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December 16, 2020

Subject-specific VTE Labs : Innovative Practices in 2nd Language Pedagogy – January 12, 2021, at 11:00 AM

During this subject-specific VTE Lab, teachers’ innovative use of technologies will be showcased through the lens of teaching second languages.

What is a subject-specific VTE Lab?

Subject-specific labs are an opportunity for teachers in the college network to share their use of digital tools or emerging technologies to support their teaching. These virtual meetings promote knowledge transfer and interaction around the pedagogical relevance of digital and emerging technologies in education.

Three presentations will highlight innovative use of technologies to enrich their teaching of a second language.

When: Tuesday, January 12 at 11:00 a.m.

LINK: https://forms.gle/SaVPjKseYGCh6kXH7

Présentation 1

VIRTUAL WRITING TUTOR

In a 20 minutes presentation, Nicholas Walker will share with you how to use a valuable free resource to help your students master the formal features of essay writing tasks faster and better. You will also learn why your job is safe with the real reasons a robot can never fully replace a skilled human teacher.

Presenter :

 Nicholas Walker is a prize-winning teacher at Ahuntsic College and textbook author of the Actively Engaged Series. In 2017, he won the TESL Canada Innovation Award and later the same year received a Sesquicentennial Pin Award for Leadership in Education from the Hon. Melanie Joly. In June of 2019, Nicholas was awarded the AQPC Mention d’Honneur for teaching excellence and then in August the Reconnaisance Institutionelle from Ahuntsic College for his work on the VirtualWritingTutor.com grammar checker. In November, he won the Keith Boeckner Award for his outstanding contributions to the ESL community in Quebec.

Presentation 2

WORLDCHAT.LIVE

In a 20 minutes presentation, you will explore the platform features, including how to match students, access their conversation recordings, and connect with fellow teachers across the globe!

Presenter :

 Anne-Marie Lafortune is an ESL teacher at Cégep Gaspésie des îles. Worldchat.live founder, ESL professor, University lecturer and certified yoga teacher, she has taught in France, South Korea and Australia. She has also done research on the cognitive approach in New York and was invited to Helsinki University to explore their autonomous learning module. Her research interests include distance education and Community of Inquiry model ( 2018 CATE award; 2019 award for excellence in education) and her articles have been published in ProfWeb, Pédagogie Collégiale, as well as the Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology. She coordinates the green committee and the intercultural center at the Cégep de la Gaspésie et des Îles, where she also implemented active learning classrooms as well as the Zen space.

Presentation 3

PRACTICAL STRATEGIES FOR CREATING PERSONAL CONNECTIONS IN YOUR CLASSROOM

A question and answer session to discuss practical strategies to deepen learning, create a connected community of learners, provide students with opportunities to network and develop relationships across programs, and contextualize and personalize learning.

Presenters :

Chloé Collins has been a linguaphile since she was a kid, learning franglais from the local kids in a tiny village in the Laurentians. She got her BA in Modern Languages, has studied eight languages so far, and likes to open linguistic curiosity in her students as well. She has a background in translation (French & Spanish), magazine publishing and journalism.

In 2007, Chloé left journalism behind to explore teaching. She wanted to do more than just report on the world around her—she wanted to participate in it. She got her CELTA certificate and moved abroad. She fell in love with teaching right out of the gate. It combined everything she liked and wanted more of: exploration of language, the constant need for growth and creativity, and the simple joy of working together in the classroom. Over the years, Chloé has taught many varieties of ESL in South Korea, Tunisia, Argentina and UAE. In 2016, after four years teaching aviation English for the UAE Air Force, she moved back to Canada, got her pilot’s license, and began teaching at Cégep Édouard Montpetit. Here she hopes to keep learning from her peers and her students, and be a part of the ongoing effort to help the language department thrive.

Danielle Viens was born in Montréal and spent her formative years in the Washington, DC area, where she was an English as an additional language student and, later on, an English as an additional language teacher in Maryland public secondary schools. When she moved back to her hometown, she was a contractual teacher at various CEGEPs around the Montreal area before finding her forever home in the language department at Cégep du Vieux Montréal, where she has taught since 2012. She holds a Master of Education in Instructional Leadership, a Master of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), a Master of Social Work, and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. In addition to teaching (and collecting graduate degrees), she is currently working on a three-year collaborative research project financed by the Quebec government (PAREA) to develop guidelines for maximizing the impacts of short-term teacher-led language study abroad.She also collaborated in an Entente Canada-Québec (ECQ) research project to create a private YouTube channel for teachers to share innovative ideas for incorporating experiential learning into their classrooms.

 Born and raised in New York, Rebecca Peters earned her undergraduate degree in French Lit, Political Science and Secondary Education.  Unable to find a teaching job, she took an administrative position with the New York Islanders Hockey Club where she helped players’ wives with culture shock and basic language skills which inspired her return to get her MA in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages).  She subsequently taught middle and high school French I, ESOL and History in a full-inclusion setting in the New York City environs for 12 years while mentoring new teachers, enriching her knowledge by taking courses in technology in the classroom and Special Education, and teaching pedagogy and methodology courses for future language teachers at the university level.  In 2005, Rebecca was named a Fulbright Scholar and travelled to Senegal where she taught high school English and travelled the country training English teachers.  In 2006, she transitioned to Quebec and started teaching secondary school on the south shore of Montreal working with academically and behaviourally challenged students.  Since 2008, Rebecca has taught English at Cégep Édouard-Montpetit.  In addition to her teaching responsibilities, she started an English tutoring center, is the resource teacher for the college’s Odyssée Program language assistants, and sits on various committees including the Comité d’intégration des étudiants en situation d’handicap.   She is convinced that success is possible when people have access to the right resources and tools.

 

 

Objectifs

 

The learning objectives of this session are:

  • To recognize the links that exist between the features of new technologies and the teaching of a discipline

  • To recognize ways in which innovative use of emerging technologies could take place in one’s own classroom