Friday 3 January 2014

Decisions made during the ELT READING CLUB first Meeting 

Happy New Year, ELT readers and friends! 





 We are all very happy that we managed to meet up and lay the foundations of our little circle of friends and colleagues who read and share what they've read. I must admit that we were all very courageous to attempt such a meeting on such a busy day. It is most understandable that so many other people interested in the ELT Reading Club could not join us. Anyway, the meeting took place at Sugar Angel, which of course had not reserved a table for us but resourceful Joanna Tsiolakis managed to charm our way into the coffee shop and some delicious slices of Red Velvet Cake along with coffee or tea, were soon on our table. What became obvious from this first meeting is how hard it is for all of us to stay focused and disciplined and get READING CLUB work done, rather than chat. This is something we have to have in mind.

The issues discussed were the following: 
Aims of our group
1 To meet up and have coffee and connect as friends and professionals 
2 To have more incentive to read ELT related material and hone our presentation skills. 
3 To present and analyse case studies and pick our colleagues' brain on what can be 
    done. 
4  To lay the foundations for a joint presentation between some of the members of the 
    ELT READING CLUB at TESOL MTH Northern Greece, next year (2015). 

Topics and materials to read and discuss
The members of our group will be studying ELT methodology materials in the form of books, articles, blogs or online resources as long as it is not something they have written themselves. This does not mean that if one of the members researches an area of interest, s/he cannot present the findings of this research. We have opted not to have theme-based meetings, so we are free to read what we want. February's meeting is on ELT Methodology. April's meeting is case studies and May is literature in English.

Frequency and length of meetings
Our meetings will be almost every two months and the durations of our meetings will be about 2 hours. Members present thought it would be best for us to meet on Sunday morning as some of us work on Sunday evening. Therefore, the schedule of our meetings so far is: 
Sunday 16th February : Presentations by Dora Papapanagiotou, Joanna Tsiolakis, Maria Sachpazian /
April  (Date and presenters to be decided on 16/2)
May    ( Date and presenters  to be decided later on) 


The length of our presentations is going to be 10-20 minutes per presenter. There is a shared dropbox folder where members can upload their presentations, so that we can show them during the meeting on a tablet. Not all members will be presenting at each meeting. There will be about 3 presentations per time and not all members have to be at every meeting. In case a member who is presenting cannot make it to the meeting, s/he will let another member know and an article will be downloaded, so that we can read and discuss that instead of the missing presentation. 

What do we have to prepare
Members who present have to read material of their choice and present it, while making comments. While presenting, members can give the rest of the team some bullet points  which are easily followed and can be read during the presentation. After the presentation the people who present will write a summary of what they have presented in a text of about 200-400 words and upload it on this blog. 

Accessibility and Responsibility
All members have access to the email and blog created for the ELT READING CLUB.This means that we have to use it responsibly and only for the purposes of our club. Members who did not attend the first meeting will have to wait until February so that they can gain access to the shared folder, the blog and the email account of the ELT READING CLUB.

FACEBOOK page and VENUE for the next meeting
Theodora Papapanagiotou has volunteered to help with the maintenance of the FACEBOOK page and Maria Sachpazian will organise the next meeting. We have not been able to find a suitable venue yet because Sugar Angel will not be open on Sundays. It has been suggested that we meet in Kalamaria, but I am not sure this can work out. If Kalamaria is OK with most members, I can arrange for a great place to meet with free WI FI and warm atmosphere. 

We need to remember ...
It is absolutely essential to remember that The ELT READING CLUB is our baby and it doesn't belong to any single individual or to any organisation. Furthermore, the ELT READING CLUB does not compete or try to replace any TA.  It is a PLN which is more interactive and less virtual so it demands commitment on our part if we want it to prosper. 

Please let me know if there are any comments or disagreements. 

Maria Sachpazian





 

Sunday 29 December 2013

First Meeting of the ELT READING CLUB


  
FIRST MEETING OF THE ELT READING CLUB
Monday 30th December 2013 at 15:00, sees the beginning of a new and ambitious group. Our ELT Reading Club will have its first meeting at SUGAR ANGEL (Lassani 1, centre of Thessaloniki). Our group consists of ELT teachers who work in the private or public sector and share a love of reading and teaching. The aim of our group is to get us reading ELT methodology material in digital or hard copy form and share what we have read by first presenting it to  our circle of friends and secondly by posting a short summary on the club blog. 

The rationale behind this club is that as teachers who love reading, we buy books, we bookmark sites and blogs and because we are so busy never get down to reading. Secondly, there are many colleagues who do a lot of reading but never stand up to present themselves. The ELT Reading Club aims to bring us all together over a cup of coffee and give us the incentive to read more and do a bit of presenting. 

Tomorrow on our first meeting will be devoted to getting to know one another (though most of us are friends and have known each other for ages) and on working out the practical aspects of our endeavour. More news and more interesting ideas to be posted on this blog in a while. 

Till then, Happy New Year and keep reading!

Want to join our group? Visit our Facebook page