Reflections on our EDINUMEN workshop for Spanish teachers

Yesterday (Tuesday, 3rd April), the well-known publishing house EDINUMEN put on a workshop at Instituto Hemingway entitled: “The emotional dimension in learning: group dynamics”.

The workshop enabled us to reflect on the potential advantages of group work within the Spanish as a Foreign Language classroom, as well as the emotional dimension in the teaching-learning process. We also learned some useful techniques for assigning group tasks, and were hardly surprised that these included the new technologies.

The workshop was a real inspiration for us, in that we were able to draw from it a flood of ideas to use in our lessons. One of the workshop’s most interesting aspects was that it used “everyday life” materials, easily accessible online.

For example, the following link is a short video that could be used to introduce the topic of “social networks”, which is currently very much in fashion and could be a starting point for an infinite number of activities.

We also enjoyed an introduction to EDINUMEN’s latest releases, such as their new ETAPAS textbook.

In short, we left a very interesting course full of new ideas and with a better understanding of each of the factors that influences our classes. In this way, we feel better-equipped to understand learning as a more integral process, which goes beyond the teacher and students themselves.

An excellent opportunity to better ourselves and to better our respective teaching styles.