Written by: Anelia Georgieva, English Language School in Ruse, Bulgaria
My name is Anelia Georgieva and I have been a teacher of English for 15 years. At present I teach 8th graders at the English Language School “Geo Milev”, Ruse, Bulgaria.
As a member of BETA I applied for and received a bursary from our association to attend the conference and to present there my lesson on teaching vocabulary of natural phenomena and disasters.
I would like to express my gratitude to BETA for supporting my participation at the Convention in Thessaloniki, Greece and to TESOL Macedonia – Thrace for the warm welcome and fruitful experience.
From 10th to 11th March 2012, the 19th Annual International Convention“Experimentation: that`s the name of the game!” was held at Diakonia Conference Centre, Thessaloniki, Greece. The organizing committee consisted of enthusiastic people working in the field of Linguistics, Literature, Culture, Philosophy and ELT. There were about 40 presentations: plenary sessions, talks, workshops, a Pecha Kucha evening and a theatrical performance.
The talks and workshops were divided under the headings of the following SIGs:
•Dyslexia
•Project Work
•Modern Technologies in ELT
• Teacher Development with CELTA and DELTA
•Phonetics and Phonology
•Semantics and Cognitive Studies
•Literature Studies
• Lexis and Grammar
•Media, Communication and Culture
The plenaries were delivered by Dr Lindsay Peer, educational and chartered psychologist, speaker and author, Jamie Keddie, a European-based teacher, teacher trainer and writer, and Sophie Ioannou – Georgiou, an author, a teacher and teacher trainer and coordinator of CLIL implementation in Cyprus.
There was a SEETA meeting and its host was Anna Parisi, SEETA community manager, a course tutor and materials designer for teacher development courses. South Eastern Europe Teachers` association is an on-line community of enthusiastic colleagues who are ready to share various ideas in all spheres of teaching English.
The Pecha Kucha evening was an impressive event. The presenters were Anna Parisi, Dr Sophiem Ioannou – Georgiou, Jamie Keddie, Dr Luke Prodromou, MA in Shakespeare Studies and a member of a Greek theatre group, Jay Schwartz, a teacher trainer, a writer and a director and Phil Holland, Chair of the English Department at Anatolia College.
Their presentations, interviews and a lot of pictures are available at the sites of SEETA, TESOL Macedonia – Thrace, their Facebook profiles and on YouTube.
I was honoured to be part of this great convention. I was fortunate to meet such brilliant speakers and presenters and make friends with a lot of foreign colleagues. This wonderful experience keeps me motivated and empowered with my work as a teacher of English in Bulgaria.
Download Anelia’s Conference PowerPiont Presentation on Teaching Vocabulary of Natural Phenomena and Disasters