Scott Thornbury Conducts Training Session for British Council & European School Teachers

On May 11-12, as a part of its collaboration with the British Council, the European School hosted the biggest name in teaching English, Scott Thornbury, who conducted a two-day session for the teachers of the British Council and the European School.

One of the most prominent figures in the field, he delivered a training aimed at the presentation of innovative methodologies and augmenting skills when conducting lessons with youngsters in the very best way.

GEORGIA TODAY spoke to Scott Thornbury, EFL Expert, to find out more. “Over 30 years, I’ve been teaching teacher training; I ran a school in Egypt, I’ve done courses and conferences all around the world and all of that also led to the writing of a number of books on methodology and on language. So, I have covered a lot of different aspects of the same profession,” he told us. “This is the first time I’ve been to Georgia and I was a little nervous before the session about how the teachers would respond to the kinds of ideas I’m bringing from outside, and how they’d interact. But I was delighted with the degree of enthusiasm from them all.”

“What I think makes the best teacher is no single quality,” he said. “Personality is very important, but you have to have knowledge of the subject, enthusiasm for the subject and more importantly, the ability to communicate the subject. That is what we call pedagogical skills and they come from experience, as well as from trainings.”

Stephen Shelley, Teaching Center Manager at British Council, told us he has been working in Georgia for 2.5 years and what makes it special is “the new hunger from students to learn English.”

“Students in Georgia are really enthusiastic about learning English,” he said. “My job as Teaching Center Manager at British Council increases as more and more people want to learn English and it’s a really great time to be here. What makes the British Council different is the emphasis on communication, on speaking English with confidence. We encourage our students to communicate in the classroom with each other and with the teacher. Teachers are there to support the students, but we want the students to speak, we want students to work,” he said, going on to note that the British Council has a very successful partnership with the European School and both are very much committed to the professional development of their teachers.

“If teachers do not keep studying, they will not improve,” Stephen tells us. “And we want our teachers to get better and better. Our teachers were very enthusiastic to use this opportunity and attend the training with one of the biggest names in the industry. We can see that they certainly took advantage of it!”

By Ketevan Kvaratskheliya