Smarter Teaching  Smarter Learing Free  Seminar Dates

A free webinar series by International House Portugal, designed to support English language teachers at every stage of their professional journey.

Led by experienced IH Academic Managers, these practical and interactive online sessions offer ideas you can apply immediately in the classroom.

Seminar Dates:

01
Wed 5th Nov | 14:30 – 15:30
Diana England, IH Lisbon

Differentiation made doable: engaging all learners
Discover practical strategies for differentiation and scaffolding in mixed-level teen and adult classrooms. Through hands-on activities, AI-assisted materials creation, and structured lesson planning, you’ll learn to support diverse learners while keeping everyone engaged. Walk away with a toolkit of adaptable techniques to challenge students effectively and foster meaningful peer support.

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02
Sat 8th Nov | 10:00 – 11:00
Kate Howcroft, IH Coimbra-OSC

Distractors and distractions: finding focus for listening
Why can listening be hard and is it getting harder for our learners? I think that it might be, and two of the main culprits are the distractors within the audio and the higher levels of distraction students face in this digital age. This session will present a variety of practical ideas that can help us give learners the skills they need to successfully focus on and complete gapped text listening tasks from A2 to B2 levels.

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03
Sat 17th Jan | 14:30 – 15:30
Emma Dias, IH Torres Vedras

Stepping up from upper-intermediate to advanced: helping students bridge the gap
Why do so many upper-intermediate students struggle to reach an advanced level? Being fluent with a good working knowledge of everyday language is a comfortable plateau and many students don’t know what ‘advanced’ really means or how to recognise and use more sophisticated language. This seminar focuses on practical, tested strategies and ideas that enable students to notice, understand and produce advanced language, both spoken and written.

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04
Wed 21st Jan | 14:30 – 15:30
Vitor Moura, IH Porto

AI in the classroom: keeping it safe and easy
We’ve been talking about Generative AI for the past 2 or 3 years, and since then, much has changed in the way we use it and the way it is using us. We’ll be looking at safe ways of using AI in the classroom, choosing the right tools, and addressing common challenges with AI.

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05
Wed 18th March | 14:30 – 15:30
Caroline Fonseca, IH Torres Vedras

Rediscovering reading in the digital age
With students reading mostly short digital content, many struggle to focus on longer texts and extract specific information, especially under timed conditions. This seminar explores some practical strategies to help students improve reading stamina, read faster, and stay engaged while developing a deeper understanding of reading texts.

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06
Wed 25th March | 14:30 – 15:30
Amanda Gamble, IH Lisbon

Tune up your teaching: creative uses of music and songs
This session explores the effective use of music and songs in the EFL classroom with both children and adults. Music is a powerful tool for language acquisition, enhancing vocabulary, pronunciation, listening skills, and cultural awareness. Through interactive demonstrations and practical examples, you will learn how to integrate song-based activities that cater to different age groups and proficiency levels.

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07
Wed 13th May | 14:30 – 15:30
Carol Crombie, IH Viseu

Switch off the screen, switch on engagement
To what extent do you rely on your IWB to present, to provide practice, to organize staging and yes, to entertain? While not disputing that “the board” can be a useful tool, we’ll explore how language learning can benefit from occasionally switching it off and letting students get their heads – and their attention – round content in other ways.

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08
Wed 27th May | 14:30 – 15:30
Beverly Whittall, IH Braga

‘What’s in it for me?’: getting our teens speaking!
Imagine the scene: you’ve designed a speaking task that you’re sure your teen students will love. You set it up, with clear instructions and a lot of enthusiasm, they half-heartedly get started … and it falls flat. Does this sound familiar? In this session, we’ll consider what might make speaking tasks a challenge or a bore for teens and look at some tasks and strategies to help our students find purpose and meaning in speaking English in the classroom.