PRTESOL Western Chapter is calling for papers!

PRTESOL Western Chapter is calling for papers!

Call for Papers 2013

PRTESOL Western Chapter Annual Conference 2013

Dear PRTESOL Members,

On behalf of the Western PRTESOL Board of Directors, we share with your an invitation to their Annual Regional Conference.

As president of the Western PRTESOL Board, it is my pleasure to extend an

invitation to join us at our 36^th Annual Regional Conference which will be held

on Saturday, April 27, 2013 at the Inter American University, Aguadilla Campus 

starting at 7:30 a.m. through 4:00 p.m.

Our theme for this year is “Integrating Culturally Relevant Literature in the

English Classroom” and our keynote speaker will be Prof. Manuel Hernandez, 

Professor at University of Phoenix, Puerto Rico Campus and  also an English 

Facilitator for the Department of Education.  

Elizabeth Jiménez

Chapter President 2013

Western PRTESOL

katirializ@yahoo.com

(787)647-4960

Registration 2013 by

Tesol Flyer 2013 by

Getting Ready for Our Wine and Cheese!

Enjoy this social event sponsored by PRTESOL Metro and Central Chapters. Networking is really important, being connected provides you resources, knowledge and new experiences. Take time to share with other professionals....... We are expecting YOU! It is FREE for members and just $5.00 for non-members.

Space to recite poems, sing karaoke, and more!

From left to right, Mrs. Vivian Rivera, President of Central Chapter and Mrs. Aidanelly Ortíz, Secretary of Central Chapter.

Wine and Cheese: Night Under the Stars

You are invited to our Wine and Cheese! Save the date and enjoy this social and professional event. Please, wear something red.

Soon, our Wine and Cheese Activity

We will enjoy a Wine and Cheese: Under the Stars on February 23, 2013.  We will provide more details, soon.

PRTesolgram

Short notes from the PRTESOL Annual Convention

Yesterday, the 39th PRTESOL Annual Convention finished. Although I did not have the opportunity to be during the whole convention, I would like to share my notes of the presentations that I enjoyed. And of course of the informal conversation during little breaks.

Let's begin saying that almost everyone that I met or I greeted there, agreed that the best presentation was offered by the Friday's plenary speaker Sharroky Hollie. My commitment is to find notes from participants that attended to share with you his knowledge and experiences.

One important moment on Saturday was the award granted to Dra. Alicia Pousada. She received the Dr. Marie E. Aloise Lifetime Achievement Award 2012. She has contributed to the teaching of English in Puerto Rico; and as she gladly said she will continue researching, writing, and teaching. If you like to know more about her work you can access http://aliciapousada.weebly.com/articles.html

The plenary session of Saturday morning was addressed by Dr. Changhua Rich, Ph.D. She is Mc Graw Hill CTB's Research Director, Asia. Dr. Rich is responsible for developing international assessment business and research. Some of the key points presented by her are:

·      The main burden for teachers is grading. This mainly because lack of time and tools. Teachers really want to provide an inmediate feedback but the amount of students, the amount of administrative tasks and planning occupied a big portion of their time.

·      Online learning and online assessment using real time data is good for differentiated instruction and adaptive learning.

·      In the process of teaching and assessing, teachers are preparing students to acquire and develop the 21^st century skills. (http://www.p21.org/ )

·      The next generation of assessment will include online assessment and international benchmarking.

·      Dual language environment is harder and a big challenge for rural schools. Students might not find interesting nor necessary to acquire a second language.

·      Internationally, as English is being transformed from a foreign language into a global language, productive communication skills of English writing and speaking are being taught and tested as basic skills. As a result there is an increasing interest in the use of automated essay scoring technology in ESL/EFL teaching and learning.

If you would like to read more about online assessment and automated essay scoring you may access:

·      http://www.ctb.com/ctb.com/control/researchArticleMainAction?topicId=387&articleId=904&p=ctbResearch

·      http://www.ctb.com/ctb.com/control/researchArticleMainAction?articleId=904&p=ctbResearch

The morning workshop Problem and Project Based Learning: Teaching Financial Literacy in the ESL Classroom was offered by Arlene F. Serrano, a humble and enchanted doctoral student at Texas State University. Her main objective was to share her actual experience teaching young people and adults about financial literacy. Simple things as managing their wallet, creating conscience of using a budget, and working on finding positives outcomes are the kind of tasks that her students learn to do.

During the workshop, all the participants were actively engaged and even created posters to show different popular sayings about money. It was a very fun and enriching experience. As part of the workshop, Arlene provided material to be used in ESL classrooms and discussed the implications for this practice.  As an actual Math teacher in an ESL classroom and a strong believer of financial literacy, I found the materials provided as high quality and also as an easy guide to incorporate the theme as part of the curriculum. If you would like to contact her, you may write to as1864@txstate.edu

Another nice workshop, right after lunch, was Increasing English Language: Learning Naturally Through Brain Science.  The presentation was based on researches performed on the Neuroscience field. As result of these researches, Scientific Learning designed a reading intervention program that work with the brain areas related to the process of reading. The program as presented by Mr. Cory Armes help students to strengthen their ability to learn content and to build memory, attention, processing rate and sequencing. Participants received demos and information about researches. I got a cute little blue brain, made of that nice material that you can squeeze when you want to release stress. A cool token by Scientific Learning. If you like to read more you may access  http://www.scilearnglobal.com/