Hi, my name is Maureen McGarvey and I am Programme Manager for Educational Management Training at International House London. I run online management training modules for new and experienced managers; have a look at www.ihlonline.co.uk I am  interested in providing training and support for managers and facilitating knowledge exchange and sharing of  best practice among academic managers in different contexts - which is why, for me, working online makes sense!  I will be attending IATEFL but will also be attending Cardiff Online so I can catch the sessions I missed. I'm looking forward to reading and participating in this forum

Hi, my name's Andy Hockley, and I am presenting at Cardiff.  I'm co-author of "From Teacher to Manager" (CUP) and a freelance management trainer/consultant and teacher trainer.  I'm also a member of the IATEFL ELT Management SIG committee.  I live in the wilds of Transylvania in a town n-one has ever heard of, even those of us who live here.

 My organisation (such as it is) can be found at www.hoxerix.ro

Arthur McKeown here, now teaching mature managers (native speakers mainly, in manufacturing, service and not for profit organisations) in the Business Institute of the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland. 

I worked in English language teaching in 1970s-1980s in Sweden, Kuwait, Libya, etc.

More at www.arthurmckeown.com. 

Hi everyone,

My name is Neil McMahon and like Maureen I work for Intermational House. I am currently the DoS of IH Belgrano, Buenos Aires as well as the Academic Coordinator for Resources and DoS Support.

I am really looking forward to participating in my first online conference. My main management interests at the moment are inspiring experienced teachers to CPD and blended CPD.

I'm a Facebook sceptic and am scared of Second Life, but have discovered Twitter in the last few days and have already made many useful contacts and become privy to a multitude of interesting links.

Have  a great conference everyone!

Greetings:

My name is Eilidh Singh, and I am the Program Manager at the English Language Institute at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. I have been a teacher, teacher trainer, online course facilitator, workshop presenter, and currently administrator, but this is my first online conference moderating 'gig', and I am very much looking forward to it. I am originally from Scotland, but have been living in Vancouver since 1992. Like Neil, I am a Facebook sceptic but also a fairly regular user, as I have become addicted to the Scrabble-like games I can play with my friends all over the world. I am a new user of Twitter and so far have been exploring the possibilities.  

I'm Melissa. I work at a university language center in Mexico. I'm not currently department head but have been in the past. I'm very happy to see Maureen here as I took her course many (9 I think) years ago and enjoyed it immensly.

One of my concerns is recruitment and staff retention.

I'm also very interested in "alternative" management and meeting styles such as Open Space Technology, World Café, Appreciative Inquiry, etc.

I'm Kevin and one of the moderators on this forum. I suspect I was chosen for this honour (no irony intended) because I was available :-). I have been in the business as a freelance ESP trainer since 1997, and in recent years, since returning to the UK, have been involved in EAP courses and teacher training. As of the beginning of this year, I am Director of Training at Pete Sharma Associates Ltd, a company providing training in the use of IT in language teaching. I may well act as devil's advocate sometimes. You have been warned!

I look forward to interesting and, perhaps. thought-provoking discussions.

 Kevin Westbrook

Hello, Diana,

I'm new to this discussion but try to catch up. Why don't we encourage our teachers / colleagues to participate in such activities like the Cardiff Online more frequently?

Ilona from Ukraine

HI,

   I'm Carla and I am working as an English teacher for a private institute which specializes in Corporative teaching in Lima, Peru.

   I have a bachelor degree in Business from 'Universidad de Lima' in Peru and a master degree in Education from McNeese State University in USA.  I have over twenty years of experience as a manager and as a freelance consultant but I am relatively new in the education field.

   I'm delighted to be able to participate as a moderator in this forum and to virtually meet you all!

