So far we've been joined by 968 donors and have raised 724 350 RUB, 97 EUR, 532 BYN, 3285 UAH, 183 USD, 75 PLN, 46 860 KZT, 2 000 000 IRR, 200 ПМР, 200 LEI, 600 KGS, 150 TRY.
I wish I knew
An online teacher-training charity conference
Organized by Yuliya Kumicheva @cup_of_elt
June, 24 — June 25, 2023
Ilia Dolgikh and his family. Ilia is a 9-year-old student of one of the conference speakers. He is currently battling T-cell lymphoma. He is undergoing treatment at the Hadassah Clinic in Israel. We believe in Ilia and his parents' strength and resilience to endure this challenging journey towards recovery. You can follow Ilia's journey on this instagram page ran by his mother.
Who will get the money?
Absolutely! You can know get access to the recordings, all of which are stored on our YouTube Playlist.
Will talks be recorded?
We firmly believe that the most potent professional development takes place during our classes. Therefore, through our online charity conference, we aim to spotlight practical, hands-on ideas that we've tried, tested, and found easy for other teachers to implement.
What do talks focus on?
The recommended donation is 500 rubles or 6 dollars. 100% of your donations will support a worthy cause. You donate money directly to Ilia's family. Our priority is to share practical and easy-to-follow ideas that can make a difference in your teaching practices, so please consider donating more, if possible.
How much is IWIK?
The "I Wish I Knew" online charity conference is all about sharing insights we wish we had recognized earlier. These insights have now become standard practice in our teaching, easing our work and making a significant impact.
What's IWIK?
The conference is orchestrated by Yuliya Kumicheva, an English teacher and teacher trainer. The speakers at the conference are Yuliya's students, all of whom are dedicated professionals and lifelong learners.
As an annual tradition, my teacher-learners and I run a mini-conference within our groups. Each teacher-learner prepares a presentation. Last year, we held our first IWIK, inviting everyone to join. Our efforts attracted more than 500 participants and raised over $5500. This year, we are raising money to help Ilia Dolgikh, a 9-year-old boy battling lymphoma. Ilia is a student of Natalya Fomina, one of my teacher-learners, who will also be giving a talk.
I am profoundly grateful to my teacher-learners, who have generously agreed to share their invaluable knowledge. Thank you for choosing to support a significant cause, and welcome to IWIK 2023!
My name is Yuliya Kumicheva, and I am an English teacher, teacher trainer, and ELT blogger. I hold TKT Modules 1-3, CELTA, Delta Modules 1 and 3, and IH Barcelona's Teacher Trainer and Director of Studies certificates. Currently, I lead groups of English teachers, where we study C1-C2 English alongside methodology.
Ilia, is 9-year-old from Saint Petersburg, he is one brave kid we're all rooting for. Our friend and conference speaker, Natalya Fomina, taught him English for more than two years. He was diagnosed with lymphoma, and now he's getting his treatment done at the Hadassah Clinic in Israel.
We believe in Ilia, and his parents, Oleg and Nadezhda Dolgikh. They're strong enough to keep pushing through this tough journey. They're real-life superheroes!
All the money we raise will go straight to Oleg and Nadezhda to help with Ilia's treatment. On behalf of Ilia's family, a big heartfelt thank you goes out to all of you. They're incredibly grateful for your support!
I didn't find my voice overnight. At some point of my diplomatic career I realised freedom had come to the very top of my personal values list so I quit the MFA and became a self-employed teacher. And here I am feeling totally in my element accompanying adults and young learners along their beautiful paths of learning English. I teach online but also I have an offline project called The Singing Lab where we meet in a professional studio to carry out language experiments, do mind and body practices and of course sing together, all in English. So my focus there is to help people find their voice just like I did. And they themselves decide what it means to them personally.
In my talk I will tell you about how emotional and body intelligence are correlated with self-assertiveness. I will share my experience alongside with ideas and practices on working with emotional and body intelligence with your Students during foreign language lessons. We will try some practices out together online for you to actually feel how they work. By the end of the talk you'll get an insight into how to enrich your teaching techniques in boosting your students self-assertiveness and helping them add to their self-presentation skills. This talk will be particularly helpful for teachers who are into unconventional methods of teaching and care for inclusive development of their students.
