Professional Documents
Culture Documents
OKTESOL Spring Newsletter 2014
OKTESOL Spring Newsletter 2014
OKTESOL Spring Newsletter 2014
SPRING 2014
We are excited by
the new perspectives
and energy
We would like to welcome our new board members, Vice President Janice
Willson, Secretary Terri Lore, Newsletter Editor Andrea Bryant, Higher Ed
Chair Gail Nash, IEP Chair Nancy McWhirter, Life Long Learning Chair
Michelle Gray and our newly appointed K-12 chair Candy Nunez.
We are excited by the new perspectives and energy that our new board
members bring to our organization. I can assure you that after meeting
with them, that I am looking forward to serving alongside them during this
coming year. We have big plans for this coming year. We have set the
dates for our upcoming conferences. Spring Fling will be held April 12 at
Oklahoma Christian University. Our Fall conference will be held on October
24 and 25th at a yet to be disclosed location. We are also considering other
social outings that will allow us to connect throughout the year.
This is your organization and we want to be of service to you. Our contact
information is posted in this newsletter and on oktesol.com. Please feel free
to contact us with any questions of concerns that you may have.
Best regards,
Dan Rueckert
Spring Fling: A
FREE morning
workshop on
April 12, 2014
at Oklahoma
Christian
University
You wont want to miss this opportunity for professional development and
networking. Please consider sharing your experience and knowledge by
responding to the Call for Presentations as detailed in this newsletter. We
hope to see you in April at OC for OKTESOLS SPRING FLING!
Dr. Gail Nash
Spring Fling Planning Committee Chair
Gail.nash@oc.edu
Below are a few of the links to related information on the state website.
However, be sure you check for specifics on each test being administered,
watch for updates and most importantly, check with your district. Some
students are exempt from taking certain tests if they have been here a
limited amount of time, but each test does vary. There are sometimes
alternative tests given to students with less time in the country as well. If a
word-to-word dictionary is allowed and you are seeking a dictionary for a
less common language, check with area universities. As always, if you have
remaining concerns or needs, contact us and we will do what we can to
support you.
Here are some links to get you started:
http://ok.gov/sde/sites/ok.gov.sde/files/Bilingual-TipsStudents.pdf
http://www.ok.gov/sde/faqs/oklahoma-school-testing-program-ostpfrequently-asked-questions
http://www.ok.gov/sde/test-support-teachers-and-administrators
Stacy Brown, President Elect
Spring Fling
held at Oklahoma Christian Universitys Garvey Center,
2501 E. Memorial Road, Edmond, OK
Home Telephone:
Fax:
E-mail:
III.
PRESENTATION TITLE:
IV.
V.
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION:
Please include a biographical statement for each participating presenter on
an attached sheet maximum 50 words.
VI.
ABSTRACT:
On a separate sheet, please provide a description of the proposed program
maximum 250 words.
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:
Please describe your presentation in 25 words or less, as you would like it to
appear in the conference program. Please include your name and
institutional affiliation.
and Facebook!
www.facebook.com
(OKTESOL)
VII.
teacher. They try to act funny and act like theyre popular. They are
doing this because they might not want to learn or do work so they
are trying to distract the teacher. They are also trying to get
attention from their friends. They want to be the main focus.
They interrupt the class by tapping their pencils, talking to
each other, making funny faces or making each other laugh and
writing notes. The big problem is that they dont care. They dont
realize where they were born and where they are from. The United
States is a big country and everyone is dying to come over here and
be part of the education program here. They dont appreciate the
opportunity that they have.
The way that they treat adults is not the way that it should be.
The adults are older than them and they have more experience than
them. That is why they need to show respect. At some point, theyre
going to be adults and they wont want kids to act the same that
they did to them. They need to realize that a teacher, when she or
he comes here to work, its their choice. They could be sitting
watching TV and eating food instead of waking up early and coming
to school and helping them. The teachers see that kids dont even
care and the kids dont show any respect.
When they talk behind peoples backs, they dont realize how
the person that theyre talking to might go tell someone else.
Eventually, what they said will get around. It can really hurt
someones feelings. Also, the things said might not even be true.
