TESOL Electronic Village Online 2010 announcement

Dear colleagues,

The CALL Interest Section of the international TESOL professional association is pleased to offer the opportunity to participate in the Electronic Village Online (EVO) 2010 sessions. This is a professional development project and virtual extension of the TESOL 2010 Convention in Boston, Massachusetts. The intended audience for this project includes both TESOL 2010 participants and those who can participate only virtually.

You do not need to be a TESOL member to participate in a free, six-week, wholly online session of the EVO, Jan 11 -Feb 21, 2010.

Please visit our Announcement Web page to select one among the various offerings.

http://evosessions. pbworks.com/ Call_for_ Participation201 0

Yours in TESOL,

Dafne Gonzalez
On behalf of
The EVO coordination team

My Summer Vacation by Elizabeth Smith, Secondary Education Representative

I’d like to share how I spent part of my summer teaching English at a summer school in Yakutsk, Russia for two weeks...

(to read more go to http://www.textesolv.org/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=56&MMN_position=72:72)

Larissa Olesova, Past President of Yakut TESOL

E-Teacher Courses 2009-2010 Nominations from Yakut TESOL

Yakut TESOL has nominated the following members to E-Teacher 2009-2010 through English Language Office (US Embassy in Moscow):

Building Teaching Skills through the Interactive Web - Lidiya Scrybina (Yakutsk Calssic Gymnasiym)
Critical Thinking in the EFL Curriculum - Alexandra Popova (Pedagogical College of Yakutsk)
English for Specific Purposes Best Practices - Eugeniya Yadrikhinskaya (YSU)
English as a Foreign Language Assessment -Elena Zakharova (YSU)
Survey of Best Practices in TESOL - Irina Ptitsina (YSU)
Developing EFL Literacy through Project-Based Learning - Zarmena Emelyanova (YSU)
Teaching English to Young Learners - Vera Semenova (IPKRO)

Yakut TESOL nominees are responsible for conducting training sessions for members of Yakut TESOL upon completion the courses in 2009-2010. The first training sessions through Yakut TESOL is coming in May, 2010. We wish good luck to our nominees and keep our fingers crossed!

Larissa Olesova, Past President of Yakut TESOL

E-Teacher Courses 2009-2010 Nominations

If you are interested to apply your nomination to participate in E-Teacher Training Courses in fall and spring 2009-2010, please, send your information to lolesova@yahoo.com to Larissa Olesova with the subject "E-Teacher Nomination" by August 25, 2009. The courses are:
Building Teaching Skills through the Interactive Web
Critical Thinking in the EFL Curriculum
English for Specific Purposes Best Practices
English as a Foreign Language Assessment
Survey of Best Practices in TESOL
Developing EFL Literacy through Project-Based Learning
Teaching English to Young Learners

You should be teachers' trainer or a teacher to be nominated to the courses through Yakut TESOL Association. Your responsibility includes conducting training during Yakut TESOL activities next year in 2010. In addition, you should have easy Internet access, 10 hours per a week during 10 weeks to work on the course assignments and Advanced English proficiency level.

Send the following information:
First Name
Last Name
Insitution Name
City
Mailing Address
E-Mail
Phone
Course Choice
Why are you interested in taking the course and how will it help you and Yakut TESOL?
Are you willing to sharethe knowledge and skills acquired as a result of the course? Are you going to conduct training during Yakut TESOL Conferences in 2010?

Summer School 2009 for Children

The first Summer School for Children was organized under mutual agreement signed by Yakut TESOL and Tex-TESOLV. It was from the 23rd of July to the 4th of August, 2009 in Yakutsk. The Summer School was attended by 31 boys and girls ages 10 – 16. Children were divided into two groups.
American teacher Elizabeth Smith from the Hockaday School was invited. She came to Yakutsk together with her family (husband – David Smith and two daughters).
Classes began at 9 o’clock and lasted four hours till 12.30. Rest time was provided.
At the lessons students worked with native speakers to develop the fundamental four skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing. Teachers focused on common topics such as greetings, food, weather, shopping, fashion, mass media, holidays, hobbies and others. Students also were immersed in the American culture with projects including American movies. Children had an opportunity to practice their language skills, advancing spoken language in a Russian-free class-room environment. Atmosphere was relaxed and informal. All the participants of the first Summer School got Certificates. Both teachers and children were satisfied with the work. The first experience was successful!

