EDOMEX Teachers Prepare for M.A. TESOL

Experienced teachers and trainers from all over the state of Mexico gathered at the Escuela Normal de Atlacomulco for an academic skills course "Topics in TESOL" in order to prepare themselves for next year's M.A. TESOL course in San Diego, California.
The participants met over the course of four Saturdays (16 hours) in February and March to analyze and reflect upon academic articles in Second Language Acquisition, Methodology, Curriculum Development and Issues in Assessment. The goals of the course were to simulate the skills, topics and tasks implemented in American graduate TESOL programs.The participants, as a whole, were extremely well-prepared and motivated as they actively discussed, presented and wrote about these very theoretical topics. Also impressive, was the way in which the participants applied their teaching experience to the theories they read about.

Feedback from the course evaluations indicates that they enjoyed the group discussion and presentation activities the most. Many of them were most surprised by the enthusiasm and knowledge of their peers. Their favorite topic was far and away "Assessment" (when they evaluated their own tests for reliability, validity and practicality). "Methodology" and "Curriculum Development" were also quite popular. Their suggestions for improving the course are to include more listening and note-taking tasks and feedback on their work. Despite the heavy reading load (including articles by Larsen-Freeman,Brown and Graves among others), the participants cite that the readings and the group discussions, which allowed them to share their insights, were the most helpful part of the course.
Some notable participant products were their "Methodology" group presentations", the group mind maps of curriculums for imagined courses and their test evaluations and suggestions for alternative assessments. The facilitator was extremely impressed with both their enthusiasm and professionalism.
The course ended with reflective essays on the learning experience and tacos to help digest all that reflection!
Good luck on the GRE and the rest of your preparation courses!

Collaboration at CUAAL on a new task-based English curriculum

Nine senior teachers from the UJED (Universidad Juarez del Estado de Durango)language center, CUAAL collaborated with the Senior English Language Fellow, Brigitte Miller to revamp their general English curriculum. Over the course of five days, from March 5th to 9th, in the quest for a dynamic, more learner-centered curriculum, this team developed and implemented needs assessments of students and teachers, developed an outline of their new approach, defined the syllabus structure and started designing themes and tasks that reflected students' responses and the competencies of the Common European Framework. The process was a considerable learning experience for everyone involved. Feedback from the CUAAL teachers indicates that what they liked most was listening to the multiple view points and the collaborative nature of this project. They found that the two most helpful tasks were creating the needs analysis and defining the syllabus structure and the two most difficult tasks were articulating the program philosophy and writing goals and objectives. Thanks for all your dedication and hard work Kay, Roxana, Tico, Cecilia, LuzMa,Carmen, Rosa Maria, Gabriel and David!

New TEFL Curriculums for ByCENED

From February 19th to March 2nd, the Escuela Normal, at the request of English Dept. Coordinators Guille Gonzalez and Alicia Porras developed two new English Teaching curricula with the cooperation of the U.S. Embassy sponsored Senior English Language Fellow. The "Diplomado" in English Teaching at the Secondary level has been designed to update in-service secondary English teachers in methodologies consistent with the reform such as: Communicative Language Teaching, Muliple Intelligences and Learning Strategies, Reflective Teaching and CALL (computer aided language learning). The second project is an Add-on in English Teaching to the BA in Primary Education. This course includes English Language training as well as pedagogical training in teaching English to young learners. Both of these courses will be conducted in English. Bravo! It is hoped that the English students at the primary and secondary levels will soon feel the effect of this collaboration. Thanks must go to Guille and Alicia who so graciously received the Fellow.

Two English Language Fellows Facilitate "Cooperation" and "Integration" at the ByCENED Academic Days in Durango

Twenty seven Durango secondary teachers participated in the Academic Days at the ByCENED (Escuela Normal)on March 1st and 2nd that were facilitated by English Language Fellows Brigitte Miller and Alison Camacho. On the first day, teachers participated in cooperative learning activities such as jigsaw and round robin toss and defined the essential elements of good learning tasks.
On the second day, participants practiced integrating skills in dynamic ways in groups of their favorite cartoon families. The Academic Day was beautifully organized by the ByCENED English Dept. and Academic Coordinators and included a heartfelt speech by the director Elisa Magallanes at the opening ceremony . Participants received certificates of attendance.

Secondary English Teachers from the State of Mexico "Keep it Real!"

On February 14th and 15th, 37 secondary English teachers from the State of Mexico participated in a workshop at the Escuela Normal Superior de Mexico on integrating authentic tasks and materials into their lessons. The workshop, enthusiastically organized by Diana Castañón of the Escuela Normal, included techniques in how to integrate authentic materials from a variety of sources such as: radio broadcasts, documentaries and print texts from the internet, popular music, feature films and local magazines. On the first day, participants practiced classroom techniques by performing role plays with authentic menus and writing love letters according to the instructions of a traditional scribe from Santo Domingo quoted in the Inside Mexico English language magazine.
Day two was technology day, where participants learned about "jigsaw viewing" of a film clip and some even created their own blogs.These can be viewed at http://englishsector1.blogdiario.com/.
Great job everyone! According to the workshop evaluation the participants' favorite activities were using songs and video.

Interestingly,some participants favorite part and others' least favorite part of the workshop was speaking English.

Almost everyone said they wanted to learn more and get more practice with "technology", "blogs" and video.

Well, Sector 1, you're in luck because you're going to have a follow up workshop with Senior English Language Fellow Russell Barczyk on March 28th.

Best of luck! It was so much fun working with you and getting to know you afterwards at the cafe. Ojala, I'll see you soon!