Author: NMTESOL

Hats Off to New Mexico Teachers!

NMTESOL Uncategorized

Online Fall Conference – September 18, 2020

It’s an online conference, it’s on FlipGrid, so it’s a Flip-erence!

Dear NM TESOL family,

In the article “Zoom Fatigue Is Taxing the Brain” Andrew Franklin who is a professor in cyber-psychology believes people are surprised by how difficult they are finding video classes given that the medium seems neatly confined to a small screen and presents few obvious distractions.

At our last Board Meeting, NM TESOL decided to change the format of our fall workshop because we believe many teachers are suffering from “Zoom Gloom” right now. It is not such a surprise to us how difficult it can be to watch hours and hours of webinars and Zoom meetings.  We have only received one submission for our conference which we think may be related to the fact that so many of us are indeed suffering from Zoom fatigue!

Thus, we have decided to organize a different kind of online conference format for our fall event.

We are inviting our members to contribute teaching ideas in the form of a FlipGrid video. If you are not familiar with FlipGrid, we encourage you to watch the short video below for students. To access our Flip-erence, you will use the Join Code of nmtesol2020 at flipgrid.com, or just click here to go directly to our Flip-erence board. When you get into the FlipGrid, you can access all the topics with the blue menu below the main photo where it says “View 6 topics.” We have posted several topics to help us focus our discussions, but if you feel strongly that another separate topic would be helpful, email us at nmtesol@gmail.com and we will set that up!

You can also watch the teacher video about how to use FlipGrid in your classroom. This free software has been popular with our students, and we hope you can use it with yours. Watch it here.

On September 18, 2020, at 9:00 am MST, we will have just a one-hour Zoom meeting where we will highlight the different features on our NM TESOL website and then publicly release the FlipGrid videos that have been produced. You can submit your FlipGrid video at any time. We are going to keep it open for this fall semester. You may want to share a favorite app, or icebreaker, or activity to do during a synchronous meeting, etc.
We want to encourage everyone to wear a wacky or not so wacky hat to the Zoom meeting, so that we can ceremoniously take them off to honor the commitment we have to our students and to professional development.

Hats off to teachers everywhere!

Amy, Claire, David, Laura, Judy, Judith, and Julie
NM TESOL Board

‘New Decade, New Ideas’ Spring Workshop

NMTESOL Uncategorized

Spring Workshop 2020

Our theme this year is “New Decade, New Ideas”.  The workshop will be held at CNM’s Montoya Campus in Albuquerque on March 6th from 8-12.

Register here by March 3rd

Here you can download an outline of the program and session descriptions.

Here is a preview of our program:

8:00-8:30: Sign in and breakfast in H 128. 

8:30-9:30 (60 min sessions)

  • Nathan Farmer: Communicative Language Teaching: Using Tasks to Teach Grammar with the Focus on Form Approach
  • Amy Christensen, Laura McIndoo, David Williams: Best Practices in ESL Orientations

8:30-10:00 (90 min sessions)

  • Linda Koran: Hands-on Grammar with English on a Roll: Fun and Effective!
  • Miriam Corneli, Maxine Swiza: Learning and Lesson Planning with the Brain in Mind: From Synapses and Serotonin to Safety, Satisfaction, and Success

9:45-10:45 (60 min sessions)

  • Amy Zhupikov: Interactive Activities to Facilitate in Context Vocabulary Learning
  • Rebecca Sherry: Using Blackboard (or your LMS) to Organize Your ESL Classroom.

10:30-12:00 (90 min sessions)

  • David Williams: Reflect it Back: Using Mentor Observations to Examine Pedagogical Practices

11:00-12:00 (60 min sessions)

  • Christina Trujillo: Effective Reading Comprehension Strategies for English Learners
  • Radi Abouelhassan: Project-Based Learning: Insights to Build ESL Students’ Cognition

Also:

9:30-11: Networking session

8:30-12: Open PERC (Professional ESL Resource Center) time

 

 

 

 

Spring Workshop “New Decade, New Ideas” March 6th

NMTESOL Uncategorized

Spring Workshop 2020

SAVE THE DATE!

