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You may find that meeting with other English teachers on a regular basis gives your
teaching methods fresh ideas and keeps them as effective as possible. Teachers that meet
regularly can share ideas about teaching or discuss problems that they are having. If all of
the teachers are involved in the meeting and sharing different problems together,
someone might become aware of a chance for improvement that he or she would have
otherwise missed. If one teacher would like support on a certain issue, there are other
teachers who can help. Remember, you all have different experiences, different teaching
styles, and different ways of thinking. Let this diversity help you. It might be confusing to
begin, so here are some guidelines that we followed when we met with the Phon Pang
School’s teachers.
1. Agree on a regular meeting time for at least once a week that will work for most
teachers. For example, everyone might be able to meet on Mondays and Wednesdays
after school for one hour. Regularly scheduled meeting times makes getting together a
simple and reliable process because everyone knows when it happens and what is
expected. Not doing this makes it more difficult to call a meeting and will probably
make the meeting run less efficiently because no one is used to the process of the
meeting.
2. Choose a single person to facilitate the meeting. This person can start the meeting
with, “What would you like to talk about?” and then keep the meeting moving by
mentioning single topics to discuss. This way, no one ends up distracted or silently
looking around, waiting for something to be said. Choosing this person can be a casual
process that only takes a couple seconds to decide. Take turns facilitating meetings so
that you all get a chance.
3. Prepare for the meeting by writing down specific things you want to talk about. At the
Phon Pang School, we arrived at each meeting with a list of specific problems,
comments or questions that we wanted to talk about. Doing this will make your
presence worthwhile. Even trying to write down a list of problems in your class might
help you realize the ways you can improve your students’ education.