SKA Slovakia

The final two workshops we’d like you to know about are from two entirely different categories: continuing professional development (CPD) and using humour to teach. We’re thrilled to have both of them.

George M. Chinnery & Gergo Santha

What’s in it for me? A complete guide to RELO for teachers (CPD) Friday, Workshop A

The Regional English Language Office (RELO) for Central and Southeastern Europe, based in Budapest, offers a range of programs and resources for both teachers and learners of American English and culture. During this session, participants will be introduced to RELO’s teacher exchange programs, some of our teacher training programs and grant opportunities, as well as a wealth of free books, journals, games, mobile apps, and audiovisual materials for educators and students.

George is the Regional English Language Officer (RELO) for RELO Chinnery Central and Southeastern Europe, based in Budapest. Prior to that, he was Assistant Professor of Faculty Development at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in Monterey, California. Outside of the government, he has also taught, trained and administered language programs in academic and corporate and settings, including the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) and the McDonald¹s Corporation. George has been an English Language Specialist, a Senior English Language Fellow, a Shriver Peaceworker Fellow, and a Peace Corps volunteer, and has worked in Turkey, India, El Salvador, Russia and Romania, as well as in the U.S. His professional interests include the creative integration of technology in language teaching. ChinneryGM@state.gov

Gergo is the Regional English Language Office Assistant. He supports the Regional English Language Officer (RELO), whose portfolio includes 17 countries in the Central and Eastern European region. He tracks grants and RELO projects region-wide. He assists with the coordination and administration of a wide range of programs by the US State Department’s Office of English Language Programs including, but not limited to, the English Language Specialist Program, the English Language Fellow Program, the English Language Microscholarship Program, the E-Teacher Scholarship Program, the “American English” webinar series, and in the distribution of materials and resources for learners and teachers of English. He provides assistance to local English language competitions, and delivers presentations at national and international conferences in the region. SanthaG@state.gov

And 90 minutes with Péter Medgyes learning how to use ‘Humour in the ELT Classroom’, Saturday, Workshops D & E)

Humour is the yeast of life and the best medicine. This workshop invites participants to express their views on the role of fun and laughter in ELT, and share their ideas and experience with the rest of the group. Whenever the dialogue creaks to a halt, I’ll throw in activities meant to be funny AND linguistically useful.

The Slovak Chamber of English Teachers (SKA) is excited to invite English teachers from Slovakia, central Europe and around the world to share their expertise at its inaugural ELT conference the 25th and 26th of September 2015 with Péter Medgyes, Barbara Hoskins Sakamoto and David Fisher at the Faculty of Arts, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia. (Registration for participants starts 1 June 2015.)

Call for Speakers

We at SKA believe that both teaching and learning are collaborative processes. We learn from each other, as well as learn better together. Our teaching can also be better informed by sharing our experiences, our insights, our wisdom, and our challenges with each other.

And so, we invite YOU to share those practical tips and insights in teaching English that you have learned and used with your students and in your classrooms. We’d like to hear what you have discovered works with your learners.

For our first year, we have decided to focus on 4 areas which we feel would be of interest to our ELT teachers in Slovakia:

Teaching Teens and Adults
Teaching Young Learners
Teaching Business English
Using Drama in ELT

We welcome proposals for 45-minute workshops relating to any of those four areas.

Definition of ‘workshop’:

A practical presentation which shows, rather than tells, an ELT technique/activity/idea that can be used later in the classroom or for personal professional growth. The speaker involves participants through hands-on activities.