In this post I'd like to recommend a few Facebook groups for English language teachers that I belong to. They're all in Polish, but then again, most of my readers are native Polish speakers.
Nauczyciele angielskiego is the largest, most popular group for English language teachers in Poland. Started in 2012, managed by four Wonder Women (you know who you are) and boasting over 23,000 members, the group is a veritable cornucopia of information regarding teaching English in Polish schools: curricula, materials, textbooks, classroom management, dealing with difficult students and helicopter parents, working at state and private schools and an immense number of teaching ideas. The group organises annual conferences (sing. Zlot) which attract over 120 English teachers from all over Poland as well as TEFL publishers, authors of materials and teacher trainers. Yours truly has had the honour of giving three opening speeches: in 2017, 2018 and 2019, two of which concerned English pronunciation. Since the first Zlot of 2015 the interest in the group and its events has exploded.
Most of the members are English teachers working for state schools, but many work in kindergartens, independent (private) schools, universities, colleges or private language schools. Native English speakers are in a minority, particularly those who are not fluent in Polish, but even with a little Polish it's possible to find a lot of information and participate in conversations. The group has quite a few trainee teachers who are still learning the tricks of the trade. Some of the group members are academics like myself and mention the group to their students in English departments, thus adding to the snowball effect of its popularity.
The group is neatly organised, the posts having keywords or tags, so you can easily find your way when searching for a particular topic.
Codzienna kawa nauczycieli angielskiego is the off-topic "daughter" group of Nauczyciele angielskiego, managed by the same admins. A picture of a cup of coffee greets the members every morning, hence its name. In the group you'll have a chance to talk about anything except for TEFL or school matters; discussions range from gardening, cooking or buying shoes to fixing computer bugs, with lots of humour, puns, memes and links to British comedy shows thrown in.
Stay tuned for Part 2.
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