Tales from the Desh

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I just got back from my first real trip outside of St. Petersburg: The annual National Association of English Teachers Umbrella conference in Kalinigrad, a unique city that is geographically separated from the rest of Russia between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea.

I flew there on Sunday, just after presenting at the Saint Petersburg English Language Teachers Association (SPELTA) on Saturday and Sunday. Before that, I had had one of my busiest weeks yet since arriving last September. So, needless to say, I am happy to be home now and getting some relaxation.

These past few days have been very important for me. I feel like I have definitely grown as a teacher. Before last week, I had never given a plenary presentation at a conference. Now, I have given two. It had also been over two years since I presented at my last conference. Now I have four workshops under my belt just in the last several days.

I also met another teacher who gave me some invaluable advice. Her name is Gail Weinstein, and she was the visiting English Language Specialist from San Francisco State University. She looked over my plenary with me and told me that it had some really great, useful information and that it was well-organized and -presented. But she also showed me how I could make it even better and possibly connect it with a workshop that gives teachers hands-on experience actually using the concepts I discuss. It was great to talk with her, not just to get ideas, but also to find out that I am on the right track. It was a real confidence boost.

The teachers at my workshops were great. I find it so easy to help teachers relax and enjoy themselves during my workshops. My plenary was about giving written corrective feedback on writing assignments (check my website for more info), but my workshops were a bit more fun, since they focused on teaching (or not teaching) culture in the language classroom (more info on them is also available on the website). All in all, it was a very successful trip.

In addition, I got to practice my Russian a bit and I also went on several tours around the city. It is an interesting place with a few German buildings still standing. It definitely has a different feel than St. Petersburg and Moscow. I also made a trip to the Baltic, where I stood on the pier and smelled the fresh salt air. I also bought some great gifts for Jennifer and Jacob. Kaliningrad is famous for its amber, so I got Jacob a piece of amber with two prehistoric dead mosquitoes inside (cool!). Jennifer’s will remain a secret, since it is a Christmas present and I don’t want her to read about it here.

I returned to St. Petersburg with renewed confidence and more than a few new ideas for my own workshops. I must say that I really look forward to my next trip in December (Yaroslavl, Shuya and Ivanovo), which I probably couldn’t have said two weeks ago.

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