[etni] Fw: ETAI Newsletter 21 - June 2009

From: "Ask_Etni" <ask@xxxxxxxx>
To: "ETNI" <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 20:00:09 +0300
----- Original Message ----- 
From: ETAI office
Subject: ETAI Newsletter 21 - June 2009

ETAI is getting better and better!
Newsletter 21:  June, 2009

Dear Readers,

There’s an interesting development relating to the term ETAI.  I hear (or 
read in ETNI) people saying things like, ‘That was at ETAI last year’, ‘When 
is ETAI this year?’ ‘See you at ETAI’, ‘Let’s talk about it at ETAI’.  In 
other words ETAI, apart from being the name of an association,  is 
increasingly used to mean ‘the (current) ETAI conference’.   Another example 
of what is called ‘semantic extension’!
News:  May saw two final ETAI mini-conferences, in Nazareth and Eilat. 
Nazareth was very well attended, and a lovely venue (the Eshkol Payis). 
Congratulations to organizers Fran Sokel, Stephanie Fuchs, Yousef Daghash 
and their team.  Eilat was naturally a more intimate affair, with between 20 
and 30 participants: a really warm (and I don’t mean the weather!) 
atmosphere: lots of round-table sharing of good ideas and interesting talks. 
Many thanks to Rose Whitman and Betty Simelmitz and their helpers, and to 
the generous hosting of the Neptune Hotel!  I flew down to Eilat via Tel 
Aviv from Bulgaria, where I’d been to a conference the weekend before and 
then rushed back to teach the following day … exhausted by the end, but it 
was well worth it!  I’m an ETAI event groupie (as well as being Chair): call 
me addicted!

So that brings to an end the mini-conference schedule for 2008-9: an 
initiative that started two years ago, and has taken off amazingly, mainly 
thanks to Fran's energy and devotion, but also to the voluntary work of 
local ETAI organizers, inspectors and speakers.  But occasionally conference 
organizers raise the concern: do mini-conferences detract from the main 
conferences?  Is the fact that many teachers can attend an ETAI 
mini-conference in their home area going to discourage them from coming to 
the main conferences in Beer Sheva, Haifa or – most important – Jerusalem?

My own feeling is that if teachers decide not to come to the main 
conferences, this is not because they have been to a mini-conference: it’s 
usually simply because of the distance, inconvenience or expense. For 
others, the mini-conference experience may spark a taste for more and 
actually encourage them to make the effort to attend more ETAI events. But 
perhaps the main reason for holding mini-conferences is the ‘outreach’: over 
500 people this year attended mini-conferences, and most of them were not 
ETAI members. The mini-conferences enable ETAI to fulfil its mission of 
providing professional support, information and development opportunities to 
teachers, many of whom had never been to ETAI events before, and who 
otherwise would not have attended any conferences at all.

And now ETAI is looking forward to its high point of the year, the summer 
conference in Jerusalem.  It looks like a full and exciting program, with 
lots of sessions to learn from and contribute to.  But for me, and many 
others, the academic program is only part of the reason for attending ETAI 
conferences: perhaps even more stimulating and enjoyable is what goes on 
between sessions: meeting old friends, making new ones, talking about the 
(interesting? disappointing? amazing?) sessions we’ve just been to, 
gossiping, discussing the latest ETNI controversies, exchanging news about 
families and mutual friends.
On the first day of the conference, at the Annual General Meeting (during 
lunchtime), we hope to vote in a new vice-chair, who will take over the 
office of Chairperson next year.  Any ETAI members reading this: please send 
your nominations in to the office (etaioffice@xxxxxxxxx).

Anyhow … see you at ETAI!

Penny Ur
ETAI Chair

mailto:etaioffice@xxxxxxxxx
 


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[etni] Fw: ETAI Newsletter 21 - June 2009

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