Latvijas Angļu valodas skolotāju asociācija

The Latvian Association of Teachers of English (LATE) is running a 21st Century Skills and Media Literacy teacher professional development course, implemented with the support of the British Council in Latvia from November 2024 to March 2025. The aim of the project is to develop teachers’ competence in using 21st Century skills in their classrooms and raise the awareness of media literacy, so that it could be further developed in their students all around Latvia.

Seven 4-hour online workshops are being conducted on the following Saturdays from 9:00 – 11:50 via the Zoom platform:

• 2nd November
• 23rd November
• 7th December
• 11th January
• 25th January
• 8th February
• 22nd February

Please click here for the programme for the online sessions. The speakers include Joe Horgan, Nora Jurjāne, Ingūna Melne, Ivars Domeniks Zeps, Anna Beļska, Robert Buckmaster and Andrew Doxsey. They will cover a wide range of topics which will help you develop your skills in teaching 21st century skills and media literacy. Most of the speakers were recommended by LATE members in a survey conducted after the LATE 2024 Conference.

The final 8-hour face-to-face event will take place at Riga Teika Secondary School on 14 March and will offer networking opportunities through interactive workshops.

In order to receive a TPD course certificate (36 hours), teachers must participate in at least at 6 out of the 7 online workshops and should attend the final 8-hour face-to face event.

This is a free event for all EFL teachers in Latvia.

As part of an ongoing Latvian Association of Teachers of English (LATE) British Culture and Teaching Roadshow outreach project, run in collaboration will the British Council in Latvia, 48 English language teachers from the Latgale region joined a Telegram-based Community of Practice group. The group was set up at the end of LATE’s British Culture and Teaching Roadshow, which visited Daugavpils, Rēzekne, Ludza and Balvi during the school holidays in October last year.

Robert Buckmaster, LATE’s Vice President, has been supporting the teachers through the Telegram group with materials, teaching ideas and seminars. This phase of the project will be completed at the end of March. There have been 6 seminars held with the teachers – on reading skills, writing skills, modal verbs and presentation skills. Rob has also led online discussions on the requirements of the Yr 9, 11 and 12 State School Examinations with a focus on the speaking and writing papers and what students have to do in these. He has also supplied the teachers with methodology articles, and links to specific material from the British Council Teaching English , Learning English Kids and Teens websites. This included, for example, material to use at Christmas, Easter, St. David and St. George’s Days.

This phase of the project was an experiment in how to support English teachers in their work on a day-to-day basis, throughout the year, rather than this professional development being focused on seminars and workshops at events such as the Latvian Association of Teachers of English Annual Conference which is held in Riga in August every year. The response of the teachers to the seminars and other group activities has been very positive and encouraging so far, and LATE and the British Council are looking forward to continuing their engagement with these teachers and others in the Latgale region in the future.

LATE is pleased to announce that we will be hosting LATE’s Winter Teacher Professional Development Course (TPDC) 2024 “Enhancing Teachers’ Professional Competence” which will take place on 27^th January, 10^th February, 17^th February and 24^th February (from 9:00-12:00) online on Zoom.

You can view the programme here.

Teachers who participate in all sessions will receive a TPDC certificate for 16 hours.

This is a free event for LATE teachers.

The deadline for the registration is 24th January. Please sign up for the event using this form: https://ej.uz/LATE_WINTER_2024

The Zoom link will be sent to the registered participants’ email 1-2 days before the event.

Please share this information with your colleagues who are not LATE members yet. If they do not hold a current LATE membership but would like to attend the event, they have to:

• register for the event;
• pay a discount fee of 20 Eur by 24th January to join LATE and be able to attend the LATE online Winter TPDC 2024 and take the advantage of the benefits of being a member of a professional community, receive the most up-to date information and the chance to participate in professional events and projects for EFL teachers and students for free or at a reduced fee.

LATE’s 7^th Winter Teacher Professional Development Day (TPDD) “Advancing Teachers’ Professional Competence and Self-Efficacy” was held online on 29^th December 2023 from 9:00 – 15:30.

You can see the programme here.

Teachers who participated in all the sessions received a TPDD course certificate for 8 hours.

This was a free event for LATE teachers.

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Thanks to the University of Latvia Faculty of Pedagogy, Psychology and Arts, on the 8^th November 2023, the “Excellence Award” event for the English Language teachers was organised for the first time in history.

A total of 104 recommendations were received and 64 English language teachers from all over Latvia were nominated for the Excellence Award by students, graduates, parents and colleagues.

23 of the nominees and all the five finalists are LATE members. The Latvian Association of Teachers of English expresses gratitude to all LATE teachers who do their work responsibly and conscientiously. More here.

LATE ran a British Council supported project during the autumn school holidays in Latgale this year.

We delivered a one-day training event in four key locations in Latgale from 24th to 27th October:

• in Daugavpils on the 24th of October 2023
• in Rezekne on the 25th of October 2023
• in Ludza on the 26th of October 2023
• and in Balvi on the 27th of October 2023

For more information please visit the project page here.

The Latvian Association of Teachers of English (LATE) in cooperation with the European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) invited active teachers, teacher trainers, curriculum developers and language test developers to participate in the teacher professional development course “Literature and creative texts: how to practise and test literature in line with the CEFR and its Companion Volume”

You can read more about this project on this page.

Unfortunately HMC Projects is no longer operating in Latvia. We appreciate the opportunity we have had to send scholars to public schools in the UK.