A spotlight on spotting and converting learning opportunities from your materials
Gareth Davies | Wednesday 19th November 2025 | 16.00 – 17:00 (London time) | FREE
When do you replace the toothpaste tube? A recent post on LinkedIn highlighted the difference between a father and a teenage son about when to replace a toothpaste tube. Whereas the son started a new tube when the effort to get toothpaste was a bit too much, the father squeezed every last bit out of the toothpaste tube. It made Gareth Davies think about teachers and learners in the classroom. Whether we use published materials, design our own, or have no materials at all, are we spotting and converting all of the learning opportunities that the materials present? In other words, are we squeezing enough out of our materials or are we in a hurry to move onto the next thing.
Why is it important? Getting more from your materials can not only save you time in the planning of lessons but can help your students make progress by thinking more deeply about something, it can challenge faster learners without having to give them extra materials, and it can demonstrate ways your students can use the materials for self-study. Plus, we get all of these benefits without having to search for new materials or introduce new contexts to examine the same language point!
In this interactive, practical, talk, we will look further at why getting the most out of your materials is a useful skill. Then, Gareth will suggest some low-prep, low -paper, high impact ways to make sure we get every last drop of the toothpaste out of the metaphorical tube.
Speaker: Gareth Davies is a teacher, teacher trainer, storyteller, and author based in Pontypridd South Wales. 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of Gareth’s involvement in ELT, starting as the postboy in IH London before going on to teach in Czechia, Portugal, Spain, Japan and the UK. Gareth started teacher training in 2001 and has worked with OUP, CUP and Black Cat amongst others, delivering professional development talks all over the world. Currently, Gareth teaches teens and adults at Celtic English Academy in Cardiff and is a regular contributor to MET. Gareth is a spellbinding storyteller, working with schools, community groups and mental health charities both locally and around Europe and regularly uses stories with his English Language students.
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