Summer School 2009 starts working

Yakut TESOL organized Summer School for teachers and students and it was held at Yakutsk State University. We hosted key speakers from TESOL Board of Directors Dr. Yilin Sun, US Department Senior English Language Fellows Allyson Kellum from Vladivostok and Todd Vidamour from Novosibirsk. Different guests were invited with speech of welcome: Rector of Ya-kutsk State University Alexeev A.N.,Director of Yakut Pedagogical Col-lege #2 Glezer V.A..Director of Yakut Pedagogical College #1 Kopylova K.I..Head of the Department of Ministry of Education, Head of Ministry of For-eign Affairs RF in Yakutsk Dyakonov N.V., Teachers‘ Re-Training Institute – Semenova V.D.
photo: Dr. Yilin Sun (center) meeting with the Vice-President of Yakutsk State University and Yakut TESOL Board of Directors
Dr. Yilin Sun made presentation at a plenary meeting Trends, Issues, Opportunities and Challenges for Non- Native Speaking ELT Educators in the Changing Global Society and conducted workshop Action Research for Classroom teachers for three groups. Dr. Yilin Sun gave a presentation about TESOL and some teachers joined it right there with her help. Yakut TESOL appreciates very much the books with TESOL publications brought by Yilin Sun.
Senior English Language Fellow Allyson Kellum presented a number of very interesting and valuable range of topics during plenary and workshops sessions: Internet Resources: Broading Exposure to English; Pronunciation, Multiple Intelligence. She really worked very hard, and teachers highly evaluated her work.

Senior English Language Fellow Todd Vidamour was a plenary speaker with Perfomance - based teaching, and workshops: Blooms Taxonomy, Exploring Culture and Sociolinguistics in ESOL, Developing Learning Strategies. Participants appreciated his topics as useful for their further work, they were admired by his level of techni-cal knowledge and also his Russsian.
Yakut TESOL also tried to meet teachers‘ wish to be involved in videoconference with the US which was possible with the support of our past president Larissa Olessova and sister-partners from Dallas TexTESOLV.

Every morning started with videoconference with Purdue University, Indiana, Califonia. Our participants had an opportunity to know how other TESOL affiliates work which is very important for the future development of Yakut TESOL. Topics of videoconfrences are TESOL Afiliate in Indiana (USA) INTESOL by Dr. Lucianna C.de Oliveira; Computer Assisted Language Learning Issues by Dr. Jennifer C. Richardson; Administrative Support of Technology Implementation in classroom by Dr. James Lehman; Web 2.0 Technologies Project for teachers by Dr. Timothy J. Newby; ―Welcome Yakut TESOL by Dr. Christine F.Meloni; TESOL Affiliate in California(USA) CATESOL by Dr. Belinda Braunstein; TexTESOLV and Yakut TESOL Partnership Agreement by Dr. Donald Weasenforth. Concurrent workshops were also done by teachers of both high school and university.Yakut TESOL tried to invite speakers who have any kind of experience to share with, among them are Lidia Scryabina and Aleksandra Borisova who shared web-collaboration with the class in Dalass,TX (USA); Aleksandra Popova participated in Michael Krauss online course and presented WEB2.0 technologies in teaching English; Elena Zakharova a plenary speaker with Opportunities for ELT; Vera Semenova shared the idea of Dynamic Education. Recursive Hierarchical Recognition (RHR) Theory and Practice. A range of different workshops was very succesful and will be surely used in future work of participants: Tuyara Yegorova Note taking in the Academic Writing; Anna Sivtseva Teaching Narrative Writing; Nadya Tulasynova Topic: Mind Mirror Projects in EFL Teaching; Elena Nelunova Implementation of Interactive Technologies into EFL classroom; Alexandra Popova Ideas for creating your own Ning‘; Ludmila Sidorova Blogs in language teaching; Varya Nazarova, Natalya Archakhova Opportunities in Taching Reding and Grammar; Lidia Scryabina APEC: e-learning Training Program. 81 teachers (40- teachers from high schools, 13-from city schools and 27 from rural schools; 14 – teachers from colleges; 4- university teachers; and 10- students) took part in Yakut TESOL Summer School. All participants got folders with Summer School Handbook, magazine FORUM, pens and copybooks for notes, Yakut TESOL newsletter, and CD with all speakers‘ presentations. In the end participants filled qustionaries. The responses of teachers were very positive and they wanted all our key speakers to come again in spring 2010.
Guests were given access to our national culture and traditions through differ-ent excursions and exhibitions: the Perma-frost Instituite, Museum of Local Culture and History named after Yaroslavsky, Museum of Khomus, Ethnic Centres Ytyk Haya and Chochur Muran, Handcraft centre Staryi Gorod and others. Dr Yilin Sun had some official meetings with Vice - Rector of Ya-kutsk State University, with Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and an interview at the Press Center with several local newspapers and TV companies. Senior English Language Fellow Todd Vidamour from Novosibirsk gave an interview in popular program It is Interest-ing. The level of interest for sharing and exploring opportunities and challenges in teaching and learning English was very high. We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to the English Language Office, Public Affairs Section of the United States Embassy, Moscow and TESOL, USA for providing support for Yakut TESOL.

