Access Educators Attended the 7th South Caucasus Regional English Language Teaching Conference in Tbilisi, Georgia

Two Access educators from Tiraspol and Criuleni participated in the 7th South Caucasus Regional English Language Teaching Conference organised in Tbilisi, Georgia. The conference was organized in collaboration with the U.S. Embassy Kyiv, Regional English Language Office and U.S. Embassies from Baku, Yerevan, Minsk and Chisinau. Participants presented and shared their teaching experiences on a range of the topics. Department of State English Language Fellows conducted workshops on advanced EFL/ESL methods for secondary and tertiary level. The program addressed the following themes: using technology in the EFL classroom, content based instruction, integrating across skills in EFL, teaching English for specific purposes, developing intercultural communication and critical thinking approach in ELT (More details HERE).

Participants sharing their impressions:  

Tatiana Sclifos, Access-Criuleni:

”On January 27-28 I had the chance to be one of Moldovan teachers who participated in the 7th South Caucasus Conference hosted by International Black Sea University in Tbilisi. It was an interesting and wonderful experience. I attended 8 workshops and each of them gave me the opportunity to learn something useful. The speakers were experienced educators and their presentations and activities were very engaging. As the main goal of this Conference was using technology in the EFL classroom, I am confident that I will use all the tools that I learned there during my Access classes and not only. Some of the new online tools I learned about are: kahoot.it, worsift.org, educaplay.com. I met there new people from different countries, I learned about their educational systems, about their culture, traditions and I so this event was also a cultural exchange. English Fellow teachers: Colin Vandergraaf, Ana Maria Ferraro, Chris Hastings were the greatest treasures of this conference. Beginning with grammar and vocabulary enhancement activities and finishing with critical thinking and online teaching tips - all these useful subjects managed to break boundaries with technology and innovation in the classroom.Thank you all for such a great opportunity!” 

Evghenia Protiuc, Access-Tiraspol: 


”From January 27 to January 28 I had the opportunity to participate in the 7th South Caucasus Conference in Tbilisi. It was a very good experience for me not only as a participant, but as well as a speaker. I participated in the workshops presented by English Fellow Teachers like Colin Vandergraaf, Ana Maria Ferraro, Chris Hastings, Debra Abrams. I could stay for hours and hours listening to them, because they have a lot to share, their experience is without borders. During the first day of the conference we had a reception at The Deputy Chief of Mission of the Embassy of the United States of America and could interact with other teachers in a nice and friendly atmosphere. I learned about many useful teaching tools and methodologies which I will be able to use during lessons with my Access team. Most importantly, I learned about the importance of establishing local partnerships with Peace Corp volunteers and English language fellows, who could collaborate with Access students when organising online sessions. I woulld like to thank US Embassy to Moldova and RELO office for such a wonderful possibility!”