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April 2023 - Year 25 - Issue 2

ISSN 1755-9715

To the Editor

Letter 1

Hania

You may or may not know that my first novel was published in November 2021

If you want to check out the reviews, which are great, this is the link to the Amazon page - https://tinyurl.com/3m7rm9jw

I'm in the middle of writing the sequel/follow-up. For a first novel, it's done really well, but most of the sales have been e-books, partly because, for the first three months, the hard copy books were stuck in a warehouse in Italy, and there was a dumb delivery charge to the UK which pretty much doubled the price of the book. Anyway, I didn't expect it to sell anything, and I'm not relying on it for income, I'm just glad that I managed to get someone to publish it and avoid the problems of self-publishing.

Best,

Ken Wilson 

 

Letter 2

Hello friends far and wide,

Trust you have had a good start to 2023.  I wanted to share with you a video link which explains the AI programme ChatGPT which you’ve likely all heard of.  It was released in November 2022 but has spread like wildfire and is in use by students, among others, worldwide.  What does this mean for teachers / educators?

This has been a topic of discussion at our home recently with opposing views.  Perhaps of interest to you.

Regards and best wishes,
Evelyn


ChatGPT: Grading artificial intelligence's writing

https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/news/chatgpt-grading-artificial-intelligences-writing/vi-AA16Cqjl?t=2

 

Letter 3

I am writing to inform you that the special issue in honour of Carol Griffiths’ contribution is now published online:

Language Teaching Research Quarterly (2023, 33)

I should mention that the journal is open-access so you may share the link with your network to have access to the papers free of any subscription charge.

We should thank all of the contributors to this special issue: Ali, Anne, Paul, Laurie, Jenny, Olivia, Zia, Maryam, İzzettin, Chiu-Hui, Mehmet, Md Nabinur, Sharifa, Diana, and Roger.

Personally speaking, I should thank Carol as she spared no time and effort to publish this volume. For me, working with Carol and the other contributors is a unique opportunity to learn.

Kindest Regards,

Hassan Mohebbi

 

Letter 4

Dear Hania!

As a retired English-teacher and headmaster of an Upper-Austrian school I had planned to live the rest of my life in peace and quiet dedicating my time mostly to making music.

How wrong I had been!

From 2020 on we tumbled and stumbled between pandemic, impacts of global warming, increasing (energy) prices and similar problems until all that culminated in warfare in 2022 – all in all a hopeless scenario.

2022 has really been a demanding year!

I am very much aware of my (still) privileged position in the middle of Europe but in the end I did not want to worry about the situation anymore – so what could I do to escape this negative spiralling flow?

I wanted to DO all I could do without creating the impression that I was pitying myself, so I decided to write a song with a strong message trying to express my thoughts of hope, setting my expectations high and refusing to give up!

You can listen to it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nlZaPeYlto

Maybe you are sharing my view and maybe you’d like to share it with the HLT-community!?

Hoping for better years,

Walter Pichler

P.S. You can find the lyrics in the attached pdf below.

 

Letter 5

If you can run a business you’re passionate about, you will never work a day in your life. Helen O’Grady Drama Academy 

franchisees are so passionate about drama, the students they teach, the teachers they work with and the community they serve, it hardly ever feels like work… does that sound appealing?

We support franchisees all the way from the selection of your academy location to the curriculum content you teach each term over a four-year period. Below are just five ways we help you combine your passion with a business performance you can be proud of.

1. The leading roll 
Being a franchisee for Helen O’Grady allows you to express your love for drama whilst offering you a stable career. Have you had a performing arts career in the past but are now looking to settle down with family? Becoming a franchisee will give you a consistent role – no more auditioning or career gaps - whilst still enjoying a leading role in the dramatic arts each week. You have the freedom to explore the drama world further if you feel you haven’t reached your potential in the theatrical world. Acting as a teaching principal gives you a daily opportunity to harness your performing arts passion further.

2. Inspire young performers 
With a dedication to the arts and its future comes an aspiration to instil skills and confidence into the future generation of dramatic artists. You make a real difference to children’s lives as a franchisee, passing on key skills and a passion for drama and creativity. As a brand we adopt the ‘Development through Drama’ ethos, encouraging children to communicate and grow in confidence through drama lessons. You will create both a brighter future for your students and the future of the performing arts sector.

