMIT Vietnam’s Danang Centre Manager Karen Benson said that in the past two years, SEUP has delivered six workshops in Ho Chi Minh City, Danang and Hanoi to more than 800 participants from public and private schools, universities and language centres.

“This year, Teacher Talks had been planned for face to face delivery in April,” she said. “However, in response to COVID-19, SEUP decided to deliver Teacher Talks online and shift the theme to meet the emerging online teaching needs in Vietnam.”

This year’s participants had the opportunity to join digital workshops that explored how to bring existing classroom practices to life online. 

“The workshops were largely based on SEUP educator experiences with teen and young adult Vietnamese learners,” Ms Benson said. 

The content for Teacher Talks is based on SEUP educator experiences with teen and young adult Vietnamese learners. The content for Teacher Talks is based on SEUP educator experiences with teen and young adult Vietnamese learners.

“SEUP upscaled its learning model in February to deliver an exceptional online experience for nearly 1000 English students across three locations in Vietnam, and received positive feedbacks from students about their virtual learning experience.”

The Teacher Talks event offered two workshops with a focus on the practicalities of switching to remote teaching, such as safeguarding online and netiquette. It also took participants through a practical workshop on activities to engage learners online through different warmers and fillers, collaborative writing and speaking activities.

“The teachers had time to network and review the different activities, discuss how they could be transferred to their own remote teaching contexts, and join online Q&A sessions”.

A lecturer from the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University – Hanoi, Mai Van Ket said he found the event relevant and rewarding, “as we are in a pandemic and have to use virtual classroom tools”. 

“I learned how to divide students into groups and how to make the best use of the breakout time,” Mr Ket said. 

A return participant, Mr Ket said he was most impressed by the professionalism of the event. 

“The coordinators were knowledgeable and helpful,” he said. “The speakers shared a lot of collaborative teaching techniques in the virtual classroom.” 

Mr Ket emphasised that based on his experience at Teacher Talks, he would definitely attend next events. 

SEUP plans to continue to deliver Teacher Talks in Ho Chi Minh City, Danang and Hanoi. The next Teacher Talks event is scheduled for later this year and will cover the same theme Connect and Collaborate to support teachers and schools as they reconnect physically. 

“For the series planned later in the year, SEUP will deliver the practical workshops that are proving popular with the current participants and introduce a new panel discussion whereby multiple experts will share views on areas which English language teachers have elected as relevant,” Ms Benson said. “Participants will then workshop how methodologies can be applied to their specific classroom context.”

Story: Ha Hoang

20 May 2020

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