Meta, the Mauritania English Teacher Association, is a professional network for teachers of English in Mauritania. The association is open to all teachers of English and welcomes everyone, including private tutors, public school teachers, higher education professors, ministerial inspectors, and instructors from private centers. META functions as an organization to facilitate communication and contact between English teachers throughout Mauritania by holding monthly meetings, sharing methodology and publications, hosting conferences, and communicating via website and email. | Mauritania English Teacher Association (META) Date: 15/06/09 Location: Café Anglais (Oasis Books) Meeting Began: 5:10pm Agenda Meeting Adjourned: 6:15pm Old Announcements:
Welcome new members! Angela Coffee reminded teachers of the book distribution project to donate English teaching resource books to teachers in Mauritania. Jordan asked teachers about a plan for the June and July meetings.
Old Business:
· Meeting began at 5:10 pm · Meeting facilitated by Omar · 32 English teachers present · June 15 2009 @ 5p.m. (Monday) – next meeting at Café Anglais (please try to arrive by 1700/5:00pm!!!) · Volunteer contributors for JUNE: ü Facilitator – Djigo Amadou ü Notetaker – Dia Ousmane ü Icebreaker – Oumar ü Teaching Point – Mohamed Khattar · Icebreaker: Mark Bouschieb, Peace Corps Volunteer in Atar, led the icebreaker activity, call “Scavenger Hunt”. He distributed a handout with a grid of possibilities under the heading “Find Someone Who…”. Possibilities included “likes to sing”, “has been to Morocco”, and “lives somewhere other than Nouakchott”. Each participant used the 5 X 5 grid of 25 squares to talk to other participants during the time allowed, trying to question as many participants as possible. The ones who spoke to the most different people (11!) won. This is a good mixer or discussion activity to get people using questions and answers. · Jordan presented a variety of modified dictation activities. Descriptions of the activities can be found in the June meeting notes. · Distributed: a small printed collection of Barack Obama’s speeches. · Have a great month! See you on June 15th!
New Announcements:
Welcome new members! Angela Coffee was thanked for her hard work and dedication as a Peace Corps TEFL Volunteer Teacher Training Assistant. She will be leaving us and will be greatly missed! Angela announced the final days of book distribution, and has successfully completed distributing thousands of books to teachers and schools all around the country.
New Business:
· Meeting began at 5:10 pm · Meeting facilitated by Djigo Amadou · 27 people in attendance · Special Guest presenter: Alice Murray, Regional English Language Officer (RELO), Dakar, Senegal · Next meeting 1st Monday of July, July 6 at 5:00 location To Be Announced · Volunteer Contributors for July: Facilitator – Zeinabou Notetaker – Cheikh Melainine Icebreaker – Dia Ousmane Teaaching Point – Mohamed Khattar · Icebreaker: Jordan asked teachers to come up with a definition for the term “icebreaker” – after discussing the idea of “Warm-Up Activity”, META members decided to define “Icebreaker” as “an activity to relax and prepare students to speak English”. The simple icebreaker this month was a dream or wish activity. Each person wrote down 3 places in Africa that they wish to visit during their lifetimes. Then, people circulated, asking one another what places each person had chosen. The ones who found individuals with the same three locations were the ‘winners’. We had 2 pairs of teachers with the same locations. · Teaching Point: Special Guest Alice Murray, RELO in Dakar, Senegal, presented on “The Cultural Value of Proverbs”. Teachers were each given a handout with common proverbs in English – but with the last half of the proverb left blank. In the first part of the activity, we filled in the rest of the proverbs with NEW ideas, changing the common proverb to something original. Then we shared the proverbs as a class, which was amusing. In the second part of the activity, teachers received another handout with the real endings. If using this activity in class, teachers can ask students to discuss in small groups to decide what the underlying values are for each proverb. Sometimes, the ‘new’ proverbs are more clever or interesting than the common ones! · Distributed: CD-Roms from Alice Murray, plus dictionaries.
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