Hello there –

A bit of news for you:

As you may or may not know, I am an associate trainer at Norwich Institute for Language Education (NILE) in the UK. Every July, I offer a two-week face-to-face course, in the city of Norwich, on Video and Image in Language Education (VILT).

Now I don’t want to blow my own trumpet, but I think that my course is pretty special. Here are a few things that participants have said over the last two years:

“Jamie is a great teacher. His sessions were well prepared and his ideas were amazing. He is passionate, patient and motivating. The course was just perfect.” (Anna from Catalonia, 2015)

“This course changed my vision of how to use video in the classroom.” (Rafa from Mexico, 2015)

“Definitely the best teacher trainer I’ve had – and I’ve been on many training courses and experienced many good trainers.” (Gerda from Austria, 2016)

“Through his passion and ideas, Jamie has encouraged me to try so many new things in my classroom.” (Jan from the Czech Republic, 2016)

Incredibly, this summer will mark my tenth year with NILE. Over this decade, I have been lucky enough to form great relationships and work with hundreds of excellent teachers on my courses. NILE is a bit like a family for me I suppose.

Head-to-head in London

I am very happy to say that NILE has been shortlisted for a 2017 British Council ELTon award for a new kind of online course called Power-Up.

A Power-Up is an intensive online training course designed to provide teachers with a new set of skills in a short space of time. It lasts for four weeks and has a strong tutor presence. There is an emphasis on practicality and immediate application.

Although I wish them all the best of luck, I really hope they don’t win the ELTon. Why? Because my book Videotelling has also been shortlisted for the same award. We will find out who wins in London on June 14th. There may be a family feud!

Video and image Power-Up

Whatever the result in London, I am happy to say that I am launching my own Video & Image Power-Up course with NILE. The first one will be going live at the end of the summer.

Visual materials provide an incredibly powerful teaching resource for the language classroom. And when video cameras eventually go mainstream in language teaching, we are going to see some big changes.

I have created this course for teachers who would like to go deeper. For the first time ever, it will allow me to share online, my own unique approach to image and video.

To give you an idea of what it’s all about, this is what the course will look like:

• Unit one: Using images
• Unit two: Video cameras in the learners’ hand
• Unit three: Picturetelling: withholding the image
• Unit four: Taking video apart
• Unit five: Working with video texts
• Unit six: Video cameras in the teacher’s hands
• A final project assignment that you will receive detailed feedback on

Each unit will consist of the following:

• Interactive content which will provide practical techniques and essential principles for teachers who are interested in making use of video, video cameras, and image in the classroom.
• Original lesson plans and teaching ideas written by myself and never before published.
• Access to exclusive videos in which I elaborate on practical and theoretical ideas.
• A task for you to complete.
• The possibility to share your thoughts, ideas and task assignments with other participants and provide feedback on each others’ work.
• Continual support at every stage.

More information:

• The course will also include two live webinars.
• All participants will receive NILE certification.
• The price will be £175.

The first run

I am currently looking for a few teachers (maximum 16) who would like to work closely with me on a pilot run of the Video and Image Power-Up course.

We will work through the course, one unit per week, starting on June 8th. There are two reasons why this would be an excellent opportunity for you:

• Each unit will be accompanied by a live webinar tutorial. (This will not the the case for the actual Power-Up course when it launches at the end of the summer.)
• You will get the whole course at the reduced price of €150

You will unlock the content for each unit a few days before the webinar tutorial. The webinar tutorials will provide us with an opportunity to share ideas and for me to answer questions and provide feedback.

The webinar tutorials will take place on the following Thursday evenings at 8pm (Barcelona time).

• June 8th: Using images
• June 15th: Video cameras in the learners’ hands
• June 22nd: Picturetelling: withholding the image
• June 29th: Taking video apart
• July 6th: Working with video texts
• July 13th: Video cameras in the teacher’s hands

As I mentioned before, there is only space for 16 participants. So this has to work on a first come, first served basis.

If you are interested, or if you have any questions, please drop me a line and let me know. I am very happy to help.

You can find out more at Video & Image Power-Up.

Looking forward to working with you!

Jamie :)