General

AZTESOL Supports State Senate Bills

AZ State Seal

AZTESOL has released a position statement in support of state legislative bills HB 2281 and HB 2435, which would allow English learners to spend two hours of their school day focusing on learning English and enroll in dual language programs. Despite passing nearly unanimously in the House and receiving bipartisan support from the entire Senate Education Committee, the Senate President is single-handedly refusing to let the bills come to the floor of the entire Senate for discussion or a vote. Click here to read our official position statement and sample drafts of e-mails that you can send to your state senators to let them know that you are paying attention to this important issue.

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External org.

Teacher Self-Efficacy Survey

Michael Karas, a PhD student at  Western University, is investigating English language teachers’ confidence in their abilities to complete various English teaching tasks (self-efficacy) and invites you to complete an anonymous 20-30 minute online survey.  At the end of the survey, you can also volunteer to be interviewed over Skype, but this is completely optional. If you are currently teaching English, or are enrolled in a teacher education program and wish to participate, please access the survey using this link:
https://uwo.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cV15yphV9ObuuIB
If you have any questions, please contact Michael Karas or Dr. Farahnaz Faez (click on the name to open your e-mail client and get their e-mail address).

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Conferences

Our archives are going digital

Old photo albumAZTESOL is converting photos of its past events to an all-digital format and posting them online. You may remember flipping through our photo albums at a table in the lobby at many of our state conferences. To better preserve these images and make them available to the entire AZTESOL community, we are scanning those old snapshots and adding them to our Flickr page. We don’t have pictures of every conference, and some of the photos are showing their age (you may see parts of sticky labels that won’t come off anymore without damaging the images), but various board members and volunteers have helped us amass an impressive visual record over the years, and we want to share our long history with you.  Check out our conferences going back to 1976 by clicking on the links on our Past Conferences page. We’ll be posting more photos over the next several months, so be sure to revisit our site soon.

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External org.

Teaching ESOL Students About Their Rights

The Boston College Center for Human Rights and International Justice has compiled a free set of teaching materials called the ESOL Know Your Rights Tool Kit. The resource is composed of four units: Basic Human Rights; Knowing Your Rights in a Car Stop; Protecting Families in Case of Separation; and Understanding the U.S. School System. Each unit is appropriate for intermediate-level classes; the first two units also include versions for beginners. Units feature multiple, independent lessons with corresponding teacher’s guides, student handouts, and frequently-asked legal questions (FAQ) sheets. To explore or download the units, visit this website: https://goo.gl/forms/ItlRMqxBRmxy8uKx1 

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General

Do you teach American culture?

If you are currently an English language teacher and are at least 18 years old, you are invited to participate in a global survey about how American culture is taught to students. Bryan Meadows, an associate professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey, is surveying the content of culture teaching in the English language classroom when American culture is the topic of instruction. To take the 10-minute survey, click here. (You will see and need to agree to a disclaimer statement prior to the actual survey questions.) For more information, click here to contact Prof. Meadows.

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TESOL

AZTESOL awards free TESOL memberships

TESOL logoCongratulations to the following AZTESOL members who have each received a free one-year membership to our affiliated parent organization, TESOL International Association:

Mehtap Acar
Michelle Beach
Rebecca Haag
Chelsea Moreno
Nicole Schmidt

Check our website again early next year for the announcement and invitation to apply for these complimentary memberships that TESOL International makes available to us annually as their official affiliate for the state of Arizona.

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General

New Community College SIG

AZTESOL is forming a Special Interest Group (SIG) for community college teachers! If you teach ESL or a related subject at any community college in Arizona, or if you are interested in discussing issues of importance to this sector of our field and networking with other community college ESL teachers and administrators, we want to hear from you. Please visit this site on the web to show your interest in the AZTESOL Community College SIG and to keep informed of events, opportunities, and other news relevant to this group.

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