Workshop and AGM

Yesterday I went to workshop given by Scott Thornbury. He is something of a star in the world of English Teaching as a Foreign Language. He is very entertaining as well as informative, so you learn a lot as well as having more than a few smiles and feeling good at the end.

It was about language and the body. He is writing a book on the topic. Why do we teach languages to people in a classroom with them sitting down and not moving? I have hardly ever done this and certainly not since the advent of PC/laptop and projector which allows students to move in terms of making their own presentations. Must have been doing something right without knowing I was on the cutting edge of teacher theory and technology:-)

Then we had a nice lunch of veggie soup. We checked to make sure there was no horse meat in it! Who is we? We is …. members of The English Language Teachers’ Association of Berlin and Brandenberg. ELTABB for short. I co-founded it nearly twenty years ago. I think there will be a big party to celebrate the event in December of this year.

After lunch we settled down to our AGM. Lots of business items such as finance, planning, events, legal requirements to be met and then electing a new board. It was a pleasant afternoon with some good presentations about the state of the association.

We even got four new, younger members to take positions on the board. Membership is also at a record high. The situation looks good for this year and we decided to open corporate membership. We’ve come a long way since I opened my flat to host the first meeting.

I noticed that I now have an ‘older statesman reverence’ when people approach me to talk about the organisation. Not sure I am happy with that – still thinking about it!