Yakut TESOL Summer School in June 15-19, 2009

Информационное письмо

15-19 июня 2009 года

на базе Якутского госуниверситета

проводится Летняя Школа

"Opportunities and Challenges in Teaching and Learning EFL"

для преподавателей английского языка ВУЗов, ССУЗов и средних школ Республики Саха (Якутия)

далее читайте на сайте Yakut TESOL at

http://sites.google.com/site/yakuttesol/summer-school-2009

Global Partners News: Richland College

Project Piloting Idea: Online Collaboration Opportunity

Richland College is interested to collaborate on online classes. I would need to know what subject some of you would be interested, so I can see if Richland College has a faculty match. You know that the best way to work in collaborative classes is to have one faculty in each side to work together in the class. Richland College had done online classes with ESOL, Economics, Media and Accounting classes. Please send more details that I can send the information to Richland College in order they would be able to fully understand the scope of this project.

http://www.richlandcollege.edu/internationaled/index.php

Send your requests to lolesova@gmail.com or lolesova@yahoo.com to Larissa Olesova, Past President of Yakut TESOL

Web-Based International ESOL Collaborative Learning:

Reprinted with permission from TexTESOL V Spring 2009 Newsletter.

A detailed account of web-based collaboration between teachers and students in Yakutsk and your Secondary Interest Section Representative Elizabeth Smithʼs Hockaday students. To read the article by Elizabeth Smith, go to http://sites.google.com/site/yakuttesol/textesolv-partnership

News from Partnership: Web Collaboration with Hockaday School in Dallas, TX

Lidiya Scryabina, Alexandra Borisova and their students from Yakutsk collaborated with the class in Hockaday School in Dallas, TX in spring 2009.

Books from University of North Texas

Yakut TESOL received books from University of North Texas in December, 2008 thanks to the signed partnership between TexTESOLV and Yakut TESOL in July, 2008. Photo: Yakut TESOL Resource Center and (from left to right) Natalya Alexeeva, President of Yakut TESOL, Elena Zakharova, Director of Resource Center, and Zarmena Emelyanova, Treasurer of Yakut TESOL.

TESOL 2009 in Denver, Colorado

TESOL 2009 in Denver, Colorado

The News from TexTESOLV

Global Partners:Yakut TESOL and TexTESOL V

(from http://www.textesolv.org/)