3. Take centre stage 
Everyone has transferable skills, no matter their previous line of work. Although you will need a passion for drama, our support will expand your expertise whether that be in teaching skills or business development techniques. You will explore what it is like to run your own business, with 

guaranteed support in all aspects of the teaching, marketing and administration of the programme. With Helen O’Grady you get to be the master of your own academy - acting as a principal without needing extensive experience.

4. In perfect harmony 
In most cases, your franchise can be operated from home with teaching studios established in your local area. Running from home cuts out commuting time and having an academy in your area improves your local community. As a result, you will have extra time to spend with family or to harness other passions – you could even attend drama classes yourself! Our aim is to create a positive work-life balance for our franchisees, adding to their quality of life whilst making a positive difference to their local community.

5. A starlit future 
Your journey as our franchisee will be rewarding. Most entrepreneurs' goal is to have a business that gives back and being a principal for Helen O’Grady does in more ways than one. Although financially beneficial with up to 40% margin achievable and a high resale value, you’ll also improve your own confidence and mindset. With a support team and reputable curriculum behind you, you are free to work on your own self-development – both as a teaching principal and as an individual.

Helen O’Grady herself set up this business because she was so passionate about bringing drama to as many young people as possible. Our classes are about so much more than teaching our students how to act, we also encourage a sense of enthusiasm, help build their social interaction and verbal communication, as well as instil in our students a confidence that they can achieve whatever they put their minds to.

If you would like to utilise your passion for drama to support children in a rapidly expanding business, enquire about our opportunity now.

 

Business Address: TeachingTimes

205 The Jubilee Centre, 130 Pershore St,

Birmingham, B5 6ND, UK, 

Company Reg No: 02445043.

Tel: +44 (0) 121 224 7599 | Fax: +44 (0) 121 224 7598 

www.teachingtimes.com | enquiries@teachingtimes.com 

 

Letter 6

HEAd'23: Call for Papers

9th International Conference on Higher Education Advances

June 19 - 22, 2023. Valencia, Spain
https://headconf.org
 

twitter: @headconf

Scope

After the great success of the last HEAd conferences, with more than 250 participants from more than 50 countries, we are pleased to announce the 9th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'23).

The HEAd'23 conference will be held fully in-person on June 19-22, 2023 on the Faculty of Business Administration and Management of the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (UPV), which has been recently ranked as the best technical university in Spain by the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) 2022.

Topics of interest

The program committee encourages the submission of articles that communicate applied and empirical findings of interest to higher education professionals.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following topic areas:

  • Innovative teaching and learning experiences
  • Evaluation and assessment
  • Emerging educational technologies (e.g., Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality)
  • E-learning strategies and methodologies
  • New trends in HE research (e.g. new methodologies, topics)
  • Experiences outside the classroom (e.g., placements, mobility)
  • New teaching and learning theories and models
  • Globalization and internationalization
  • Comparative education
  • Managment and economics of education
  • Employability and entrepreneurship
  • Competency-based education
  • STEM and health education

Important Dates

Submission deadline: February 3, 2023
Acceptance notification: April 4, 2023
Camera ready due: April 23, 2023
Workshoos: June 19, 2023
Main conference: June 20-22, 2023

Publications

All accepted papers will appear in the conference proceedings with a DOI and ISBN number. They will be published in open access by UPV Press and submitted to be indexed in major international bibliographic databases. Previous editions are indexed in Scopus and the Thomson-Reuters Conference Proceedings Citation Index - Web of Science Core 

Collection.

Awards

The Program Committee will select the winners for the Best Paper and Best Student Paper awards. To be eligible for the best student paper award, the presenting author of the paper must be a full-time student.

Submission guidelines

Authors from all over the world are invited to submit original and unpublished papers, which are not under review in any other conference or journal. All papers will be peer reviewed by the program committee based on their originality, significance, methodological soundness, and clarity of exposition.

Submitted papers must be written in English and should be in PDF format. They must follow the instructions in the template file, available in Microsoft Word format at:

https://headconf.org/template.docx

Paper length must be between 4 and 8 pages, incorporating all text, references, figures and tables. Submissions imply the willingness of at least one author to register, attend the conference, and present the paper.

HEAd'23 is using the OCS platform of UPV Press to manage the submissions. This platform provides you with a submissions homepage where you can register your paper submission and make appropriate changes. The submission website is:

https://headconf.org/submission-instructions/

The organizing committee looks forward to welcoming you all to a fruitful conference with open discussions and important networking to promote high quality education.