Thanks Makassed, for Making the First Annual Makassed English Language Teachers Conference a Great Success!
On June 27th, 2006 more than 124 Makassed K-12 teachers from 27 different schools in Beirut, South Lebanon, North Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley participated in the conference entitled "Making A Difference: Strengthening Our Community Through Communication". The conference was organized by the English Language Coordinators, Maha Chalak and Tamara Itani, the Director of Educational Affairs, Dr. Kamel Dallal and the English Language Fellow at the Makassed Educational Directorate in Beirut. The opening ceremony included congratulatory speeches by Makassed president, Mr. Amine Daouk, U.S. Embassy Cultural Affairs Attache Mr.Ryan Gliha, and the Chairman of the Educational Affairs, Mr. Mohamad Mashnouk. Senior English Language Fellow from Syria, Tarey Reilly gave the keynote address entitled "Personalize! Personalize! Personalize! Promoting Authentic Communication through Values Clarification. From Classroom to Community." The local English language teachers: Sahar Chaer, Rana Lawand, Lina Tfaily, Nabiha Karanouh, Rola Kazem, Samira Dishari, Ghada Itani, Khalil Shehab principal Ghina Badawi together with the ELFs Tarey Reilly and Russell Barczyk and LAU professor Rima Bahous gave 11 interactive workshops on a variety of topics. There was an expert panel discussion which led the audience in a discussion of "Accuracy vs. Fluency". The conference took place from 8:30a.m. - 5:00pm and included lunch and publishers exhibits. The closing ceremony included speeches by Tamara Itani and Dr.Dallal as well as an awards ceremony in which the presenters received medals from the Makassed president, Mr. Amine Daouk. Finally, the day ended on a celebratory note with the book raffle during which most attendees won something. Big thanks to the publishers, World Heritage, Samir Editeur, Scholastic, Levant, Griffin, Librairie du Liban and Rubi Accessories for donating raffle prizes.
The conference evaluation form, completed by the participants,revealed that the teachers unanimously enjoyed the variety and quality of the teachers’ presentations, the smooth coordination and organization of the day’s events and the opportunity to meet Makassed teachers from different regions of Lebanon.
The majority of teachers expressed interest in participating in the next conference either by presenting or organizing. As for suggestions, the majority of participants stated that they would change the date of the conference to earlier in the year so that they might take the ideas fresh into the classroom and that it would be more beneficial if it were spread over several days. The Makassed administration showed enormous support for the event, which was perceived as a model for other departments within the association and they intend to publish the proceedings of the conference. It would seem that a tradition has been established!
Thanks go to the Makassed administration and the U.S.Embassy public affairs section for all their support, the room monitors and registration committee, the presenters and to all the teachers who attended and made this first conference a great success.