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E-BULLETIN JULY 2020

Peter Whiley Newsletter & E-Bulletin Editor
newsletter@iatefl.org.pl

Welcome everyone to July’s edition of IATEFL Poland’s E-Bulletin, a monthly update on what is happening in the world of ELT within Poland, and sometimes beyond that! As COVID-19 behaves like a cat on a theatrical stage, unwilling to make an exit, having intruded into proceedings in the first place, and many countries cannot wait for its departure, I would like to cite what the President of the National Education Association in the USA, Lily Eskelen Garcia, recently had to say about the prospect of schools re-opening soon in her country. Her awareness of the complications arising are clearly apparent, through the myriad of questions she poses to her society; firstly, she asks: “What if a student tests positive? Do all the other students and their teachers have to isolate for 14 days?”

She follows up with: “If a teacher has to stay home for 14 days, do they have to use ‘sick days’ for that?”

“Even worse - what if a teacher tests positive? Do all of their students have to isolate? If not, who will teach the class, knowing that the students have been exposed? ”

”What about the teachers in middle schools or high schools, who teach 150 different kids throughout the day. Do all of those kids have to quarantine, if they find out the teacher’s positive, and they’ve been exposed? ”

”What about teachers who are married to other teachers? If one has to quarantine, won’t the other one have to do so as well, thereby removing 2 teachers from the system? ”

”We can’t toss up our hands and say: Pandemic? Oh well, back to normal!”

Many issues there for every educational system to ponder………..and more to follow as our American author for this month, Willow Barnosky, reflects on her post-webinar thoughts. Does she prefer speaking to a ‘live’ audience, rather than a webinar one? What are the essential differences? What did she go through, recently, when she delivered her webinar talk to a Polish audience?

Do we reflect enough on our performances as teachers? Willow thinks that post-lesson reflections are not highlighted enough, these days. Is she right? Read her article to find out more.

The up-coming Meet-Up will also be covered with the latest news about some of the key speakers taking part, what are the main subjects trending, and what the Bear Educational Theatre has planned for us.

Also, we include a lively report from Radom, land of ‘culture lanes’, where a mini-conference recently took place.

‘THE MEET-UP’…………. Latest news…………

Brief Summary: More than 50 sessions!(with recordings available) …. Wow!

Some sessions will be broadcast from a studio at Łódź, as IATEFL Poland will be working in co-operation with the Language Centre of the Łódź University of Technology.

Dates: Friday the 18^th of September, 2020, from 15.00-20.00, and Saturday the 19^th of September, 2020, from 10.00-18.30.

Main Theme: ‘High Tech – A Teacher’s Promised Land’.

Registration is open. REGISTER HERE

Live Theatre:Provided by the Bear Theatre, Prague:‘1984 v. Brave New World – A live theatre show.’

Strategic Partner:Pearson

Gold partners: Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Egis/ Express Publishing.

Silver Partners:Macmillan Education, National Geographic Learning/Nowa Era.

Partner: Educarium

Key Speakers: I have browsed through the programme, and selected 6 sessions which appeal to me, and I hope, to you, too.So, here goes:

***Dr. Grzegorz Śpiewak – ‘How to manage communication failures on-line and off-line?’ How to prepare students for them?’ Sounds intriguing, and maybe will relax those of us who get stressed by the thought of dealing with equipment breakdowns and other technical problems. Yes, we should involve students in such scenarios, raising their awareness. They can always help!

***Geoff Tranter – ‘Humour – the answer to many problems in the English classroom.’ Back refreshed from a year’s break, will Geoff be back to his best? The popular American comedian/talk show presenter, Stephen Colbert, once declared: that ‘Humour is the lubricant in the classroom’. Geoff will set out to prove this point. He also has a second session based around the transition for teachers to on-line teaching, where he will pertinently ask: have we become better teachers?

***Dagmara Łata - ‘Tender Education’ ….(she specialises in one-to-one teaching on-line, and is interested in the relationships forged between students and teachers). She mentions Elvis Presley in her abstract, so will he make an appearance in her webinar?

***David Fisher - ‘Using Drama in Language Teaching - Even on-line.’ Trickier than teaching drama to students in the classroom, that’s for sure, but David will show you how to manage it in an on-line way.

***Susan Holden – ‘Past, Present, Future: Let’s Check it out!’ - a popular presenter in Poland in 2020, who sadly had her March tour of Poland postponed, Susan will be either presenting what looks like a grammar (tense review) session, or a review of teaching methods and the changing role of the teacher. She’s a good speaker, so it will be interesting, either way.

***Joanna Perkowska-Whiley and Peter Whiley – ‘Hello darkness, my old friend.’ A quick plug for our joint session. Another humour-based session, but within a musical framework. How to relax and have enjoyable, humorous lessons on-line is our aim, taking away the stresses of the technology, as we feel teachers take on-line teaching too ‘seriously’. It will be different from other webinars.

****Overall, many of the presentations will be based upon on-line teaching, methods, and how to handle problems, along with communicating better. In the abstracts, there is frequent reference to the 21st Century Classroom/Teacher. However, there are other topics covered, especially the importance of the brain, for instance. So, there is plenty of choice for everyone.

There will be two full days of good-quality workshops, talks, and live lessons, and the sessions will be recorded, so, if you miss one over the weekend, which clashes with another mouth-watering session, you will probably be able to get a recording of it.

‘Reflections on a Webinar’: an article by Willow Barnosky

Willow, recently, presented a webinar based on ‘Bias in Language’, as part of the excellent IATEFL Poland Webinar package programme, organised by Lucyna Wilinkiewicz-Górniak and Marcin Stanowski. What did she think about the event? Did she enjoy it? How does a webinar differ from presenting face-to-face with an audience? What reflections did she make following her performance? These questions and more are answered by Willow, in an article, which is especially pertinent for those who attended the event, but also relevant to those who wonder how important is the reflection process. I am glad I asked her to write such an article, as she ‘delivers the goods’, in a vivid and interesting way. Read for yourself and see what she wrote.

Click on the link……………….

RADOM: One-Day Conference - A Report………from Magda Zawadzka.

‘Zaopiekuj się sobią Nauczycielu’….My translation: ‘Take care of yourselves, Teachers’.

On the sixth of June, IATEFL Poland’s Radom Region, in co-operation with RODON, presented their 3^rd One-Day Conference, with the proviso that this one was the first conducted on-line. Starting at 9.30 am, and finishing at 8pm, the day was packed with a range of talks and workshops, aimed at over 100 participants – teachers of English and Polish, but also some from such topic areas as German, Art, History, Geography, IT, and Mathematics. One of the presenters was a Psychologist.

Feedback was positive, and the event can be considered to have been a great success. Read Magda’s short, colourful report ……… Click on the link.

Stay healthy, everyone, … Peter Whiley (Editor) - newsletter@iatefl.org.pl

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