THE ‘MEET-UP’…………FEEDBACK REPORT………..

Putting on this event was a major undertaking, and I have only heard half of the story!  So, first of all, we must praise the organisers who delved into the unknown, and worked out a format that would suit IATEFL Poland and its enthusiastic, demanding members. We managed to recruit some top names to the event, supported by a host of regular, yearly presenters, and offered up a two-day spectacle for a very low price, which proved to be very good value for money. That’s my take on the subject. I will include a feedback section, whereby some of your comments are featured. This was a popular innovation last year, so worth repeating.

Rooms and the numbers:…………

600+  people flocked to their lounges to take part in the proceedings. It was social distancing at its most extreme degree. The event itself retained some of its novelty, despite the saturation of the webinar market right up to the Meet-Up weekend. IATEFL Poland had a revolving wheel of top sessions – from North to South and East to West. 4 rooms that were the hub of the weekend’s action. So, where was my workshop placed?  In the suburbs? In an outer room? It all sounded James-Bond like…….”what’s your room”?  “132…..room 132”.  “Is that on the 4th floor?” “it doesn’t really matter”. “Will the equipment work?” “Now, that’s another question!”

The initial issues:

***Registration is sometimes a contentious matter, but not this time round.  67.27% awarded this aspect of the Meet-up with sixes. 25.45% voted that registration was very good. So, virtually 93% of  participants, actually those who completed their feedback questionnaires, were truly impressed with the registration process.  Very pleasing news for the organisers.

***Using the On-line Meet-Up website also produced pleasing results. 38% awarded sixes for this issue. A further 36% felt it was easy to navigate around the website. I felt the Pink Floyd cover page had ‘too many bricks in the wall’, and this made it slightly off-putting.  Design questions will always be keenly debated.

***How did you learn about the Meet-Up?  A question prompting many answers, and less definitive this year than in previous ones.  The main website was dominant, as always, whilst e-mails were another key source of information.  Universities played their part in passing on the necessary information, and Facebook got a breakthrough mention. Newsletters/E-Bulletins were also part of the process.

The Workshops/Plenaries/ Live lessons, etc., - how did you score the performers?

No medals for the winners this year – no best Native-Speaker nor Non-Native Speaker– but yes, marks were awarded for the presentations from 1 (very low) to 6 (the ultimate in excellence). Basically, presenters want to receive scores in the range 4 to 6, and avoid scores of 1,2 or 3.  Unlike previous years, very few 1’s were actually given.  I will highlight those speakers who scored heavily in the upper regions, as those who received 6’s on a mass scale, deserve some credit.

What I did notice was that several speakers were nervous – the occasion was a bit different, and most of us suffer from equipment stress – the WIW syndrome – (will it work?) The confident presenters representing the publishers, therefore, came into their own, as they could adapt to the changed circumstances more easily, being more experienced webinar presenters. The scores reflected this trend. 

FRIDAY:

Lindsay Warwick, of Pearson, set the ball rolling, with her: ‘Remote learning: where do we go from here?’ and displayed a calm exterior, in a talk that garnered 75% of scores in the 5’s and 6’s range.  Express Publishing’s Rachel Marie Paling, with her ‘Brain-friendly Grammar’, upped the number of 6’s to 50%. Peter Watkins, CUP, upped the odds even more, acquiring 57% of 6’s, with his ‘Helping on-line learners to read’. 

I then witnessed two familiar figures in action – Magda Zawadzka and Ron Mukerji.  Ron’s topic was ironically titled: ‘Making on-line teaching more effective’, and he soon told his audience that he was a practitioner with the equipment, and guess what? Within minutes, it had inexplicably broken down! Ron massaged his audience with promises to fix the problem, and it took 10 minutes to do so. He was mightily relieved, but he had shown us how to keep the faith with his on-lookers. His confidence convinced us that he would surmount the problem. So, well done, Ron…who went on to score 39% of 6’s and 32% of 5’s.

A word I readily associate with Magda is ‘smooth’, as everything she does seems to run smoothly. She applied this concept to the full, presenting a fascinating talk, ‘The Study of Messages’.

Piotr Steinbrich (National Geographic Learning) showed that webinars can bring the best out of people. His talk:  ‘Flipping, creating, thinking, teaching’, was crisply expressed, and Piotr was more fluent than I’ve seen him previously. 82% of his audience obviously agreed with me, giving him 5’s and 6s, in near equal numbers.

Friday Entertainment is often provided by the Bear Educational Theatre Group, and this year they performed: ‘1984 vs. Brave New World: A Live Theatre Show’.  By the end of the show, I felt absolutely drained, but not because of the Bear Group’ s show, I hasten to add. I wonder how many of you feel this way, attached to the computer for a few hours. They scored in all categories across the board, but did get 47% of marks in the 5’s and 6’s range.

Just to sum up Friday’s highlights, Magdalena Kania, Pearson, received 62% of 6’s, but was this the highest number for Friday?  Not quite, because  Anna Plaksilenko, with her ‘Power of Images…….’managed to attract 71% of 6’s, a tremendous effort. We should all watch the recording of that – if there is one. Andy Cowle, ELI Publishing, explored ‘Culture through Reading’, and he recorded 94% of combined 5’s and 6s, another phenomenal effort.