Our theme this year is “New Decade, New Ideas”.  The workshop will be held at CNM’s Montoya Campus in Albuquerque, and will be a half-day workshop. We are looking for presentations that are either 60 minutes or 90 minutes and that highlight fresh ways or strategies to teach English as a second language.

Call for presenters!

Click here to download the submission form. Please complete and email it to us by February 7th. Send it to nmtesol@gmail.com.

Board of Directors – Nominate by Dec 6th

NMTESOL Uncategorized

Would you like to serve?

The following NM Board positions are up for election this year: President, Treasurer, Web Coordinator and Membership Coordinator. Please send in nominations by December 6. Elections will be held online from December 8-15. You DO NOT have to debate, create campaign advertisements, or attend any state fairs to schmooze with the people to be a candidate in this election!
The term of service for these Board members will be the years 2020 and 2021. Please take a moment to consider whether you or someone you know would be able and willing to serve in one of these capacities.
The President’s primary job is to lead the association, for example, by conducting meetings, representing the association to other professional associations and government offices, and taking a major role in organizing conferences.
The Treasurer has responsibility for maintaining the association’s financial records and serves as liaison with the association’s accountant, and other duties. (Knowledge of QuickBooks is preferred but not required. Our current very adept Treasurer has offered extensive training if needed.)
Web Coordinator has responsibility for the association’s email, online presence, social media, and other duties.
Membership Coordinator has responsibility for maintaining the membership database including sending the welcome email. In addition, the Membership Coordinator works on publicizing NM TESOL to attract more members.
In addition to being willing to fulfill the basic duties outlined above, the candidates must meet these criteria:
·     They must be willing to become a member of NMTESOL (if not already a member).
·     If elected, they must be willing to serve in the position for the duration of their two-year term.
·     If elected, they must be willing to take part in monthly NMTESOL Board of Directors meetings, which are generally conducted online using Zoom (a free online video-conferencing app). The meetings are generally for 45-minutes monthly with a break in the summer.
Anyone can recommend a person for the NMTESOL Board. If you wish to recommend yourself or someone else, please send recommendations to this e-mail address (nmtesol@gmail.com) along with a short introduction of the candidate. Send your candidate recommendations by December 6, 2019.
Voting will be conducted online. Results will be announced at our annual meeting, via email, and website.
Thank you for considering it!
Laura & Amy

NMTESOL Uncategorized

PERC Darker

The PERC will be open by appointment only for the month of December.

Please contact us at nmtesol@gmail.com if you want to schedule an appointment, and we will try our best to accommodate you. Thanks!

Can you join us for our PERC Opening Reception on October 18th from 4-6? Come see all the professional ESL resources that will be available for you! RSVP herePERC flyer

View the full Fall Conference schedule here

nm-tesol-fall-conference-info-blurb.jpg

We’re Turning Over a New Leaf

NMTESOL Uncategorized

Heraclitus wrote “there is nothing permanent except change” which helps explain why NM TESOL is experiencing a refresh. NM TESOL was reestablished in 2008, and ten years later here we are again hitting the refresh button to update our website and social media presence, our membership list, and our professional development opportunities.

Since this is a non-profit organization managed by volunteers, we are counting upon your input to help make NM TESOL a more vibrant useful resource in the educational community in New Mexico.  Laura McIndoo and Amy Christensen are acting as Co-Presidents until the official election in December.  They hope to be joined by three other interested New Mexican educators to fill the remaining board member roles of Secretary, Newsletter Editor, and Web Coordinator.

Please consider being someone who helps us make these changes. The board meetings are held online once a month and the job descriptions are below.

If you don’t have the time to serve as a board member, we would still value your input on how to make NM TESOL a more user-friendly organization.  We will be creating a Survey Monkey poll after the New Year to solicit your ideas.

