1- Summer Teacher training workshops

These took place in Casablanca and Rabat once a week throughout July and August, dealing with such topics as "Teaching Grammar and Vocabulary", "Teaching Pronunciation" and "Activities for Mixed Ability Classes". Teachers had a chance to pick up some new ideas and skills and share their experience with their colleagues, making new friends and forging new networks in the process. Thank you and well done to all the teachers who took part. Please let me know if you would like to receive similar training in your area!

2- MENA facebook page

The British Council's facebook page for English learners in the MENA region has recently changed its name from go4english to Learn English - British Council MENA. The content of the site is as good as ever and there are currently around 900,000 users of the site, around 30,000 of these from Morocco. It's a great resource for your students, so why not take some time to show them the page - they can join in discussions, enter competitions and ask questions, practising their English while using facebook!

https://www.facebook.com/LearnEnglish.BritishCouncilMENA

Students can also visit the British Council Morocco's facebook page to practise their English, and ask questions to our English doctor:

3- Websites for learners

You may have seen our website for adults, www.learnenglish.britishcouncil.org, and our website for kids, www.learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org, featured on 2M recently. These websites, along with www.learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org, are becoming phenomally popular in Morocco -over 1 million people have viewed the sites in Morocco since April this year. It's a great idea to show your students the sites so they can use them to practise and improve their English outside the classroom. 

4- IATEF 2013

The world's premier international teachers' conference will be held next year in Liverpool, home of the Beatles, Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard, and one of the most exciting and buzzing cities in the UK. The IATEFL conference is a wonderful opportunity to meet teaching colleagues from around the world and benefit from talks and workshops from the leading lights of ELT. There are scholarships available on the IATEFL website:

http://www.iatefl.org/information/scholarships

The British Council Morocco is also offering scholarships to attend IATEFL Liverpool 2013, to three delegates. We are accepting proposals which are based on one of the four themes of the English for the Future project:

A Good Start in English

The British Council works with parents and teachers of children aged from 2 and older, as well as with the children themselves. Proposals based on this theme will focus on the work done for this group of students in your country; for example, a presentation of a school project or a practical teaching workshop on effective activities to motivate young learners.

Teach English Better

The British Council is delivering online and face to face teacher training across the MENA region, improving both the language and the teaching proficiency of primary, secondary and tertiary English teachers. Proposals based on this theme will focus on how to promote and achieve more effective teaching; for example presentations sharing the experience of the effective organisation of a teachers' association, or a workshop demonstrating activities for a particular sub-skill.

Learner Independence

The British Council is creating opportunities for learners to practise and improve their English outside of their classroom, through our range of websites and media shows in English. Proposals based on this theme might focus on the importance of learner independence in your country, how it can be encouraged and what steps are being taken to do so.

English for Work

The British Council is helping millions of people in the MENA region gain and refine English language skills which will help them improve their job prospects in the future. Proposals based on this theme might focus on the importance of English for the workplace in your country: for example a project which is helping young people prepare for the workforce, or a practical teaching workshop which focuses on English for Work.