2006 Embassy Events
Farewell Reception held for Senior English Language Fellows Diane Millar and Anne Marie Burk
On July 12, 2006, the Public Affairs Section hosted a farewell reception in honor of Senior English Language Fellows Diane Millar and Anne Marie Burk. The reception was organized at the hotel “Ambasadori”. English language teachers of different universities and schools, members of the English Teachers’ Association of Georgia (ETAG), journalists, U.S. Embassy employees and representatives of other international organizations came to say goodbye to Diane and Anne Marie and thank them for all the wonderful work that they accomplished while in Georgia.
Diane Millar spent two years in Georgia working mainly at ETAG and delivering different teacher training courses. She assisted local ETAG staff with newsletter articles, website development, changes to certification processes, bi-monthly meetings and annual conference plans. Diane undertook extensive travel throughout the country and delivered 20-hour teacher-training courses in eight regions of Georgia. All of the evaluation reports and comments completed by the teachers after the courses and workshops have been overwhelmingly positive. In particular, teachers in the regions have especially appreciated the opportunity to work with a native-speaker trainer.
In addition to her teacher training work, Diane also taught MA students at Tbilisi State University, assisted the Georgian Association of American Studies with editing and course development, and helped ETAG and the U.S. Embassy in organizing English language teachers’ conferences and the U.S. Education Fair. Diane has made a substantial contribution to the overall development and advancement of English language teaching in Georgia. Senior English Language Fellow Anne Marie Burk has been on a short-term Media Education Program assignment to teach English to journalists in Tbilisi and to assist university instructors there to develop curriculum for journalism classes. Journalists and university teachers mentioned that Anne Marie’s work has been extremely successful and productive.
