From one class pack to a million hours of environmental education. ELT author and creator of Picker Pals, Patrick Jackson, shares how a single idea grew into a movement that’s transformed classrooms and communities. From storytelling and sustainability to litter-picking with families, Patrick explains how Picker Pals empowers children to take action, while learning along the way.

Watch with closed captions.

• How Patrick’s early ELT materials inspired Picker Pals
• What a classroom teddy has to do with environmental action
• Why creative projects lead to bigger career breakthroughs
• The joy and power of collaboration — even with competitors
• How to bring real-world issues into the classroom

ABOUT

Patrick Jackson is an ELT author known for publications such as Everybody Up and Shine On. From 1996 to 2008, he lived and taught in Japan, and has since travelled widely as a speaker, sharing practical, common-sense approaches to language education. Patrick is especially interested in how classrooms can connect meaningfully with the wider world — and believes they’re at their best when they become places of purpose.

Since 2018, he has been the Creative Director of Picker Pals, an award-winning programme that motivates and equips primary school children to lead their families on litter-picking adventures and build a positive environmental mindset. Picker Pals has now been adopted by 72% of Irish primary schools and is expanding internationally.

RESOURCES & REFERENCES

🔗 Picker Pals World

🔗 Follow on LinkedIn

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THE PRODUCER'S EDIT

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CREDITS

Producer: Laura Wilkes

Editor: Haven Tsang

Special thanks to our guest, Patrick Jackson

Production by Communicating for Impact

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Business English gets a bad reputation — stiff, overly formal, and filled with irrelevant vocabulary lists. But what if it didn’t have to be that way? In this episode, Megan Nicholls, multilingual educator and founder of Mega Language Coach, invites us to reimagine how Business English can be taught. From high-stakes presentations to hallway small talk, Meg shares how she co-creates flexible, relevant lessons that reflect her students' real communication needs.

Watch with closed captions.

1. Why “two experts in the room” is Megan’s go-to teaching philosophy
2. How she tailors sessions on the fly (including maternity leave vocabulary)
3. Why spontaneous conversations can be more valuable than structured grammar drills
4. Her best tip for helping learners see their progress, even when they can’t
5. What Business English teachers can learn from language learners themselves

ABOUT

Meg is from Manchester, UK. Her 10 years of teaching experience inspired her to start Mega Language Coach, offering individual classes online. Her speciality is Business English for professionals, interview preparation and improving spoken fluency, thanks to her background in marketing. She has plenty of experience living abroad and working in multilingual international environments. Meg speaks German and French and is currently learning Spanish, whilst travelling in Mexico. She aims to bring joy to the learning process, focusing on active speaking in the classroom.

RESOURCES & REFERENCES

🔗 Mega Language Teaching

🔗 Follow on LinkedIn

SUPPORT US

💻 Sponsor us

☕ Buy us a coffee

⭐ Leave a review wherever you listen

THE PRODUCER'S EDIT

Get inspired to record more. Weekly stories, insights, and content tips for standout educators delivered to your inbox.

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CREDITS

Producer: Laura Wilkes

Editor: Haven Tsang

Special thanks to our guest, Megan Nicholls

Production by Communicating for Impact

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lewis Jaquest joins Laura to explore how emergent language and learner agency can transform the language classroom. In this episode, Lewis shares how he developed the Student Emergent Language Framework (SELF), reflects on his transition to bottom-up teaching, and unpacks what truly makes language learning meaningful.

Watch with closed captions.

1. What is Emergent Language? How Lewis discovered the power of emergent language through real-world teaching—and how it aligned with Dogme ELT and "Teaching Unplugged".
2. Letting Go of Control: Why embracing messiness and letting go of rigid lesson plans can lead to more meaningful learning.
3. The Student Emergent Language Framework (SELF): How SELF helps learners track, reflect on, and own their learning—plus how it can reverse-engineer an entire syllabus.
4. Reflection as a Teaching Tool: Lewis shares how reflection (for both teachers and students) underpins his framework—and why it’s often overlooked.
5. From Framework to Podcast: How Lewis’s learners used the SELF framework to create their own language podcast, showcasing language they truly needed.

ABOUT

Lewis Jaquest is a passionate English language and communication trainer and materials writer from Swansea, South Wales. He has worked in ELT for nearly 20 years. He began teaching English in Hamburg, Germany in 2007 and went on to do a Diploma in Teaching in Barcelona in 2019. Lewis founded his language and communication business, Wordsmithery, in the same year and transitioned to online teaching in 2020. He’s particularly interested in helping Business English learners communicate authentically and creates tailor-made materials for his online lessons which focus on exploiting emergent learner language to make learning experiences that are interactive, engaging and fun. He writes the regular newsletters “Gimme 5 “ for learners and “Bright Sparks - the Creative Business English Teacher” for educators.

RESOURCES & REFERENCES

🔗 The SELFI framework for emergent language

🔗 Wordsmithery.ELT

SUPPORT US

💻 Sponsor us

☕ Buy us a coffee

⭐ Leave a review wherever you listen

THE PRODUCER'S EDIT

Get inspired to record more. Weekly stories, insights, and content tips for standout educators delivered to your inbox.

👉 Subscribe here

CREDITS

Producer: Laura Wilkes

Editor: Haven Tsang

Special thanks to our guest, Lewis Jaquest

Production by Communicating for Impact

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.