The 2024 IH Toruń Teacher Training Day Conference held on Saturday 27th April was another resounding event. It was a milestone event as it was the tenth time the school has held this international conference. Over 100 teachers attended the event from across Europe including Belarus, Czechia, Poland, Romania, Spain, Ukraine and the UK. Some participants even had to wait at the land borders for over 48 hours on their way to the event.
We had engaging and interactive workshops on a variety of topics led by many ELT professionals including representatives from 6 IH schools (IH Brno, IH Bielsko-Biała, IH Bydgoszcz, IH Manchester, IH Toruń and formerly from IH Wrocław). Teachers from IH Kyiv, IH Minsk and IH Santiago de Compostela also made the journey to the conference. It was a great demonstration of the power of the International House network and how wonderful it is to collaborate, share teaching ideas and engage in professional development.
Workshops included a range of topics such as teaching mixed abilities, using authentic video material in the classroom, imposter syndrome, dealing with stress and of course the use of AI in the classroom as well as a session on anti-AI. Sponsored speakers included Polish presenters Bartłomiej Janiak (sponsored by Pearson) and the Xero Bros (sponsored by Macmillan).
In the afternoon, delegates were treated to two wonderful plenaries by Anna Hasper and Chris Roland. Anna gave a thought-provoking talk on emotional competencies and Chris asked everyone the question: 'Does writing have to be boring?', of course, the answer is no.
After the plenaries, there was a free prize draw in which lucky participant Justyna Oloszewska from a local school in Grudziądz won the star prize of free membership for a year with IATEFL Poland as well as free entry to the IATEFL Poland conference in September.
The event ended with a fabulous after-party in town where everyone gathered under the stars for drinks and social networking. Luckily, the weather was just perfect!
Plenary speaker, Chris Roland, said, ‘The IH Torun Teacher Training Day conference was put together by Glenn Standish and his team with a level of care and attention that really came through on the day; there was a real sense of community and buzz about the place.’
Anna Hasper, another plenary speaker, praised the event and the team, "The IH Toruń Teacher Training Day is definitely one of the most wonderful events I have attended! The workshops were varied and the fact that the groups were small really created a real sense of belonging! The team’s care and hospitality was visible in every way and I can’t thank IH Toruń enough for a superb event and for making me feel so welcome! I’ll be back one day!"
Conference delegate, Liliana Gucianu from Nativia Learning Center Bucharest, remarked, ‘The event was very well organised and was really informative. I felt informed, got nice teaching ideas and met very welcoming people.’
The IH Toruń Teacher Training Day will return in April 2025. Watch this space!