2024 was another very special year for ELTABB, featuring a big milestone…
Come join us for a walk down memory lane and find out what happened at your local friendly teachers’ association over the course of the year.
17 New Members
17 new members joined ELTABB (compared to 13 cancellations). A friendly farewell to all those who moved on, and a warm welcome to all our newcomers! We’re looking forward to meeting you at one of our events very soon. 🙂
14 ELTABB Events
14 events for teachers were organized. These included professional development workshops, stammtisch socials and more. Here are a few more details:
6 Workshops
Our professional development events were a mix of online, in-person and hybrid.
We covered a wide range of topics, including effective learning strategies, role-playing games and using LinkedIn for professional self-marketing.
6 Stammtisch Socials
Six stammtisch socials were organized by our Events Coordinator, Kath Robinson. It was a lot of fun to catch up with our ELT colleagues and friends!
We had some memorable and scenic nights, featuring biergartens under the stars, a cosy evening at Sean’s place and a festive Christmas stammtisch.
1 Special Highlight: ELTABB’s 30th Anniversary
2024 marked the milestone of ELTABB’s 30th Anniversary! So naturally, we seized the opportunity to celebrate in style at a fancy Italian restaurant.
30 members got together, including the association’s founder, Kristi Decke, as well as plenty of longstanding and new ELTABBers. It was an evening of fun, laughter and shared memories, and, not to forget, delicious Italian food.
1 Expolingua Fair
As in previous years, ELTABB was represented at Berlin’s biggest languages fair, Expolingua.
For two days, a handful of enthusiastic volunteers managed the stand, made friendly connections and brought the idea of ELTABB home to interested visitors and potential new members.
We all had a lovely time at the new venue and thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere. A big thank you to our Expolingua team: Miro, Kit, Tanya, Rich, Thomas, Ciara, Michael and Sandra.
1 Bonus Event: EAP Conference
This full-day conference for teachers of English for Academic Purposes was co-funded by ELTABB and organized by some of our longstanding members.
A big shout-out to Annie Heringer, Mandy Welfare, Vicky Allan and their team for their efforts – the conference was very well received, and the feedback was great!
12 Newsletters
12 monthly newsletters were sent out in 2024. Once more, our editor Kit Flemons surpassed himself, making the newsletter a joy to read and keeping our members up to date in a humorous way.
If you would like to receive our newsletter, just go to eltabb.com, scroll to the bottom of the page and sign up.
8 Journal articles
Eight journal articles were published this year. After celebrating our 100th article in 2023, we were very happy to keep up the good work in 2024. Topics ranged from more “classroomy” perspectives, such as role-playing games and activity banks, to materials writing, public speaking and conference reviews.
You can find all of our articles here:
Connections – All about Teaching English in Berlin and online
A big thank you to our dedicated writers, editors, and faithful readers! It has been lovely to hear that for some of our members, the ELTABB Journal was the first touch point that got them interested in the association.
Here’s to many more insightful articles and collaborations in the future!
3k+ Followers on Social Media
ELTABB’s social media following increased by 5.8 % in 2024, resulting in a total amount of 3061 subscribers (compared to 2891 in 2023).
Instagram, our newest channel, is continuing to be our fastest growing platform (+27.5%), with LinkedIn being a close second (+20.65%).
While our biggest platform, Facebook, has seen a slight increase in engagement and followers (+2.65%), Twitter has been caught in a downward spiral for the last two years, with engagement dwindling steadily in 2024 (-3.28%). Therefore, we have decided to focus on our other channels and will be discontinuing the use of Twitter going forward.
Overall, we’re happy with the growth of our social media presence, and are looking forward to expanding it further in 2025.
Changes to the Board
Michael Dollman joined the 2024 Board as Recording Secretary, while Katherine Robinson stepped up to replace Daniel Plumridge as Events Coordinator.
Niloufar Amanzadeh replaced Eleanor Johnston as Membership Coordinator in a non-board capacity. Slobodan Kelecevic stepped down as Social Media Coordinator, continuing to support ELTABB as a non-board member.
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Here’s to a happy and insightful 2025 with all of you ELTABBers!
Sandra is ELTABB's Chair and the current editor of the ELTABB journal. She holds an MA in English and is passionate about brain-friendly language learning and teaching. Likes Shakespeare and Venetian lute music.
