CoTESOL Conference

By Terry McAnaney

I attended the annual CoTESOl conference in Aurora, Colorado in November. It was a two day conference for teachers of English to students of other languages. In addition to sessions Friday and Saturday mornings and afternoons, various publishing companies were available with sample books. I was able to get several sample copies of ESL books that will be available in the ESL storage room in Breckenridge.

There were many interesting sessions and some not interesting sessions. Two of the best were offered by the same presenters from the English Language Institute at the University of Utah. Two departments have combined forces (ESL and drama) to use acting to help ESL students with pronunciation, sentence and word stress, vocal expression and overcoming the fear of speaking in public in a foreign language.

In one activity they used a contentless scene. They used a general script such as:

"Hi"

"Hi, how are you?

"Fine, I guess"

and so on. . .

After the students read and familiarized themselves with the scene, they were given a situation such as: You are a young married couple. Last night after an argument, B left the apartment and stayed out all night. It is now the following morning. A is fixing breakfast. B returnes.

The students practiced the scene using the necessary stress and inflection dictated by the situation. Each pair was given a different situation. After sufficient practice, the pairs presented their situations to the class.

In another example, they downloaded a scene fron Utube of a portion of a Flash Gordon episode and deleted the sound. The students watched the video. They were divided into groups where they added their own script to the scene by dubbing in their voices using Audacity and Movie Maker. They did a great job!

In the second session by the same presenters, they used puppets to achieve similar objectives to the earlier session. They offered easy tips for making and using puppets. Stuffed animals were unstuffed then cardboard was sewn into the mouths so they could be worked with the hands. Gloves and socks with peepers also make easy puppets. Peepers are eyes connected with a "U" shaped plaxtic so they wrap around one's finger. Peepers can be found at http://www.peepers.com/.

To form a stage, the presenters used PVC pipe and connectors to form a structure on which to hang a curtian. They also suggested a curtain could be hung on chairs turned upside down on a table.

The scripts used were simple. Also used were conversations from the students text books. Students could also write their own scripts. It was great to hear the stress and inflection the students used behind the curtain when it wasn't really them, but rather the puppets talking.

Another very interesting session was a publisher session by McGraw-Hill presented by Pierre Montagan. McGraw-Hill has developed a very innovative online resource for instructors to design an ESL text for a certain class. As Mr. Montagan stated, ESL is different from other disciplines. In academic classes there is a set amount of information that is delivered. All texts for that subject matter have the same material presented, with slight variations, no matter the publisher. With ESL we have students with many different educational levels or no formal education at all. We have students from many cultures and students of various ages. One book does not fit all.
With "Create", a person can register on the McGraw-Hill website(http://www.create.mcgraw-hill.com/). Once registered, you have access to all McGraw-Hill textbooks and other third party materials. One can buy individual chapters from books, essays from third parties, add one's own materials and create a text book designed especially for your class. It is also possible to rearrange chapters or combine chapters from various texts. McGraw-Hill will publish your book with an ISBN number so your students or anyone else can buy it. It can be published as a print textbook or an e-textbook. The only problem I can see, especially in Breckenridge, is we don't generally know the demographics or exact level of our classes until after registration which provides limited time to compose a text.
Another interesting session was given by Lee Shainis and Rachel Fuchs; Teaching what every immigrant needs to know. Lee Shainis wrote a very informative guide of pratical information for immigrants living in the U.S. The language in the guide would be very difficult for levels below high intermediate. A Spanish version is due to come out in several months and he is planning on working on a simplified version in English.
He has developed activities to use with the guide such as doing a scavenger hunt with the table of contents or giving studenta a strip of paper with a question and then having them find the information in the guide. He also has a pdf of activities to use with the guide. You may email him at lee@intercabioweb.org. The website for buying the guide iswww.livingintheus.org.
The other sessions I attended weren't very helpful. Either the presenters didn't seem too interested in presenting or spoke with soft voices which were difficule to hear.
I did attend one last publisher session by Pearson Longman presented by Bill Bliss who is always entertaining. We were all given a copy of "Communication Games and Activity Masters" an activity book which accompanies the Word by Word picture dictionary. It has many great activities a lot of which can be used independently from the picture dictionary. I have already used an information gap activity with a chapter about directions from Side by Side.
In general I felt the conference was very worthwhile. I have attended a couple of CoTESOL conferences in the past, and I will certainly try to attend another in the future.

--Terry McAnaney

Web 2.0 Presents Cultural Tipping Point for Educators

Trent Batson's excellent article about how Cloud computing offers new faculty innovation opportunities, is one of the best written to date, and pinpoints the perils and the promise of IT trends in education today. This is a must-read for any educator who wants to understand the impact of emerging technologies on pedagogical best practices and the corresponding dilemmas faced by IT administrators.

Research has confirmed Batson's claim that, "We are as prisoners who have spent our lives in prison and cannot bear not having four walls around us, or those bars on the windows of our curiosity." Therefore, the mindset – not the machine – is more of a challenge to tech integration today.