Mariya Kostyukova
I'm currently teaching one-to-one online classes to individuals at A2-C1 levels. After obtaining my degree in linguistics, I began teaching three years after graduation. My first students were IT specialists at higher proficiency levels. I teach General and Business English, and I've recently started teaching IELTS as well.
In my talk I aim to discuss the prevalent issues and concerns English teachers face regarding error correction, offering practical strategies to address them effectively. This talk will be particularly helpful for those who often find themselves at one extreme or the other—either correcting every single mistake or ignoring them altogether.
Irina Murog
I celebrated my Crystal Anniversary of teaching, accompanied by my achievements of obtaining a PhD in Linguistics and earning a CELTA certification with Grade A. Currently serving as an Associate Professor at the Military University of the Russian Ministry of Defense, I am dedicated to assisting my students in overcoming language barriers and combating negativity bias. After teaching for a dozen years, I finally came to the realization that learning styles are just as crucial as teaching methods.
In my talk, I'd like to provide an overview of three learning styles: perfectionists, explorers, and communicators. I will offer insights on how to identify your students' learning styles and utilize this information to personalize your lessons and tasks, effectively alleviating potential tensions in the classroom. This talk will be particularly beneficial for teachers who work with mixed-ability groups and sometimes struggle establish relationship with some of them.
Alina Stukova
I am a qualified teacher with six years of experience. Two years ago, I became self-employed and gradually transitioned to teaching only adult expats and professionals online. I have come to realize that my students are not only learners but also my clients. I have been developing practices aimed at student gratification, which in turn leads to a consistent flow of work.
It is no secret that the individualization of lessons holds significant value and enhances students' appreciation of their teacher. However, what if you are required to follow a coursebook or are not prepared to create fully customized lessons from scratch? What if your students don't seem to acknowledge your efforts? In my talk, I will share my strategies to ensure that the concept of "individualized lessons" in my self-presentation is truly reflected in my teaching practice and is not only understood but also highly valued by my students. All examples provided will be from one-to-one lessons.
I'm a die-hard fan of exams myself and thrive on helping my students gain more confidence and conquer their fears on the way to their cherished exam goals. More than 18 years of teaching experience and dozens of happy certificate holders inspire me to keep going.
In my talk I'll share my experience of facing up to my students' anxiety while preparing for international exams and some valuable tips that might help them feel less stressed and better-prepared. This talk will be particularly helpful for teachers who work with exam preparation as they might glean some valuable insights into this oh-so often problematic area.
Natalia Tormasheva
I have a classical pedagogical education. Took a leap in the dark and started teaching after a long break. I now enjoy freelance work immensely.
In my talk I will share the lifehacks how to deal with 5 notoriously difficult Russian state exam tasks. I will touch upon such skills as Listening, Reading, Language in use, Writing and Speaking and provide teachers with examples of tasks developing them more efficiently. This talk will be particularly helpful for teachers who don't have a lot of experience with Russian state exam preparation, and are not sure how to approach B2 Russian state exams tasks.
In 12 years of my teaching experience I have helped more than 500 students achieve their language goals. I have also helped more than 200 teachers make their life easier with the best practices and learning materials I have developed for both offline and online classrooms.
In my talk I'll be discussing: 1) how I skip lengthy explanations and get my students to use a diversity of chunks in their speech automatically 2) how I organise my online group classes in such a way that students receive nearly as much attention as they will in an individual class 3) how I have made my life easier by building an AI-based platform for teachers that helps me with the two objectives above.
Daria Raimbekova
I am an ESL teacher really passionate about teaching, online in particular. I am an MSU graduate, a holder of 6 TKT certificates, an ex-aDoS. I created useful templates in Miro and shared them with 500+ teachers, designed a course on feline psychology for A2-B1 students, and I am a co-author of Gravity Falls and Stranger Things workbooks.
I will share practical tips on how you can make your lessons look more appealing and have your students revisit the board and review things there more often without spending the entire time on lesson design. This talk will come in handy for those who use Miro, but struggle to effectively organise materials there; teachers who long for unconventional ideas and creative solutions; teachers who are new to Miro and eager to explore the benefits of this platform.
