Umbrella Newsletter # 38
Dear colleagues,

While compiling this Umbrella Newsletter I played with VisualThesaurus (point 4 below) and I typed in a word “competition” as a trial. Why the word “competition”? As teachers, competition is a word we are all thinking about nowadays.  Our universities worry about future low enrollments and having to compete to recruit students.  Even our students themselves are competing for high scores on tests such as the EGE.   That word “competition” truly embraces the feelings of so many English language teachers. Here is what I got from VisualThesaurus: an interactive visual map with my word (competition) in the center, surrounded by its related words and meanings. Definitions are also available.

 (place for a scheme)

Aren’t we getting into” a business relation in which two parties compete to gain customers “when we attempt to recruit students for Universities? And are we not rivals (“the act of competing as for profit or a prize”) when we are preparing our student to take the EGE? To be competitive in today’s’ education field means you have to have the best resources. Students are offered new opportunities through YouTube and podcasting – they can view 1001 video lectures from the best Universities  http://web.rambler.ru/?id=17287   or   try new on-line “trainers” http://web.rambler.ru/?id=15095  (YouTube Edu   Videolectures.net   http://academicearth.org/). Can they really benefit from these materials without an experienced teacher? May be some can. But it is obvious that a teacher equipped with these techniques will win the rivalry not only with local teachers but with an international cohort of teachers :-). I would like to encourage you to come to NATE Conference in Kazan (point 1) and discuss how to learn to speak the same language with students and how to be a more effective teacher at the time of high-stakes competition.

Elena