Hello
My name is Eylan Ezekiel, and I have been involved in teaching, publishing for schools, edtech and education innovation. Unsurprisingly, I am also an avid fan of teachmeets! Teachmeets tend to be on-off or annual events, often with the focus on a stage and speakers. Brian Sharland and I are trying a new model in Oxford, Atomic Teachmeet, for a monthly, intimate event, where groups of teachers share with each other in smaller groups, with short ‘open-mike’ sessions. We are running these events at Atomic Pizza on the Cowley Road. To see more about our model, take a look at the web site: http://sharland.github.io/Atomic-Teachmeet/
Apart from Atomic Pizza being a cool venue,it brings the TeachEat into the TeachMeet, and makes it far more social. It has wi-fi and scope (in the Narnia Room) to accommodate a large group. They have also offered us free use if we take weekdays. We have run a few small, test events, but are looking to really establish it across all schools in Oxford (shire) from September. We are looking to have 10-20 regulars, who might come most, but not every month, so it becomes a part of the local learning landscape. Hopefully, it will grow and help improve the attitudes to CPD in this city.
We are looking for sponsors to make the evening more convivial and successful in the longer term.. Given we don’t know numbers for each month, and we want it to be pretty fluid, we are looking for sponsors to offer contributions in direct proportion to numbers who sign up, to encourage more to come! So, for every 5 new people who sign up, your organisation might add an extra £30 towards drinks.
We think this will suit organisations and business who offer services to schools, rather than products, because Atomic Teachmeet will allow you to build a relationship with teachers, and for them to develop a positive long term association with your brand, rather than a one-off purchase!
In return, we will badge and reference your organisation on our web spaces, and are happy to have promotional material given out on the tables. Of course, we’d be happy to have you along too, though we are going to keep all chat strictly about practice in schools.
If you’d like to talk more, please get in contact with Eylan.