Sharing ideas and best practice: Hold a ‘Teachmeet’
What is a TeachMeet? TeachMeet is a FREE gathering of teachers and education professionals to share inspirational ideas, techniques and resources. The main part of TeachMeet is hearing stories about learning, presented by teachers. It's a chance to learn from and share with real practitioners about their successes and experiences. TeachMeets can focus on Languages and don’t have to be Mandarin specific. In fact, one of the benefit of meeting teachers of all languages is that everybody can learn new ideas for engaging young children in discovering and appreciating the languages and cultures of the world. Teachmeets are also ideal for teachers who are looking to developing a specific language programme of their own. Teachmeets do not need to be Primary or Secondary specific either, just for individuals passionate about languages.
Watch this simple short video to find out more.
What are the ‘Rules’? Those attending the Teachmeet come along to chat, meet new people, give seven minute micro presentations, two minute nano presentations or just simply to come and soak up all the inspirational ideas. The idea is that presenting is not a scary prospect and anybody can do it. For many people it is often their first experience of presenting and often say what a great and fun experience it was
The main ‘rules’ are:
- Use any presentation format you want including PowerPoint, keynote, prezi, or just talk!
- Get your message across and you will only get a short amount of set up time.
- Be prepared for technical difficulties and be ready to wing it!
- If your examples are online please add links to your presentation
- Remember you don't need to be an expert to speak!
So what does a Teachmeet look like?
Robin Hood Primary School in Birmingham hosted a Midland’s Teachmeet on 5 April 2011. Robin Hood Primary offer both Mandarin and French so there were a number of Mandarin presentations included in the line-up. They included:
Simone Haughey: Robin Hood Primary School Mandarin/French teacher – Mandarin/French class blog and how her multi-cultural background has influenced her teaching of languages.
James Trapp: British Museum – talking about linking of ancient and modern day culture when teaching Chinese
Jane Medwell: University of Warwick - Chinese research, teacher training and outreach at Warwick
Amanda Lee: CME Books – Resources for teaching 1-10 in Chinese.
Robin Hood Primary also cleverly recorded the event, streaming online using UStream TV so that others could share it online live or watch it later.