I have been trying to write this article for nearly a week now. My apologies for taking so long… it is impossible to make plans these days. I have writen this in a flash, and I am not a TEFL teacher…so please bare with me if I make mistakes. This is like talking to a dentist and trying not to show your teeth.
First of all I want to summarise very quickly our previous academy meeting, done on the 16th of October.
We had new members (something not surprising as it was the second) and some who couldn’t make it. The topic suggested topic was “Physical Office”. Basically if we needed one on in these online times.
There were varied opinions on this. We all have different cases and different types of academies. Some (those who have been working online these last 8 months) considered there was no sense in having one at the time being, others (more face to face oriented or working with kids) thought there is still a room and a demand for face to face teaching. And I think both are right, it all depends on the situation and target of each business.
The conversation then derived to FUNDAE and we will be writing another article on this soon (it is still a great unknown to many teachers and academies). And I was very happy to see we were all adamant on priorizing quality over
I have mused for a week on what we said there. And asked many other people in orther to have as many views as possible. Our decision, after trying to go back to the office during October, has been to “gather in the sails”, close the office for about a year, keep on working online, save the monthly rent and expenses and see if we need an office in September 2021. But our online conversations have helped me reach that decision (which I know consider is the best for me).
There were other pleasant side effects from the last two meetings. Some academy owners, who have centers on the same location, have shared their contacts and will be collaborating more closely. Other academies will be working together in other areas. I love it, this is the main objective of these meetings.
Which takes me to our next meeting.
The suggest topic is “new services or products to offer” during the COVID-19 era.
- Which services, both face to face and online, are working for you now
- Which aren’t.
- What will be the demands of clients now.
- Are exams an interesting thing to offer.
- Will people just prefer conversation classes.
Day: Friday the 30th of October.
Hour: 17:00
As always, please answer on this post, or on the Facebook group, or send an email to david@smythacademy.com if you want to receive the link to the meeting. If you haven’t received it by mid-morning, get back to me.
See you all on Friday!