The numbers are growing...more teachers are reaching this milestone, and in the last  two months,  the following people have become accredited. ABF congratulates you...

Leslie Falla (Hawks Nest), Sandra McBain (Glen Innes), Sandra Curran (Gunnedah), Dianne Hasler (Gunnedah), Deirdre Giles (Redlands). 

For more information on these and other teachers, check out the Education section of the ABF website. 

Deirdre Giles

On Monday 18 January 2016, please join me for an informal get together in Canberra if you're playing in the SFOB.

When: 6.30 pm Monday 18 January  Where: Studios 2 & 3, Mezzanine FloorAgenda 

1.ABF Teachers’ Accreditation Program
2.Teachers’ Forum
3.Education website
4.Question & Answer Segment Light refreshments provided.

Email me teaching@abf.com.au if you are able to attend. 

The more teachers get together, the better!

The last Teacher Education Programme for 2015 was in Brisbane, and here are the graduates shown in the pic.

Thanks for your fantastic show of support for ABF Programmes for 2016. I sent a flyer of the ABF Teacher Education Programme to all clubs and teachers, and received an overwhelming response. Many clubs are keen to host these.

2016 TTP's: Bateman's Bay Sat 6 Feb,  Gunnedah, Sat 5 March, Brisbane Water, Sun 14 March.

CPD Days: Bateman's Bay Sun 7 Feb,  Kiama Sun 14 Feb,  Gunnedah, Sun 6 March, Geelong (VIc) Sun 20 March.

I will also be offering a day of my own workshops at these centres, so contact the relevant club. For more detail and to download flyers, refer to the ABF site, Teachers 

Thanks to Hunter's Hill, Trumps, Toowoomba, Redlands, Toowong, Orange, Maitland, ERBA, Ballina, Peninsula, for offering to be involved later in 2016. Dates will be posted as deailts are finialised. 

NB: from 2016 onwards, Teacher Training Programmes  will be offered  as one day, eight hour programmes (rather than stretching over two days), for 15 points towards accreditation plus certificate. Usually these will be a Saturday, and if you are able to stay the next day, then a Continuing Professionanal Development day for teachers will be on at most centres, and you will receive another certificate, and 10 more points. 

New content for CPD Days will also be offered in addition to the current Modern Competitive Bidding that has been done so far- for intermediate classes, Modules 4,5,and 6 of the Teachers Curriculum. (Defence, Competitive Bidding and Introduction to Conventions).  

Lessons 5 (Opener's Rebid) and 6 (Responder's Rebid) are now available on the ABF site, and on mine. These complete a Beginners course. They are useful for new teachers to get an idea of what to cover (less is more), and for students as reinforcement. 

To view the curriculum of lessons, videos, and hands playable online, join joanbuttsbridge.com. All my videos (20 of them) are available on the ABF site.  

Forums only live if people are using them. A few teachers are trying valiantly to add comments, and I to answer them.

At the moment, there is an interesting discussion about whether to add length points in the beginning of a hand or not. Also, we've had a few posts about the system I intend to be concentrating on more in 2016( at the risk of nagging!) and that's Two Over One Game Force 

Please register and log in to the ABF Forum to keep it going. Don't worry about your question being too basic, as the fundamentals of bridge (learning it, let alone teaching it) are huge!  

Merry Christmas

Joan