OPEN MEETING

DATE: 31/08/2018
ATTENDEES: Patrick, Gregor, Brian
CHAIR: Ana

COURSEBOOKS
− Ready for Advanced is very dull and hard to adapt, can we consider changing it?
− Business Result could be changed as well. It’s also very dry and it doesn’t really give students
much practice with writing.
− First Masterclass is a great change but it’s definitely too much to cover in a year. As we
suggested last year, maybe this could be solved by finishing New English File in the first semester
of Upper Int. 2 and doing exam practice in the second half of the year.

READERS
− Some of our students don’t read the reader not matter how hard we try to get them to do it. We
think that having to read a book should be compulsory but maybe they could choose one they
like.

FRIDAY MEETINGS
− Very useful and time efficient. Thanks!
− We could have a session on teaching Business English or adapting a non-business book to suit in-
company classes.
− We could have a couple of swapshops every now and again.

TEACHERS’ ROOM
− Computers are very slow in the teacher’s room and over at Obligado (particularly the laptop in
room 3).

EQUIPMENT
− Room 1 still doesn’t have a clock
− Could we have more board pens, bluetac, tacs and cartulinas, please?
− Could we consider the possibility of getting USB drives for each level. It’d be a good solution to
scratched CDs.
− WB upstairs are hard to erase – the cleaning stuff used on them might be making it harder to do
so?

LIBRARY
− Maybe get new books and get rid of some? No one’s going to read Unbuttoned…

SALARIES
− IH Recoleta teachers got a 6% increase. We are getting one as well, aren’t we?
− Business classes should get some travel stipend as the cost of public transport is going up and
will continue to go up until October.
− Ideally, we could be paid closer to the beginning of the month? Or like at Recoleta on the 28thof
every month.
− For people who are not coming back next year, can they get their aguinaldo and salary for
December before they leave?

SOCIAL PROGRAMME
− Maybe we could have sth for the teens, as they could also benefit from a social programme.

OBSERVATION
− We like pop-ins a lot and feel we benefit from them. As for formal observations, can the second
one be less formal?

COMMUNICATION
− Could we email everything to the parents? Teens get the slips, but they never give them back
and then it’s extra work to get Barbara to phone the parents. How about digitalizing report cards as
well? Teens, just ‘lose’ theirs if they don’t do well. Also, we feel we don’t get the slips with that much
anticipation, so if kids are missing the week we hand them out they never get them back in time.

LEVEL MEETINGS
− We don’t find them that useful, we talk to each other anyway in the staffroom and we’ve got
materials on Edmodo and Dropbox. Also, for Upper Int. 1 and Int. 2 only one teacher turned up,
so it wasn’t really productive.

A.O.B
− Recoleta is ending on the 15th of December, why are we ending on the 21st? It’s too close to
Christmas – flight might be more expensive for those who are leaving. Also, some of us were told
that classes ended in November and that we could choose to stay in December. However, this
doesn’t seem to be like an option anymore as YL classes go on until the 12th. We can’t afford to
stay on in December and get paid for only one or two classes.
− In company classes students are 45 min late or miss a lot and then get upset when they don’t
pass the exams. Also, for teachers who start early and end at 9 in the evening this timetable is
exhausting. Can companies be persuaded to have their classes during lunch breaks? Or at least
penalize students for not attending a certain number of classes, e.g. if they attend 80% of
classes, they are paid by the company, if they don’t, they pay a sum.