What they said might be misunderstood and retold the wrong way.
The kids hearing the gossip dont see both sides. They only see their
friends side and agree with it.
I think the main reason that kids are doing this starts at
home. When parents dont make the time to be with their kids and
teach them how they need to be and what they need to do about
their education, kids will follow other people. The parents need to be
more involved and set better rules. They need to let the kids know
that they care and they will notice what they do and dont do. Also,
when parents say disrespectful things about teachers in front of their
kids, kids will believe what their parents say and show disrespect at
school.
By Paria Iranpour
A sample activity we enjoy is learning directions. I use this both in my Spanish as well
as my ELL classes. I put the words/phrases to the left, to the right, go straight, stop, hot,
cold, up and down on the board and we talk about them. I leave them up there and choose
two volunteers. One student goes out of the classroom and waits to be called back in. The
other student hides an agreed upon object somewhere in the classroom where the rest of
the class can see it. The other volunteer is called back in and the student who hid the object
uses the target vocabulary to guide the other student around the classroom until he/she is
in the vicinity of the object. The leader gets to guide the other student around as long as it is
suitable and they enjoy that power and seldom attempt to use it outside of its intent. At
that point, the class participates in the hot/cold game.
Want to contribute to
the That Could
Work! Column? Then
send your great idea
to:
andrea.dawn.bryant@
gmail.com for
consideration in the
Fall, 2014 Newsletter
We increase the vocabulary with words like behind, inside of, underneath as the class
is ready. I usually do this on the first or second day of class. As we change out volunteers,
every students hand is usually raised and they are all hoping to participate next. In this
simple activity, everyone is participating, someone is teaching, there is TPR (total physical
response) involved and no one is worried about making mistakes. They are directly using the
new language and going straight into a higher level thinking activity through play. They are
getting repeated exposure as the other students participate in the game. They are getting
variety as each student brings their own ideas, personality, pronunciation and contribution
to the game.
The next day after such an activity, I give a warm-up short answer assessment and we
are all pretty excited to see what everyone remembers. Students then discuss their answers
and there are sometimes some oh yeahs but for the most part, everyone remembers. I
teach at the secondary level, but have found success with this approach at all levels. I just
design it differently for different age groups.
Other sample activities are simple ones like students leading calendar time, students
creating PowerPoints for upcoming lessons and being part of introducing and teaching that
next unit, students creating games, students building background knowledge for the next
unit or concept, students assisting in writing the rubric for assessments, students
researching support materials for homework such as YouTube videos, songs, real life
articles, etc. Students work frequently in small groups so learning has more interaction and
meaning. The teacher does not own the information. We are all participating and sharing in
teaching and learning. We are all part of the learning process. We call it the family road trip
sometimes.
For calling on students in class, I like to number something like plastic spoons and
students take turns drawing the spoons and calling out the student number on the spoon
when it is time for me or whoever is teaching to call on students at random. Just owning a
student number, be it one or twenty-five adds a connection to that number, but being the
person who gets to call on the next student again gives students a sense of belonging in the
teaching and learning process.
2013-2014 Board
Past-President (Acting
President)
Dan Rueckert
Oklahoma City University
drueckert@okcu.edu
president@oktesol.com
Appointed President-Elect
Stacy Brown
Moore Public Schools
estacyemail@gmail.com
Vice President
Janice Willson
University of Tulsa
janice-willson@utulsa.edu
TESOL Liaison
Tony Terry
ELS Oklahoma City
tterry@els.edu
Treasurer
Katherine Holzheuser
Moore Public Schools
kholzheuser@gmail.com
P.O. Box 892457
OKC, OK 73189
Secretary
Teri Lore
ELS / OCU
terilore@sbcglobal.net
Newsletter Editor
Andrea Bryant
Oklahoma University
andrea.dawn.bryant@gma
il.com
Dont be shy!
We welcome article ideas, student writing, and articles for publication.
Send to Newsletter Editor, Andrea Bryant at andrea.dawn.bryant@gmail.com.
Advocacy Rep
Cheryl Leever Huffman
CL Huffman and Associates
Program Design and
Evaluation Services
huffmanCL@aol.com