“If you can’t come to ETAI, ETAI will come to you.”

ETAI: Keeping in Touch

Hello Readers,

Before reporting on ETAI’s very active past few months and giving a preview of what is to come, I want to extend condolences on behalf of ETAI, to the Fogel family and to all who knew and loved Ruti, Udi and their children. Our hearts are also with the victims of the terror attack in Jerusalem last week, and with all those ducking Kassam rockets in the ever expanding area within rocket range of Gaza. Here’s wishing us all better news from now on.

On the ETAI front – February was a month of three successful mini-conferences.

First in Nes-Ziona, a record number of teachers showed up for a lovely afternoon of sessions, including a plenary talk by Dr. Judy Steiner followed by parallel sessions on varied topics. As usual, it was a chance to browse the ESL wares on the publishers’ tables and shmooze over coffee with colleagues. Thanks to Michele Ben and Amanda Caplan for organizing this very successful event, and to Dr. Miriam Kluska, the Central Region English Inspector, for her tireless work in encouraging attendance to the conference, and all of her help in organizing the conference, as well.

The second February mini-conference was in Har VaGai, and according to all reports was a wonderfully successful day as well. Participants were treated to a plenary session by Penny Ur about using the mother-tongue in ESL teaching, and then two sets of varied parallel sessions. Thanks to Aviva Shapiro for all of her time and effort put into organizing this event.

ETAI wrapped up February in Netivot – a first time mini-conference there. Though the turnout was small, the enthusiasm of those who attended was great.  ETAI is grateful to Dena Wolfson for all of the work she put into organizing this event, and we hope that once the word of its success gets around, many more teachers will take advantage of an ETAI event in the neighborhood next year.

The very next day after the mini-conference in Netivot, on March 1st, ETAI was up north in Maghar with a highly successful mini-conference convened by Jennifer Spiegelman and Yousef Daghash, Northern Inspector for English.  The participants were treated to a rich program including a presentation by Kay Mathews Davis – Regional English Language Officer, US Embassy, Amman, Jordan – who spoke on “What makes a Good Teacher?”; as well as varied parallel sessions, and then a final plenary session by Penny Ur. Many thanks to Jennifer and Yousef for organizing this wonderful event.

The annual Spring Conference in Haifa this year is being held at the Arab Orthodox College, located not far from the central bus station. Judging from the program posted on the ETAI site, this promises to be a conference well worth attending! Mark your calendars for April 13th, and plan to spend the day with us.

Save July 5th and 6th as well, and plan to join us in Jerusalem, at Himmelfarb High School, for the annual Summer Conference.

As you can well understand, though all of the organizing and presenting at ETAI is done on a volunteer basis, using the facilities of the venues, providing refreshments, printing the programs, paying the rent for the office and the salary of our office manager, require a substantial budget which is generally covered by our dues and conference fees.  Setting the fees is not done without a serious effort to trim our expenses, but without these fees, these enriching and inspiring events would not be possible. There are those who ask why they should bother joining ETAI, when they could just pay for the individual conference for much less. The answer to that question is that without sharing the expenses listed above, there would be no individual events – of the caliber we all take for granted – to attend! There could be no mailings, no ETAI Forum, no office manager to keep the dizzying array of activities coordinated, and no office where the office manager sits!

If you are one of our 900 members who have forgotten to send in this year’s dues, please do so just after reading this newsletter. You will not only do your part to keep ETAI going, you will also save us the expense of a phone call reminding you to pay your dues! Of course, if you are reading this newsletter and have not yet joined ETAI, pick up the phone and call Marna at the office – 02-5001844 – to join our ranks.

I look forward to seeing many of you on April 13th in Haifa, and then to seeing all of you in Jerusalem on July 5th and 6th.

Best wishes for peaceful weeks ahead,

Mitzi Geffen, ETAI Chair