Here's the summary breakdown of Batson's report:

• Web 2.0 is a global renaissance of unprecedented flowering knowledge
• Old-think prevents our seeing the opportunities before us as educators
• History proves that faculty took the lead in tech integration historically
• Continuous change (i.e. Web 1.0 to Web 2.0) is both tantalizing and frustrating
• Unlike changes in automobile innovations that took 91 years, Web 1.0 to 2.0 took only five years!
• As a result, IT depts are too busy making admin changes, to help faculty with pedagogical needs

Conclusion: "It is therefore time for faculty and academic leaders to assume permanent, campus-wide, and official leadership to transform higher education to fit the cultural learning trends and opportunities of today."

CoTESOL Convention Nov. '10

This past November I attended the annual CoTESOL (Colorado Teachers of English to Speakers o f Other Languages) Conference. There were many workshops and presentations available to participants. In addition to visiting the publishers’ exhibits, I also attended nine other sessions. Some of these sessions I found very disappointing perhaps because I have high expectation of other teachers to present their materials and findings in fun and engaging ways. Sadly, I found this not to be the case for more than a few sessions. That said, there definitely were some engaging presentations.

I was quite impressed with the presentation by McGraw-Hill’s Pierre Montagan. The new use of technology in the publishing industry is astounding and I felt I had a glimpse into the future of classroom textbooks. McGraw-Hill’s new program called CREATE allows any registered educator to have access to all of Mc-Graw’s materials and lets a teacher cut and paste any relevant chapters, articles, charts, graphs, etc. into their own custom made textbook. If, for example, a teacher normally uses one textbook for their course, but is unhappy with a few chapters and how the material is presented, they can keep their favorites and replace others with chapters they like better. They can design their own textbook with the most current articles, charts, chapters and research and easily update their book each semester with the freshest content. Pretty amazing.

I also really enjoyed two presentations by the same group from the University of Utah. The first session called “Dramatic English –from understudy to star” used great examples and video of ESL students using theater and drama to improve their English. It was enlightening to see the students open up once they were playing a character. Their tone and inflection noticeably changed when their scene was set depending on whether their character was angry, suspicious, guilty, etc. The students were given “contentless scripts”—scripts that were neutral in their words and could be adapted to the situation depending on if the characters were told to be happy, sad, excited, etc. Their second presentation, “Perfecting pronunciation through puppet performance” was similar (using theatre and drama), but rather than having students stand up and perform they used hand puppets to play the character. This appeared to be especially beneficial for the shyer students to try out their acting chops. Since the student is hidden behind a screen they were more apt to try different voices, tone and emphasis that they often don’t try in other classes in front of their peers.

I found that the most engaging sessions—aside from the University of Utah—were hosted by publishers. Their enthusiasm was much more palpable than from many of the teacher-hosted workshops. They were better prepared, engaging and fun, but I suppose that is how you’d need to be if you’re trying to sell something. Hopefully, more teachers will adopt these traits if they really want to “sell” education.

TYCA-SW 2010 Conference, Connecting the Dots: Teaching Traditional Writing in this Anything Goes World

I recently attended the 45th Annual TYCA-SW Conference in Laredo, Texas. The Two-Year College English Association is one of the constituent groups of NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English). I've been attending the regional conferences for several years, but this was my first trip to the Southwest's Regional Conference (I formerly taught in the Midwest, so I attended their conferences). Like my past experiences with TYCA regional events, this one proved to be well worth the time and energy. Not only did I get the chance to meet and converse with two-year college English faculty from across the southwest, but I also was inspired by the great work my colleagues are doing.

On the national level, TYCA representatives are advocating for people like me and institutions like CMC. Sandie McGill Barnhouse, the current TYCA National Chair, and David Lydic, TYCA National Regional Chair, shared many great ways for us to get involved. The National Gallery of Writing is one way that we can make our voices heard. Perhaps you are working with a writing project in your classes, and you'd like to have your students' voices resonate outside the classroom walls. You can start your own gallery!

If you are a member of NCTE or want to know what's happening in the English discipline, you may want to check out the newly developed Connected Community. And, having checked it out myself, I can tell you that you don't have to be an English teacher to find valuable teaching resources here. Subscribe to one of the discussion forums, read an article about bullying in schools, share a teaching resource. We're all connected!

One of the other valuable insights from the conference came from Marlea Trevino of Grayson County College, who presented on her research into the composition backgrounds of non-native students. Trevino reminded us that many of our non-native students come into our classes with little to no knowledge of rhetorical concepts we practice in composition, little to no practice in critical thinking, little to no practice in using technology to compose and research. They also may be disconcerted by the level of informality in our classes as well as with discussions that require opinions on issues or peer critiques. Instructors need to be mindful not to make assumptions about what our non-native (and native) students have already learned. We need to have patience and give our students opportunities to share differences rather than demand assimilation. Trevino recommended the works of Jeffra Flaitz, who has written widely on working with non-native students.

