Главная страница «Первого сентября»Главная страница журнала «Английский язык»Содержание №42/2004

TEACHERS FORUM

А зачем объединяться?

После публикации в № 32 материала о создании в мае этого 2004 года Ассоциации учителей и преподавателей английского языка Москвы и Московской области (MELTA) к нам пришли несколько писем с одним и тем же вопросом: “А зачем нам объединяться? Что мне, простой учительнице, даст эта Ассоциация?” Ответы на эти вопросы можно найти в официальных документах нашей ассоциации, декларирующих её цели и задачи.

Goal:

To unite on a voluntary basis school and university teachers of the English language and culture of Moscow and the Moscow region for:

– Elevating the prestige of the English language teaching profession;
– Creating a favourable environment for both professional development and communication;
– Achieving an effective methodological and linguistic link between school and university teachers;
– Defending teachers’ rights;
– Rendering support for young teachers.

Objections:

1. To organise various forms of professional communication and professional development:

– An annual spring conference;
– September and February joint sessions;
– Exhibitions, fairs, a contest “I go to the lesson of English” with the following publication of the best lesson plans in the newspaper “English” and book series of the library Pervoye Sentyabrya;
– Professional development and re-training courses, computer and law study courses;
– Scientific research projects, seminars, workshops, trainings, special interest groups, summer and winter schools, internet forums.

2. To defend the professional interests of English language teachers:

– Render psychological and legal support;
– Provide teachers with information by running an Internet site and Internet Forum;
– Create a bank of pedagogical ideas, authorized programmes and information on exhibitions, learning, teaching and other related jobs in our country and abroad.

3. To ensure effective coordination of all agents of the social educational process: teachers, students and the community:

– Organise scientific-practical conferences, seminars, Festivals, Olympiads for students;
– Work on community service projects and educational exchange projects with educational institutions of the USA and Great Britain;
– Run pedagogical seminars, summer and winter language camps;
– Solve problem situations by drawing community attention and rendering methodological help.

Звучит всё очень красиво. Но написать можно всё что угодно. Важно, как это реализуется в действительности. Про успехи или неуспехи Московской Ассоциации говорить ещё рано, поэтому мы и просили в упомянутой выше публикации (№ 32) откликнуться наших старших сестер и рассказать о себе.
Первой откликнувшейся ласточкой, была, действительно, “Ласточка” из Пензы:

“We organised our association about 4 years ago. According to the “Regulations” of “Penza Swallow” the main goal of it is to create the most favourable conditions to raise the professional skills of its members and other EL teachers of Penza and the region.
It’s a rather difficult task for a provincial association, but we always feel that we are a small part of NATE and we know that all other members of it will help us. Thanks to NATE conferences we became close friends with associations in Samara, Voronezh, St. Petersburg, Novo-chercassk, Tomsk and other cities of Russia. We are sure that MELTA will become our friend, too, and we wish its members every success!!!
It’s impossible not to mention the greatest support of the ELOffice, US Embassy in Russia. They send us the most important information about events in the field of EL teaching in Russia and abroad. The literature they give us becomes a source for new ideas and projects.
Happy New School Year to all Moscow teachers!!! We are with you!!!

Galina Kovkina,
“Penza Swallow” president

Ещё одно письмо пришло из города Губкина, где существует Ассоциация учителей английского языка с не менее романтичным названием – Gubkin Rainbow:

“In May 2001 I was a participant of the international conference “Global English for Global Understanding” in Moscow. I was glad to meet colleagues from different towns and cities: Nadezhda Solovyova (Obninsk), Elena Karanova (Samara), Olga Boltneva (Moscow).
The conference was a big inspiring event for me. It gave birth to the idea of organizing a Teachers’ Club in Gubkin.
As a schoolteacher I was a bit nervous about it. I told my colleagues about the Teachers’ Club at our regular August teachers’ meeting and invited them to gather together in two weeks, in September.
Before the day I phoned teachers and reminded them about our meeting. I didn’t believe that my idea would come true.
We had an organizing meeting on September 16, 2001. It took place in my school. There were 11 teachers there. I knew that at least two or three of them came only because they were curious. They were not eager to participate in our activities.
So, it was an organizing meeting. I tried to do my best to awaken my colleagues’ interest in the Teachers’ Club. I looked through the newspaper “English” and found quotations about teachers; I also prepared some practical tasks and small presents for teachers. Everyone got a badge with Henry Ford’s words written on it. Those words became our motto:

Coming together is a beginning,
Keeping together is a process,
Working together is a success.