In the meantime, look for an email announcing our social media updates as well as information about our first workshop in the spring. To conclude, Andy Warhol states “they always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”  We look forward to getting your help to change and improve NM TESOL!

If you are interested in one of the following positions, please contact us at nmtesol@gmail.com.

  • Vice President: performs all of the duties and responsibilities of the President in the absence of, or as directed by, the President. In addition, this person takes responsibility for professional development activities and chairs the annual conference. May be assigned special projects by the President.
  • Secretary: records minutes of board meetings and other special meetings needed for organizational activities; submits a copy of minutes for approval at each board meeting
  • Newsletter Editor (known also as Director B ): Director B has responsibility for creating the association’s newsletter as well as soliciting content.

 

NMTESOL Open Board Meeting Invitation – May 19th, 2018

NMTESOL Elections, Events, General, Meetings, Membership Information, Mission Statement, Officers

Dear NMTESOL:

NMTESOL in its present-day iteration has been around since 2008. In these 10 years, we have held numerous state-wide conferences as well as local workshops, produced a regular newsletter, greeted foreign visitors, and even have begun a professional journal.

Currently, the organization is suffering from a decline in membership and as a result, participation and leadership. We were unable to enlist anyone to fill several open Board positions. There will be added vacancies by the end of the year. We seek to restructure the organization to better reflect and meet the needs of the membership, but we will be unable to move forward without leadership on the Board and member ownership. This ownership will allow the professionals of New Mexico to have an International TESOL affiliate organization. In order to do so, we are opening up our board meetings to members, starting in May.

Our first open board meeting will be on May 19th, 2018 at 2 PM. Click this link to join: https://hangouts.google.com/group/Q8LIgRH6hRvqCGrs2

The New Mexican immigrant, refugee, and indigenous second language learner communities continue to have a profound need for various services including English language instruction. While the number of certified ESL teachers in New Mexico has been reduced due to declining state funding, the number of instructors and tutors who serve ESL students in our state remains high.

We would like to continue to support the state with professional development opportunities and want to engage those in the classroom to help us define what those opportunities look like.

By opening up the meeting to members, we hope to meet some specific goals. Goals of the first meeting include:

  • defining and promoting leadership opportunities
  • soliciting service and participation to keep the organization alive and moving forward

If you cannot attend on the 19th, please send your comment and ideas by Friday, May 18th to nmtesol at gmail dot com.

We look forward to your attendance and contributions.

Sincerely,

NMTESOL Board
Amy Zhupikov, Vice-President
Dean Sundberg, Treasurer
Penny Mortier, Secretary
Ruth Cisneros, Newsletter Editor

Not Just for Reading Class Anymore: 5 Tips for Teaching Literacy Across Multiple Subjects

NMTESOL Uncategorized

Not Just for Reading Class Anymore: 5 Tips for Teaching Literacy Across Multiple Subjects

The very first year I taught middle school science, I found myself teaching more reading lessons than I had ever expected—and that didn’t change when I switched to a middle school math classroom two years later. Add in the fact that I had several English language learners in my class, and my lessons on mitochondria and tetrahedrons largely started with basic vocabulary and sentence flow instruction.

But looking back, I shouldn’t have been surprised. It’s not just the Language Arts or Reading teacher’s sole responsibility to teach literacy. In fact, teaching literacy is connected to any and every subject—and it’s only getting more necessary as the online and offline worlds become more intertwined.

Literacy Builds Life Skills as Well as Language Skills

NMTESOL Uncategorized

Literacy Builds Life Skills as Well as Language Skills

Schoolchildren who read and write at home with their parents may build not only their academic literacy skills, but also other important life and learning skills, a recent study found.

The project, a study by researchers at the University of Washington, followed children for five years, either grades one through five or three through seven. It looked at their reading and writing activities at home, their school progress and their skills, both according to their parents’ reports and according to annual assessments.