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Canberra Languages Education Mini-Conference - 3 December 2011

The Languages Education Mini-Conference offered local English, ESL and Languages teachers and other language education professionals the opportunity to hear some of the key presenters of ALAA-ALANZ 2011 conference speaking on languages education issues.

The mini-conference was held at The Australian National University (ANU). This event was sponsored jointly by ALAA-ALANZ 2011, the ATESOL ACT and the MLTA ACT.

http://law.anu.edu.au/coast/events/langfest/miniconf.htm

Click here for the ATESOL ACT invitation (pdf. format)

It’s all in the name: Exploring intercultural awareness through names - Saturday, 22 October 2011

What’s your name? Such a simple question, yet the answer can be so complicated when cultural and linguistic differences are involved. In this panel discussion, we will hear from Arabic, Indian, European and Asian background speakers. We will hear from special guest speakers from the Canberra Islamic Society. They will talk about naming traditions and conventions, pronouncing names, choosing children’s names and changing names.

Understanding naming conventions will help teachers better understand the needs of students facing form filling tasks and introductions of self, friends and family. Exploring other facets of ‘what’s in a name’ may develop deeper intercultural understanding.

The event will conclude with a session for sharing ideas for using names in a variety of lessons. Bring your own ideas and anecdotes to share!

When: 10am – 12:30pm on Saturday, 22 October 2011

Where: Canberra Institute of Technology Reid Campus, J Block corner of Coranderrk Street & Constitution Avenue. parking on Constitution Ave opp CIT J Block.

Cost: FREE for ATESOL ACT 2011 members, $20 for non-members

Bookings: Phone Marina 6201 2483 (message) or e-mail: jakki.cashman@cit.edu.au with “Name PD” in the subject line by COB Thursday, 20 October 2011

The Virtual Staffroom: sharing across the ethersphere - 5 August 2011

This session encouraged teachers to harness Web 2.0 tools to increase their PD opportunities 100-fold! Lesley shared her passion for networking with other English language teachers across the world to discuss ideas and issues, share lesson plans, solve problems and more.

Lesley's Follow-up Message to The Virtual Staffroom session - and not only for those who were there!:
I encourage you all to join Twitter and start connecting and sharing with teachers all around the world. Please tweet using #ATESOLACT so we can connect and share. If you don't feel confident to share more widely just yet, that's fine, I'll retweet to my PLN so anything you share will be spread to English language teachers across the world.

Please visit my blog where I have listed most of the links I shared at the session on Friday and I will continue to add links that I think will be of interest. http://cioccas.blogspot.com/2011/08/virtual-staffroom-sharing-across.html

If you have any questions, please send me a tweet @cioccas or add a comment to the blogpost mentioned above.

Annual Dinner - 26 May 2011

Our speaker for the evening was Robert Macklin. Rob is a well known and respected local writer. He is best known as the author of The Big Fella: the Rise and Rise of BHP Billiton (with Peter Thompson), which won the 2009 Blake Dawson Prize for Business Literature. He is also the biographer of former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Robert’s latest work is My Favourite Teacher, ‘in which famous and not-so-famous Australians write about the teachers who changed their minds, the teachers who changed the idea of the person they thought they could be, and the teachers who changed their lives’. It includes contributions from people such as Quentin Bryce, Kathy Lette, Mem Fox, Anh Do and an ACT ESL teacher, Marguerite Gloster.

Continuums and Curriculums: Writing and ESL Learners - 13 May 2011

This session by Dr Beverly Derewianka looked at the challenges faced by ESL learners as they move along the mode continuum from spoken to written language and how a supportive curriculum can scaffold them into the dense, complex grammar of the written mode.

Dr Beverly Derewianka is a much respected author, researcher, academic and contributor to the National Curriculum.

Tour of Companion House and AGM - 24 February 2011

We assembled at The Community Hub, 41 Templeton St, Cook (Old Cook Primary School, Cook), and were given a tour of the new premises for Companion House. We then held the The ATESOL ACT Annual General Meeting and a new committee was elected. Bronwyn Rose retired as treasurer and her significant contribution to ATESOL ACT was acknowledged and a token of our appreciation presented to her. The TESL and TESOL students for 2010 were also announced.