Last school year, ETAI celebrated our 40th birthday. At the wonderful summer conference at Ramat Rachel, we expressed our gratitude to the late Raphael Gefen, who was the original inspiration and motivation for founding our organization. Ever since that first conference 40 years ago, we have been sharing ideas and inspiring each other to become the best EFL teachers possible. We look forward to continuing this tradition and reaching new heights in engaging and enriching many more teachers at our conferences.

This year, we have initiated a new kind of mini-conference in the format of a hackathon about teaching vocabulary. They have been lively and exciting events, resulting in the creation of many practical, engaging materials for use in our classrooms. There is one more to go- on February 16th, in Sur Baher.

Once again, we have managed to arrange for PD credit (gmul) for those who attend 30 hours of conferences – one mini, one full day, and the two-day summer conference in 2019-2020. Thanks to Tziona Levi and Daphna Cohen for helping us to arrange this credit. Please like us on Facebook – www.facebook.com/ETAI.org – in order to stay up to date with details of this year’s conferences and PD credit plan. Think about what you can do to contribute to the effort of making ETAI a strong and vibrant organization.

Finally, we’d like to express our appreciation to Jane Cohen, Raviv Schwartz and Lindsey Shapiro, who have stepped down from the ETAI Board after their great contribution to the success of ETAI. We’d also like to welcome Bridget Schvarcz, our new Vice Chair, and Debbie Gabai, our new Board member, to the team of those working hard to continue to make ETAI the best professional organization possible.

Looking forward to seeing all of you at this year’s conferences.

Best wishes for a successful and satisfying rest of the school year,

Mitzi Geffen
ETAI Chair