Carla Liau-Hing 

Four online moderators have now introduced themselves here for  our Special Interest Area ELT Management. These are:

Eilidh, Scottish from Canada,

Kevin from the UK,

Carla from Peru and

Diana (that's me), British from Germany

 Once more a warm welcome to everybody and please keep on contributing by posting to existing topics and suggesting new ones. We don't just want to hear from managers or DoS, but just as much from those who are being "managed" (well or otherwise), i.e. teachers!

Diana

Hi everyone, I'm Cleve. I taught BE and business communication skills throughout Latin America for many years, and ran a private language school there. Now I'm working on a project to build a web application for language schools and teachers to provide collaborative content authoring, personalized course design, and performance-based teaching, for classroom, online, or blended learning. It's kinda like web 2.0 for adult ESP and BE, but made easy and free and all in one place. 

Like Neil, I'm interested in CPD, but from an action research perspective - we hope to develop a bottom-up, user-generated action research community in our web app. 

Dear all  

My name is Gerardo Valazza and I work at Instituto Cultural Anglo Uruguayo (Anglo). I am really thankful for the opportunity that IATEFL gives us through this means. It is certainly doing a fantastic job “linking, developing and supporting ELT professionals worldwide.” Thank you very much indeed!  

Anglo is a non-for-profit private language institute which this year is celebrating its 75^th anniversary. With about 50 branches distributed throughout the country, Anglo is probably the largest language teaching organization in Uruguay. In addition, the Anglo introduced Cambridge ESOL exams to our country 61 years ago and is presently Cambridge ESOL Supervising Centre in Uruguay.  

As for myself, I’m presently the Head of the Academic Department, Cambridge ESOL Exams Manager in Uruguay and LABCI Country coordinator.  I’m afraid I have never had the chance to attend an IATEFL conference before, so this opportunity of taking part virtually, at a distance, is really fantastic. Thank you very much! 

Best wishes 

Gerardo

Hi everybody,

My name is Fazira Kakzhanova,I am from Kazakhstan,   I am working at State University.

I am interested in methods of teaching( critical thinking, learner centred, in brief,how to develop problem solving ,decision -making specialists) and

grammar(Grammar theory and applied grammar, for example why the English language has only 2 cases, when other languages have 6,7 16...). 

Our University is responsible for polilingual education:subjects would be taught in three languages:Kazakh, Russian and English.

That is why I am interested in (1)methodology of polylingual education : advantages and disadvantages of such education .It will be interesting to hear pro and con about it.

(2)Learner -centred teaching:role of a teacher 

(3) What does critical thinking mean?If we have such a notion "critical thinking ",what does common or usual thinking mean?

Hi All -

I'm Chris Holloway and I also work for International House (getting rather boring isn't it?). I am currently Director of the In-Company Training Department of International House Madrid where we are learning to manage all sorts of aspects in what the Spanish call a "crisis".

I'm interested in many aspects of ELT management especially leadership, quality and adding "Value".

I'm looking forward to participating online again this year as - although I am Welsh, I can't make it to the conference in Cardiff.

Chris  

Just in case anyone misses it, my first introduction has got deleted by mistake, so I'm starting again.

I am an English lady who has spent a lot of her life in Germany. Arriving here with a degree in Modern Languages from Oxford University but no other qualifications in 1973, I was thrown headlong into teaching English to "frustrated housewives" at adult education classes, ESP for soldiers and hotel workers, coaching school pupils for exams and latterly training employees in Business English in companies. I have also worked as a translator and am a tourist guide in our picturesque wine-growing area of North Bavaria.

Although nobody could mistake me for an ELT Manager, I have had over 30 years of being "managed" more or less competently, so if I join in the discussions it is only in this capacity.

 I have been an Online Moderator on this forum since March 10th and am enjoying it immensely, I am definitely learning a lot for myself on all the fascinating topics being raised on this and all the other forums !

Now that the "real" conference is beginning, may I welcome all new users to our ELT Management forum. Please introduce yourselves briefly here (if you would like to) and help to keep our discussions lively and topical!

Diana