March 21, 2013 - Evening: Party Photos!!

CELEBRATION!

Thursday night was a joyous one, as nineteen  2013 Teaching Excellence Award winners came together to be honored at a special dinner, and celebrated for their contributions to their centers.  Teachers of Excellence are those who are nominated by their Academic Directors for strong student survey results, exceptional teamwork, excellent teaching, and work above and beyond expectation. Our hard-working, creative and committed instructors are:

Jenelle Beever-Powell, Toronto;  Amy Broadsword, Portland; Ann Rose, Toronto (unable  to attend and represented byTammy Cameron), Maria Catamero, Manhattan; Virginia Delgado, Bristol;  Brenda Ellingbow, St. Paul; Christina Grillo, New Haven; Brenda Hager, Thousand Oaks; Ariel Haughton, Pittsburgh; Ellie Leith, Pocatello;  Mona Makhlouf, Tampa; Chelsea Maney, DeKalb; Jessica McKay, St. Louis;  Susan Posh, Miami Shores;  Heather Ranier, Oklahoma City;  Jesse Sauer, Oklahoma City; Yvette Rieser, Oklahoma City;  Jennifer Townsend, Houston; Katherine Vernezze, Milwaukee; and Alicia McMillan, St. Petersburg (unable to attend).

Jaime Haile and her graduate-forum poster on self-identity

It has also been a banner year for ELS participation at TESOL!  ELS was proud to have the following 23 individuals presenting in 19 sessions, either singly or with other staff:

--Amelia Adams, Berkeley: "Decked Out: Using Cards to Create Flexible Communicative Activities."
--Marsha Appling-Nunez, Cleveland:  "Achieving Oral Fluency with Dynamic PechaKucha Prezis."(Electronic Village)
--Zita Bodonyi, Plymouth: "Using the Indexing Feature in Microsoft Word to Track Vocabulary Usage." (Electronic Village)
--Beth Crumpler, Fredericksburg: "ESL Instruction: Develop Your Skills to Become a Master Conductor."
--Rebecca Guler, Houston/Clear Lake, with Stephanie Owens, New Haven: "Effective Academic Interventions with Arabic Speaking English Language Learners."
--Rebecca Guler, Houston/Clear Lake: "Eye Openers: 1-Hour Classroom Exchanges between ESL and American Students." (poster)
--Jaime Haile, Thousand Oaks: "Fostering a Positive Self-Identification in Bi/Multicultural Individuals."
--Cary Hitchcock, Nashville: "Effective Correction in Form-Focused Instruction."
--Jeff Hutcheson, PHQ: "Hot Topics in Enrollment, Viss, SEVP, and Advocacy for IEPs."
--Tammy Johnson, LaVerne: "Mac 1-2: Leveraging Google Docs to Ensure Smooth Communication." (Electronic Village)
--Tammy Johnson, LaVerne: "How Explicit Grammar Instruction Affects Student Writing." (Poster)
--Cheryl Jones, Johnson City, with Amber Young, Grand Rapids:  "From Intervention to Motivation: Reviewing and Improving the Quality of Teacher-Made Assessments."
--Anna-Marie Keleman, Rachel Redfield, and Stephanie Kim, LaVerne: "Assumed Computer Knowledge of Saudi Students."(Electronic Village)
--Stephanie Kim, Rachel Redfield, and Anna-Marie Kelemen, LaVerne: "CALL for Novice ESL Students." (Electronic Village)
--Rus Kiser, with Jesse Sauer, Oklahoma City:  "Text-Rich Classrooms While on the Move."
--Shannon Law, with Christina Grillo, New Haven: "Authentic Language Learning Activities that Counter the Affective Filter."
--Susan Matson, PHQ (co-presenting with 13 others): "Learning Disabilities." In: Language Teaching Insights, forthcoming publication by TESOL: publication preview.
--Rachel Redfield, Stephanie Kim, and Anna-Marie Keleman, LaVerne: "Mac 7-8: One Teacher's Journey from a Techno-Dummy to an Able User." (Electronic Village)
--Dreah Stratton, San Diego:  A Fresh Look at Articulatory Setting and Intelligibility."
--Amanda Yousef-Little, Miami Shores:  "Asymmetric-Symmetric Sentential Conjugation."

In addition, Rus Kiser attended as president-elect of Oklahoma TESOL, while Nathan Clements (Fredericksburg) came as head of the TESOL employee concerns committee. Zack Hausrath of Lubbock and Amber Young of Grand Rapids represented ELS as site reviewers in training at a workshop conducted by CEA, the major IEP accrediting body.  Other welcome additions to the party included Dallas A.D. Bryan Harsar and his teaching staff; the CAB members (see March 19 listing), Jeff Hucheson, Assistant Director, U.S. Operations;  of Ward Morrow, Director of Academic Affairs; Terri Rapoport, Director of Curriculum and Development; Mary Christianson, Director of Academic Technology, and Susan Matson, Director of Teacher Training.

Rebecca Guler, Houston-Clear Lake, and other partygoers



Instructor Maria Catamero and AD Dan
Manolescu of ELS/Manhattan

                                     




Director of Acacdemic Technology Mary Christianson

A.D.s Cheryl Jonese and Amber Young



Terri Rapoport, Director of Curriculum (seated), and (left to right) Stephanie Owens, New Haven (presenter);
 Ruse Kiser, OKC (incoming president, OKTESOL); Nathan Clements, Fredericksburg (TESOL employee concerns); Bryan Harsar, Dallas AD.