Inga Terenteva
I've been teaching one-to-one classes for more than seven years. I teach schoolchildren and adults. I've been experimenting with AI and desire to share some tips.
I'll be unveiling some actionable insights about Artificial Intelligence (AI), diving into the various types and how they can streamline our tasks and accelerate lesson planning. This discussion will be especially beneficial for those busy teachers who operate in the digital space and have a penchant for experimentation, who want to offload some work-related tasks onto a dream personal assistant and free time for more important things in life.
Tatiana Klimova
I am a self-employed English teacher with seven years of experience. I mostly teach for Russian state exams (EGE, OGE).
In my talk I will share how Miro and Notion can be implemented into exam preparation courses to make the teaching process more effective and engaging. This talk will be particularly helpful for teachers who consider these digital tools difficult and for those who want to add something new to exam prep courses.
Olga Zakrevskaia
I graduated from Saint-Petersburg State Polytechnic University in 2014 and have a Bachelor's degree in linguistics. Inspired by my love for children I got a Cambridge English Language Assessment Certificate TKT: Young Learners ( band 4) in 2016. These days pave my own way teaching adults and working on my CPD.
In my talk I'll share general principles of microlearning in teaching adults, the benefits it comes with in the current environment and one of the ways we can bring this approach into classroom. By the end of the talk we will have discussed and explored main features of this approach and how we can leverage our addiction to social networking sites to get better engagement and results. This talk will be particularly helpful for teachers who work with adult students limited in time they can allocate to language learning on a daily basis.
I'm a self-employed teacher with 8 years of experience who teaches high-level students. This academic year I ventured out of my comfort and started teaching teachers. I often experiment and go the extra mile to make my lessons engaging and thought-provoking.
Feeling all at sea or frightened about how to start working for yourself? Good! In my talk I will share some hands-on tips and invaluable advice on how to start moving into that direction. By the end of the talk we will have explored some pitfalls and how to avoid them, plus strategies and tools to streamline your workflow. This talk will be helpful for teachers who are thinking of going solo, but are afraid of new responsibilities and processes, as well as those who have just started their freelance journey and feel lost or want to improve their workflow.
Ksenia Makarova
I'm a self-employed teacher from Moscow. I finished MSU, taught individuals and groups in a language school and taught in HSE for 2 years. I've come a way from "I don't have the time to eat and pee because of classes" to "I don't work weekends and don't take more than 4 classes a day".
In my talk I'll share my personal journey from a burned out uni teacher with side hustle gigs to a self-employed one. I'll explore and retrospect what aspects of my life were piling up to lead to a burnout and will invite listeners to reflect on their life whether they are on the way to happier selves or are heading to the other side of the spectrum. This talk will be helpful to all the teachers because I believe we all need to take care of ourselves to provide our students with the best quality of education.
Alina Arslanova
I'm an English teacher who won the ELEX program for English language teachers and got to travel to the USA and attend the TESOL 2023 Convention.
In my talk I'll share my impressions of TESOL 2023 conference in Portland, Oregon. I'll sum up my biggest takeaways and give my views on participation. This talk will be particularly useful for teachers who are interested in attending conferences and want to learn about the major highlights and insights from one of the biggest TESOL event.
I'm a self-employed English teacher with 6+ years of experience. I hold CAE and IELTS language certificates as well as the IH Certificate in Advanced Methodology. I now teach other teachers of English (General English and CAE Exam Prep) offering valuable language and methodology insights in my lessons.
Hunched over computers, we pour our hearts and souls into planning and spend hours on end refining our lessons only to feel completely depleted by the end. At the same time, as we are experiencing the consequences of burnout, sustainability has become a new trend in the modern world! This naturally raises a question - can we incorporate sustainability into teaching? In my talk I'll try to tackle this issue and share sustainable teaching practices that yield higher levels of student output while using fewer resources. This is not to say that this simplification will happen at the expense of quality. Quite on the contrary! This talk will be particularly useful to those who want to learn how to minimize input and maximize results to provide the best possible learning experience for students.
Natalya Fomina
I am a teacher of English who has been teaching different types of students for more than 7 years. When I noticed that some of my students were struggling with listening, I decided to elaborate on the ideas that are offered in Teacher's books so that I could help my students feel more confident in that area.