The revered Hugh Dellar, presented an enjoyable  live lesson on ‘Relationships’, but he didn’t score as highly as he usually does. His electric presence when in Poland clearly make a difference. Final mention for Friday goes to Katarzyna Radke and Matthew Siegal for impressive scores, but there are others who also did well.

SATURDAY:

To make things briefer, I will list, in random order, those speakers who scored very highly on the Saturday of the Meet-Up.

Lindsay Warwick (Pearson) -  81% of 5’s and 6’s.

Susan Holden (Swan Communication) -  90.91% of 5’s and 6’s. A tremendous effort.

Rachel Marie Paling (Express Publishing/Egis) – 87.50% of 6’s!!  Wow!

Radek Krzyanowski  (OUP) – 55% of 6’s.

Magdalena Kania (Pearson) – 55% of 6’s.

Willow Barnosky -  57% of 6’s.

Aleksandra Zaparucha – 75% of 6’s.

Alicja Gałązka – 58% of 6’s.

Russell Stannard (Egis)  – 53% of 6’s.

Herbert Puchta (CUP)  -  57% of 5’s.

Steve Lever (Express Publishing/Egis) -  85% of 5’s and 6’s.

Christopher Walker – 88.88% of 5’s and 6’s.

Grzegorz Śpiewak (Macmillan Polska)  - 75% of 5’s and 6’s.

Geoff Tranter -  50% of 6’s for his humour workshop, which was amazing, as mics were muted, due to unknown background noise, and so, there was no laughter audible. Geoff battled through the situation.

Lastly, I can mention myself, Peter Whiley, and my ‘partner-in-crime’ Joanna Perkowska-Whiley, for attracting 66% of 6’s, with our colourfully titled workshop, ‘Hello darkness, my old friend’.

Now it’s time for your comments about the Meet-Up…………….

FEEDBACK COMMENTS FROM PARTICIPANTS:

This is the best bit – what did you think of the Meet-Up?

****”I am really happy that the event took place, despite all the difficulties with the pandemic.  The on-line conference was a very enjoyable event. Well done to the organisers!  It was absolutely great to learn from so many inspiring teachers."

          “Valuable”.

           “Great range of original hands-on topics. J Problems with being let in on time after long waiting.”

           “The main website made it obvious.”

           “Before the start of a conference and as early as possible, it would be advisable to:- (give a brief bio of the speakers – e.g. who they are, where they work, what they do, etc.;  categorise each talk by using labels, such as: young learners, teenagers/young adults, general pedagogy, etc.  Some titles of topics made it clear under which category the talk was going to be about. Others require a bit of reading between the lines, while others were too ambiguous. Provide a 25-50 word synopsis of each talk).”

            “I couldn’t take part in any of the workshops I had signed up for.”

            “I hope all sessions have been recorded – I’d like to see those which I didn’t attend.”

             “Everything went well.”

             “Too many technical problems during sessions.”

             “ Very good organisation of the 4 rooms – between which we would wander at ease!!!”

Editor’s comments:       Very disturbing that someone couldn’t get to one workshop he/she had signed up for. Needs investigating.

For conferences, we always have the bulky programme, which includes all the outlined ingredients as outlined above…….speaker bios, categories of talks, abstracts of the talks – 50-60 words, approx.  ….etc.  This year posed big problems with regard to such information being relayed, which is costly. Remember, the Meet-Up was relatively low in price.

Also, take note that many sessions were indeed recorded, and you will be able to access them. Keep an eye on the main website for further news on that front.

There were some technical problems at the Meet-Up, but IATEFL is striving to eradicate such problems in the future, and overall, we are convinced that both the content and quality of this year’s Meet-Up, more than compensated for them.

Thank-you, everyone, for your patience and support for IATEFL Poland. Whilst we all hope for the death of COVID-19, we may have to accept that 2021 may require us to hold another Meet-Up. We shall see.

Geoff Tranter’s ‘Testing Times’: 

Here it is! The ‘Brexit encyclopaedia’, courtesy of Geoff Tranter. Very funny….

Skype in the Classroom – open your classroom to the world

https://iatefl.org.pl/skype-in-the-classroom-open-your-classroom-to-the-world/  

12th November 2020, Thursday,

6.00 pm – 7.30 pm,

online (ClickMeeting), free of charge

The Webinar organised by Gdańsk Region

Would you like to find out about Australia or maybe El Salvador, Vietnam, USA, India and many more? Do you want to see interesting places in these countries with your students? Get to know the local community? Find out interesting details from the locals? Improve your English? Break cultural patterns? Use free base of classrooms, places and projects in Skype in the Classroom. Emotions guaranteed!

Nauczyciel wobec kultury narcyzmu

Stowarzyszenie Nauczycieli Języka Angielskiego w Polsce – IATEFL Poland i Prof. UŚ dr hab. Alicja Gałązka

zapraszają na webinarium

które odbędzie się we wtorek, 3 listopada 2020 roku, w godz. 19.00–20.00.

Keep in touch with us……….send us your thoughts on the Meet-Up, next year’s event, and put yourself forward for a webinar………you need to contact Lucyna Wilinkiewicz-Górniak at:  lucyna.wilinkiewicz@gmail.com to join her list of speakers.

Take care, from Peter Whiley  newsletter@iatefl.org.pl  and all at IATEFL .Pl