This year, the European Go Cultural Centre in Amstelveen (the Netherlands) celebrates its 25th anniversary. For this special occassion, the EGCC invites you to their Anniversary Go Tournament in the weekend of 21-22 October.

In addition to the tournament, the go centre organises a Teachers' Day on Friday 20 October.  All enthusiastic go teachers in Europe are welcome to participate in this full-day seminar, which will focus on the ins and outs of modern go teaching.

Go teachers are at the forefront of the spread and promotion of go. Hence they fulfill an important role in the direction that our sport will take. This event gives go teachers a chance to discuss their ideas with colleagues, find out about the differences and similarities between their approaches and those of others, and to learn about the current methods and trends in teaching go. 

Activities

For this symposium, the teachers are joined by two special guests from the Nihon Ki-in: Mr. Yamashiro Hiroshi 9p (vice-president of the Nihon Ki-in) and Cătălin Țăranu 5p. They will open the day, followed by introductions of major teaching projects from the past. Afterwards, several plenary sessions and workshops will take place, focusing on specific topics. Examples of such topics are:

• Mindset: how do you recognise the mindset of your students? And how do you deal with them? Do you select and train students who show eagerness to improve, or do you focus your efforts on students that are less enthusiasiatic about the game, to convince/stimulate them? Should you train students that show different levels of interest and/or skill seperately, or not?
  
  
• Didactics: which approaches to teaching are there and which audiences or goals do they target?
  
  
• Ways to Promote Go: how do we promote our sport? With which endgoal in mind? What are the pros and cons of the opposite perspectives of offer and demand?
  
  
• Teaching Materials: which materials do you use and which are best for which purpose? 
  
  
• Modern Media: Internet and multimedia are the future of go. Or are they? How does the modern world, in which borders are easily forgotten and the language of English has become universal, influence our possibilities for teaching?
  
  
• Obstacles: what are the main obstacles that go teachers face and how can we overcome them?
  
  
• Teaching as a Living: How can we create jobs for go teachers and form a structure that generates income? In a sense, how do we professionalise go in Europe?
  
  Of course other topics will be welcome for the sake of discussion.

Ultimate Goal

The ultimate goal of the Teachers' Day is to collect the different views and experiences of leading European go teachers in a publication. Ideally, this publication would be used as a handbook by others, with or without significant experience in teaching, to use as inspiration and to start teaching on their own.

Special Offer

The EGF sponsors the EGCC's Teachers' Day with €60 for each of the first 10 non-Dutch participants that register.

More information, including the time schedule, can be found on the official website.