What does a Russian region settled by Cossacks in the early 17th century have in common with a region settled in Texas in the 19th century by cattlemen? Well, there are several parallels, including a dependence on horses for livelihood and survival. Then there’s the centuries-old struggle against extreme temperatures, albeit opposite extremes. The most recent connection, however, is a formal agreement between the TESOL affiliates of the two regions to work together for mutual benefit.If you like to travel to exotic destinations, if you take pleasure in the cultural enrichment of working with professionals from different cultures, if you enjoy collaborative lessons connecting students and teachers around the world, or if you have an appreciation for engaging professional development, then you should read on to see how you can personally benefit from and contribute to this new partnership.A formal signing in Yakutsk on July 14, 2008 cemented the partnership between Yakut TESOL and TexTESOL V. Don Weasenforth’s (Immediate Past President of TexTESOL V) representation of TexTESOL V at the 2008 Yakut TESOL Summer Institute represented an initial step in fulfilling the agreement, and Larissa Olesova’s (Immediate Past President of Yakut TESOL) attendance at the 2008 TexTESOL State Conference will strengthen our burgeoning relationship. Review the agreement and consider how you might get involved:

Donate books to the Sakha State University English teacher training library.
Integrate a Web-based collaborative project in your courses, connecting your students with students in Yakutia. Yakutia teachers of all levels of instruction—elementary through higher education—are available for collaborative projects.
Establish a student or teacher exchange with Yakutia schools, colleges, institutes, or universities.
Contribute to teacher training at future summer institutes in Yakutsk. If you are interested in these opportunities or have other ideas of how to support the partnership, contact Don Weasenforth at 972-881-5970 or mailto:dweasenforth@ccccd.edu

The Interview with Dr. Christine Meloni (GWU)

The interview with Dr. Christine Meloni (The George Washington University, USA) of March, 2007. She visited Yakutsk and the Yakut TESOL First International Conference in June, 2004. Larissa Olesova interviewed Christine about her impressions of Yakutia and teaching EFL in Yakutia. Read the answers. You may leave your comments.

LO: What were your first impressions of Yakutia and Yakutsk in 2004?

CM: My first impression was that the people were very friendly and very kind. They made me feel at home immediately.I was very impressed with the generosity of the people. When I ate in someone's home, the meal was always a banquet!Many things surprised me. I was surprised by the buildings on stilts and by the pipes outside of the buildings rather than in the walls. I was very interested in hearing about the impact of the cold weather on these buildings.I was rather shocked that one's used toilet paper was put in waste cans rather than in the toilets.I was surprised that many of the cars had the steering wheels on the right even though people drive on the right.I was surprised that I did not see many shops and that most of the shops were inside buildings where you couldn't see them from the outside.I was surprised by how much the native music resembled the music of the American Indians.

LO: How were your first impressions changed to compare with your impressions when you spent some time there?

CM: My impressions did not change. The people were wonderful at the beginning and were wonderful throughout.

LO: What do you think about teaching EFL in Yakutia? According to your impressions of talking to the conference participants?

CM: I was very impressed with the teachers that I talked to in Yakutsk. I was amazed, first of all, by how well they spoke English, even those who had never been to an English-speaking country. I was also impressed with their enthusiasm and dedication to the field of ESL.

LO: Have you found any problems in the situation with teaching English in Yakutia?

CM: The teachers at the conference seemed very interested in improving their teaching and seemed very aware of the latest trends in the field. I didn't notice any big problems.

LO: What could you suggest for teachers of English in Yakutia?

I would suggest that they try to get involved with Internet technology so that they can have close contact with ESL teachers around the world and so that their students can interact with other students using the English language in authentic ways. Blogs and wikis are two technologies that could benefit students' writing and reading skills, for example. Larissa has many wonderful ideas for implementing ideas for using the Internet.

Yakut TESOL and TexTESOLV Partnership

The article is in Essential Teacher, December issue 2008.

A Message from Teresa about Webhead

Dear Larissa,

So sorry for the very short notice, but I started the new year with very unpleasant vertigo problems - first time - that have kept me away from the computer. I'm feeling better now after medication started a week ago.

Becoming a Webhead 2009 (BaW09) officially starts tomorrow, Jan 12, but registration is ongoing. To join, please go to our Yahoo Group, click "Join this Group" and complete the process.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/baw09/

In the meantime, we have a wiki where you can see everything that will be happening over the next 6 weeks.
http://baw09.pbwiki.com/

Hope you and your summer trainees can join us!

Happy New Year!!!

Hugs, Teresa