Võru County English Teachers Board meeting 2012

Võru County’s Teachers of English Board in August 2012

I Overview of last school year's events:

• Internet Quiz - successful on 2nd attempt, 53 participants. Starting from now on all quizes done through language centre's blog to avoid technical hitches.

 

• Form 8 Translation Competition - there were 50 participants, took a lot of time to mark. A preliminary round needed at every school so that only 2 or 3 best translators would represent each school. Last year's text can be used for the preliminary round. Overview of translation problems.

• Form 6 Puzzle Quiz -  22 3-membered teams, still popular event, stuggle with time limit - needs prehand testing, problems with handwritng - must be legible, team names on the task pages!!

• Secondary School Speech Contest - 22 participants, more than one topic is a great idea, continuing with the assessment grid.

• Board Game competition for Form 9 - too few participants, didn't work out, students don't want to take responibility, some great game ideas but takes too much time to make a clean draft. Maybe test some other time.

•  Crossword solving competition for Form 7 - successful event, maube make the crosswords topical, problem - careless copying from crossword to answers' sheet.  Hamdwriting is very bad!!!

II Maila Vilu's overview of Võru Kreutzwald Gymnasium's entrance test  and its results in English:

194 students took the test, average score 62.5. Highest score 95 points, lowest 14!
Biggest problems with principle verb forms.


III  Election of the new chairperson:
Out of the 10 proposed candidates, 3 most popular were Eve Unt, Merle Paat and Ly Kõiv.  The final decision was a compromise for Eve Unt to take up the job for a year.

Congratulations EVE!

IV Events in the new school year:

• Internet Quiz - topic: England, November 8
• Short Plays Festival for Basic School - November 24
• Form 8 translation competition - final round December 6
• Local preliminary round of English Olympiade (for secondary school students) - December 7
• Form 6 Puzzle Quiz - February 2
• Speech Contest  - February 28
• Form 7 Crossword Competition - April 6

All teachers who would like to share their experiences and hold seminars are welcome to inform Eve Unt of their wishes.
Contact the new chair at eve@vkg.werro.ee.

PS! If you wish to visit the Languages Centre after the lessons, please inform Maila Vilu at least one day in advance by emailing her at maila@vkg.werro.ee. By doing this, we can make sure that someone is there to meet and serve you.

Have a nice new school year!

reminder of the English Teachers Board

Dear English teachers,

The annual Beginning-of-the-schoolyear meeting is on Monday, August 27. We'll begin at 10.00 a.m. at Võru Kreutzwald Gymnasium's Mirror Hall.

 

Think about suitable candidates for the new chairperson as Maive would like to resign after 5 years of chairing.

See you all soon!

Happy holidays!

Dear everybody,

Another busy school year has reached its end and sunny summer holidays are waiting.

A big thank you to everybody who helped with organising and preparing for the numerous events for both the students as well as the teachers. Also, a big thank you to all the wonderful students who found the time and energy to take part in the competitions. We hope to meet all of you again in the autumn when the new circle of events starts.

A short reminder to the members of the English Board:

Our end-of-year-welcome-new-schoolyear meeting takes place on Monday, Aug 27 at 10 am in Võru Kreutzwald Gymnasium's Mirror Hall. Think about candidates for the new chairperson.


Have a wonderful summer holiday!
 

Seminar "Formative Assessment in Foreign Language Class"

On Tuesday, April 17 at 2 o'clock p.m. Võru County's
Teachers of English gathered at Võru Kreutzwald Gymnasium to listen to Ruth and Eve who shared what they had learned about formative assessment.

In Ruth and Eve’s seminar the teachers of English were:

• made to think what is formative assessment
• where and how it could be implemented into language classes
• introduced some ready-made students’ self-assessment grids
• shared experiences with of how one or another implementation has worked out in everyday  usage
• given a folder of practical materials to test out in classes
• were made to work out assessment grids for the students’ events organised by Võru County’s English teachers’ Board

 

Thank you Eve and Ruth!
 

 

                                                                   
                                                                   

 

 

Crossword Solving Competition for Form 7 Students

On Saturday, April 14, 2012 at 10 o'clock took place the second ever Crossword Solving Competition for Form 7 Students at Võru Kreutzwald Gymnasium.

17 2-membered teams had 2 hours to do a big crossword. The students could use English -English, English - Estonian, Estonian - English dictionaries while doing the crosswords and then had to write the solution words to the answers' sheet.

The crosswords were graded by Maila Vilu, Tiia Allas, Ruth Talmet, Maive Salakka, Marju Purge (all from Võru Kreutzwald Gymnasium), Merle Paat (from Antsla Gymnasium), Hille Juss (from Võru I Basic School), Marin Kuslap (from Mõniste Basic Schoo), Mare Veiderpass and Ly Kõiv (both from Võru Kesklinna Gymnasium) and Maiu Pajumets (from Rõuge Basic School).

The best of the best were:

I  team "MILKSHAKE"  (with 38.5 points)
                     Rodny Verner Reeder
                    Pärt Dolenko
(Võru Kreutzwald Gymnasium, teacher: Marju Purge)


II team "GRAMMAR GUYS"  (with 37.5 points)
                                Karel Räppo
                     Indrek Virk
(Võru Kreutzwald Gymnasium, teacher: Tiia Raag)


III team "MTV-M"  (with 35 points)
                     Tuule Müürsepp
                     Mari Vijard
(Antsla Gymnasium, teacher: Merle Paat)


IV team "KULDREKAD" (with 34 points)
                      Kelly Püvi
                      Helen Mary Vartšun
(Kuldre Basic School, teacher: Karin Hellamaa)

V team "CREAMERY" (with 32 points)
                      Kris-Sten Saarepuu
                      Liis Kikas
(Võru Kreutzwald Gymnasium, teacher: Marju Purge)



A huge thank you to Maive Salakka for putting together the crossword.

A big thank you to all the participants and the teachers whose students participated in the competition, to all the teachers who helped to carry out the event and grade the papers.

A tip for the future:
Dear students! Please take care not to misspell the words when copying them from the crossword to the answers' page!!

See you next year!
Enjoy the photos of the event!

Teachers' events in April

Ruth's and Eve Unt's seminar "Formative Assessment in Foreign Language Class" on Tuesday, April 17 at 2 o'clock p.m. at Võru Kreutzwald gymnasium.
Ruth and Eve are going to introduce what is formative assessment, how to implement it into your language class and share their practical experiences on this new and important aspect of the new national curriculum.
Please register for the seminar by April 13 via emailing maive.salakka@gmail.com.

Students' events in April

On Saturday, April 14, 2012 at 10 o'clock takes place the second ever Crossword Solving Competition for Form 7 Students at Võru Kreutzwald Gymnasium.

Like last year, we expect 2-membered teams. The students can use dictionaries (English -English, English - Estonian, Estonian - English). Teachers, please register your participants by April 11 by emailing Maive the number and full names of your students at maive.salakka@gmail.com.