I’ll tell you why, if you are someone who is wondering if ELT conferences are worth it.  Worth the money (and very often it is teachers who self fund to attend).  Worth the time (you may have to use annual leave to attend, or give up a weekend).

I’ve had teachers say to me ‘I don’t need to attend trainings/conferences any more,  I’ve been teaching 10/20+ years’.  In every way, these are the teachers who need to attend conferences and training the most (and it shows in their teaching, obviously)!  And who have the most to gain from attending a conference such as, say, the IATEFL conference coming up next month in the UK (and see here for the online sessions).

So, why bother?

First of all, teacher development is for you and benefits YOU.  It’s not something to do for your school (though the school undoubtedly benefits…