In my talk, I'll share my experience in creating pre-listening tasks based on current material. It's no surprise that students often feel perplexed when doing listening exercises, which can shatter their confidence and motivation for studying English. This talk will be particularly helpful for teachers who want to learn practical ways to improve their students' listening skills and support their students in a challenging scenario of feeling confused during listening exercises.
Diliara Kiarimova
I've been working as a teacher for more than 5 years and I've been primarily teaching adults.
In my talk I'll share basic criteria I use to create, enhance and use speaking activities in my classes. The talk will be particularly helpful for teacher who want to increase interactivity and make their classes more student-centred in terms of speaking.The talk is a step-by-step guide, provided with tested and proven to be effective examples of speaking activities, based on ELT principles and my own experience.
Ekaterina Kryukova
I created my language school five years ago, after Covid I set up online classes, 3 years ago I immersed myself into lexical approach, which changed my teaching style and keep experimenting
Follow me on vk: https://vk.com/engclubforteachers In my talk we will discuss different ways of updating speaking tasks from our course books using common sense and lexical approach :) This talk will be particularly helpful for those teachers who think that typical speaking tasks are not as effective as could be and would like to leverage speaking activities potential to the fullest.
I'm a self-employed English teacher with over 4 years of experience. I hold MA TEFL and Cambridge CAE. I mostly teach General English and FCE/CAE exams preparation classes to adults/teens. I'm also organising Book Clubs for teachers, which are a great source of inspiration. Another thing that propels my professional development is my blog where I share some ELT tips, resources, and tailor-made materials.
In this talk, we will explore the importance of cohesiveness and establishing a sense of community within a group, with a particular focus on how this can positively impact productivity, collaboration, and educational outcomes. We will begin by discussing the theoretical basics of group dynamics before moving on to practical strategies and tips for fostering student-student interaction and building rapport between teachers and students. We will also delve into the concept of communication practices as a tool for building trust and respect within groups. By the end of the talk, attendees should feel equipped with a range of classroom ideas and techniques for creating supportive and cooperative environments for students. This talk will be useful for both experienced teachers looking to improve their existing group classes as well as those launching their first pair/group sessions.
Sasha Grigoryeva
I'm a CELTA-certified teacher with a BA in Linguistics and a MSc in Educational Studies from University of Glasgow.
In this talk, we will explore the importance of cohesiveness and establishing a sense of community within a group, with a particular focus on how this can positively impact productivity, collaboration, and educational outcomes. We will begin by discussing the theoretical basics of group dynamics before moving on to practical strategies and tips for fostering student-student interaction and building rapport between teachers and students. We will also delve into the concept of communication practices as a tool for building trust and respect within groups. By the end of the talk, attendees should feel equipped with a range of classroom ideas and techniques for creating supportive and cooperative environments for students. This talk will be useful for both experienced teachers looking to improve their existing group classes as well as those launching their first pair/group sessions.
Aleksandra Sokolova
I am an English teacher who holds TKT Module 2 and teaches communicatively. I've been running English Speaking Clubs for teenagers and adults for more than 2 years.
In my talk, I will share practical information about running English speaking clubs. We will discuss various types of speaking clubs, their structure, and how to organize successful meetings. This talk will be particularly helpful for teachers who want to launch their first speaking club, but are not sure where to begin. I will offer useful resources, materials, and constructive recommendations for organizing a successful speaking club.
Yes! A beautifully design certificate will be waiting for you once the conference is over!
The conference is over, but you can get access to the recordings by making the donations. Use the information on this page: cupofelt.info/joiniwik2023
Once you complete the form, you'll get a link to the conference's TG chat and I'll also send you an email. Check your spam / social / promotions folders. The email I'm using is julia@cupofelt.info, you may add it to your contact list to make sure it gets into your inbox.
Yes! All the talks have been recorded, and now you can get access to them.
Ilia's a student of one of the conference speakers, Natalya Fomina. He's been diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma and is now undergoing treatment at the Clinic of Hadassah in Israel. His mother, Nadezhda runs this instagram page posting updates on Ilia's recovery journey.