Who runs a group?

Some groups are run by committees and others are run by one or two teachers. Each group has at least one coordinator who makes final decisions within the group and is a member of the nationwide ETJ-Coordinators discussion group for planning overall policies and getting and giving advice on running a group.

 

If you are interested in being a coordinator or a committee member of a new group, please send an e-mail to David Paul. It is not difficult to start a group. The biggest hurdle is the first meeting, but even this can be organised by just one person (see suggestions for the first meeting below).

 

Committee members

Most coordinators build committees, and committee members often have special areas of responsibility such as checking attendance, promoting meetings through the Internet, financial records, reporting on meetings etc...

 

It is not necessary to gather a committee before the first meeting. Committees will often emerge from the first one or two meetings.

 

Local ETJ e-mail groups

Most regional groups set up a special Yahoo group for the committee so that it is not necessary to make time for committee meetings. If you are not sure how to set up a yahoo group, please contact one of the current ETJ coordinators for help.

 

Many regional groups also have an e-mail group for members in the area who would like to receive information about meetings by e-mail or have a chance to discuss local issues. ETJ members will only be put on local e-mail lists after filling in a form requesting this.

 

Suggestions for the first meeting

Reserve a room Find a room in a location that is accessible for as many teachers as possible and which has a capacity of about 40 people, and reserve it on a Sunday morning or afternoon for a 2 ½ hour workshop.

 

It is normal to charge ¥500 yen for members and ¥1,000 for non-members, and this covers the cost of the venue. Some groups have a free venue and do not charge an entry fee .

 

Advertising the meeting

There is no need to do extensive advertising for the first meeting. The most important things are to spread the wored by word of mouth, post announcements to the national ETJ list and ETJ-owners list, and put information about the meeting on ELT Calendar. The information from ELT Calendar will be included inevent listings for your area and be sent out in the Language Teaching Professionals newsletter.

 

Theme and format

Decide on a theme for the meeting. General themes seem to work best at first, such as "Effective activities for children’s classes", "Successful games", "Using songs effectively", "Phonics" etc... Find one or two presenters to give 20-30 min presentations. It is best to avoid having long presentations. This is partly because when you are trying to find presenters for future meetings it will be much easier to find teachers who are prepared to speak for a short time, but who may be intimidated if they feel they will be expected to give a long presentation. Another advantage of having shorter presentations is that it allows more time for all members to exchange ideas.

 

The presentations could be followed by an open discussion if the group is small, or by teachers working on ideas in pairs or groups and then reporting their main suggestions to the other pairs/groups.

 

Processing Information

Please hand out the membership application form (download here) to non-members who attend the meeting.

After the meeting, please send copies of new members' application forms to Language Teaching Professionals.