I told my colleagues about Umbrella and its activities. We chose the name for our club. It was “Gubkin Rainbow”. According to Longman Dictionary, “Rainbow is a large curve of different colours that can appear in the sky when there is both sun and rain”. We set our goals and objectives for our future work. My colleagues agreed that it was a good idea to gather together at least once a month to discuss different professional questions, to organize holidays for teachers and students.

Our aims were

– to bring together interesting and talented people,
– to collect and spread useful information about new methods of teaching English,
– to practice our English in different round-table discussions, debates, parties, etc.

We wanted our Club to be an informal meeting of like-minded people.
Thanks to the newspaper “English” and Olga Boltneva we found material for our next meeting. (In “English” No. 33, 1999 section “Literature in ELT” there were lessons on J.T. Williams’ “Pooh and the Philosophers”. We agreed to do the tasks and discuss the lessons).
When there is Birthday there is always place for Winnie and his friends. Besides, as you know, in 2001 Winnie-the-Pooh celebrated his 75th anniversary. We decided to mark the birth of our Teachers’ Club with a short performance “Eeyore’s Birthday”. The idea for it we also found in the newspaper “English” (No. 8, 1998, p. 11, 12).
In 2001 we organized the City English Essay Contest on the theme “The English language in my life”. 56 students and 6 teachers took part in it.
In March 2002 we organized a seminar for teachers “If I were the author of an English textbook…”. There were about 40 participants (almost all the teachers of our town and rural schools) at the seminar and it was a success.
Here are some more of our activities:

– a seminar for teachers “If I were the author of an English textbook…” (It was organized in the form of a round-table discussion.)
– the City English Essay Contest on the theme “The English language in my life” (56 students and 6 teachers took part in it. We prepared a brochure with the town’s best essays.)
– the City contest of creative projects “My Native Place” (11 schools prepared oral presentations of their projects to comment on different themes about our town.),
– the English Essay Contest “My Prayer for the New Year” (The best pieces of work we sent to the newspaper “English”. They were published in issue No. 48, 2003),
– the translation contest “I Want to Teach” (Only 4 teachers prepared their translations of the poem by James J. Metcalf),
– the seminar “The Role of US – Russia Awards for Excellence in Teaching Program for the Development of an Effective Democratic Society”, – etc.

We have our own Newsletter. Ideas for it as well as for almost all our activities we always find on the pages of newspaper “English”.
Our Club is a forum to express teachers’ interests and concerns, to show skills and so on.

Elena Babina,
Gubkin

В этом письме упомянута ещё одна ассоциация с не менее интригующим названием – UMBRELLA. Мы приглашаем членов этой организации рассказать о ней на страницах нашего форума. Также мы обращаемся ко всем учителям, имеющим положительный или, увы, отрицательный опыт объединения, поделиться с нами опытом.

В заключение я всё-таки процитирую письмо, которое мне очень не хочется цитировать, но оно есть, у него есть конкретный, пусть и подписавшийся неразборчиво, автор со своим, имеющим право на существование, мнением: “Все эти ваши ассоциации, если и создаются с благими намерениями, превращаются в карьерные трамплины для прорвавшихся к власти в них нечистоплотных людей и в очередную платформу для коммерческого проталкивания различных учебных пособий”.

Мне очень хочется деятельностью нашей ассоциации и деятельностью всех подобных ассоциаций, союзов, клубов и т.д. опровергнуть это мнение.

С письмами работала Наталья Федотова