Thank you to the CMC College-Wide Professional Development Committee for taking the time to review my application for funds and then granting me the opportunity to participate in this conference.

What I'm doing...

Hi, again, everyone!

Since I'm new to the blog, I figured that I'd show you what I'm doing in one of my classes. This is for a math class that I'm teaching online this fall (I've taught five years online, but this is the first time I've had an opportunity to teach an online class for CMC). I'd love to have any feedback that you would care to give me, as I'm determined to keep improving my work!

Here's the link: http://web.me.com/stevendeb1/online_college_algebra_at_CMC/Home_Page.html

Have a great day!

Steve

New to this Blog...

Hello, Colleagues!

While I've been doing work online with my own website and blogs for a long time, this is my first connection with the CMC blog... I have to thank Suzanne Thompson for inviting me to participate! I'm going to check out what my learned colleagues have already contributed, and then I'll try to add a contribution from my meager skills to the mix.

I hope you all had a great summer, and are looking forward to the Fall term as much as I!

Steve

57th Annual American College of Sports Medicine annual meeting and the Inaugural World Congress on Exercise is Medicine

The above long title actually represents two meetings combined, held in Baltimore during the first week of June. Thank you, Roaring Fork Campus, for making it possible to attend. How does a meeting about sportsmedicine and exercise affect CMC? At CMC, the wellness requirement of at least two credits for graduation is a quiet, yet persistent program staffed by adjunct faculty. Are we addressing students’ lifestyles in a meaningful way through these efforts? What are current national fitness norms and trends? At this meeting, national and international health organizations were represented, to report the state of affairs, along with new developments and research are on the horizon. The meeting encompassed a large and diverse group ─ addressing health and fitness from all viewpoints, ranging from scientists and physicians, to national leaders and the Surgeon General, and even a consultant from reality TV.
During the keynote lecture, Jeffrey Koplan of the Emory Global Health Institute spoke about “Physical Activity, Health, Health Care Reform and Lifestyle Reform Revisited.” He set the stage by talking about how lifestyle reform begins with changing social norms. If we don’t take physical activity seriously, we won’t invest in it. New health care legislation is being enacted: translating it into practice is needed for us to find out the wellness and prevention services that will be reimbursed. He pointed out that a doctor’s personal habits are most influential factor in shaping patients’ habits.
Surgeon general Regina Benjamin also talked about behavior change in the context of a social and lifestyle network. In recognition of the importance of social support, she told the audience about her goal to hike the Grand Canyon within the coming year.
Dr. Miriam Nelson, a fellow of ACSM, spoke about the factors of both genetics and lifestyle in determining an individual’s health and fitness. With personal factors in the center of a sphere, other lifestyle influences surround an individual, with the outer layers successively including social environment, micro-environment, and macro-environment. A persistent theme is that we cannot look at health practices in isolation. Behavioral and health choices emanate from a complex system, in which one’s environmental setting is a key component.
Many Americans are not aware of the U.S. National Physical Activity Plan, from the National Coalition to Promote Physical Activity . Issued in 2008, it includes certain strategies that apply to schools. Most pertinent to CMC are Strategy 6, “Encourage post-secondary institutions to provide access to physical activity opportunities, including physical activity courses, robust club and intramural programs, and adequate physical activity and recreation facilities;” and Strategy 7, which reads, “Encourage post-secondary institutions to incorporate population-focused physical activity promotion training in a range of disciplinary degree and certificate programs.”
Another document that may not be well known is the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans issued by the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. It addresses scientific evidence for the health benefits of physical activity, recognizes a dose-response curve of fitness improvement, and includes the minimum amounts of regular activity needed to obtain these benefits. For adults aged 18-64, the benefit threshold is 2 hours and 30 minutes per week of moderate intensity, or 1 hour and 15 minutes per week of vigorous intensity, aerobic exercise. Episodes should be at least 10 minutes long and dispersed throughout the week. Additional health benefits are gained by increasing up to 5 hours per week of aerobic exercise of moderate intensity, or up to 2 hours and 30 minutes of vigorous intensity, or some combination thereof. Adults also need two or more days per week of muscle strengthening activities. For those reaching these thresholds, strong evidence is available for improved cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness, decreased risk of specific syndromes and chronic diseases, better weight control , fall prevention, and depression reduction.
Many speakers addressed the frustrating observation that fitness in the U.S. shows little or no improvement over the past ten years of concerted national effort, despite increased information and initiatives directed toward change. Among other things, speakers stated that 65% of American children have a television in their bedroom and that modern man spends more that 91% of waking hours sitting.
The purpose of the paired World Congress on Exercise is Fitness was to bring together representatives from major regions of the world to share information and dedicate their support for a global health forum, including the “science, policy, practice, and public health aspects of physical activity and its impact on disease prevention and health promotion.” The “Exercise is Medicine” charter encourages physicians and health care providers to include exercise in a patient’s treatment plan, as a part of regular medical care. It complements the World Health Organization’s global strategy on diet, physical activity, and health, and was endorsed by the international representatives.