Adventures in Moduleland
Does module planning sometimes feel like going down a rabbit hole?
Do you find yourself looking around in wonder at labels like Sociolinguistic and Functional Knowledge?
And how can you incorporate Language Learning Strategies into your skill-building activities? In this webinar recording, Larry Iveson (PBLA consultant and regional coach) explains the different steps in module planning.
Larry is joined by New Language Solutions module developers, Sepideh Alavi and Marijke Geurts, who illustrate this planning process with examples from two new modules: Preparing to Attend a Workplace Event CLB 5-6, and Arranging a Workplace Event CLB 7-8.
The presenters provide practical tips, and they demonstrate how the different components of a module plan are transferred into skill-building, skill-using and assessment tasks.
Introducing Avenue Accessibility Features
In this webinar, LearnIT2teach mentor and developer John Allan introduced six ways teachers can improve accessibility in their Avenue.ca courses.
Good accessibility practices provide alternative interaction modes for learners and enhanced course consistency.
Building Community and Making Learning Memorable
The rapid move to online learning and teaching last year left many teachers scrambling to find ways to connect with their learners.
This talk, by Dr. Deborah Healey (2019-2020 President of the Board of Directors of TESOL International Association), offers some lessons learned, including ideas that can be used in a face-to-face setting.
Topics include flipping the classroom (giving learners ways to prepare outside of class for activities in class), video tools and other digital resources to build collaboration and community, dealing with challenges in a combined virtual and face-to-face class, and insights from TESOL’s Six Principles for Exemplary Teaching of English Learners.
An optional discussion time was offered after the webinar. Dr. Deborah Healey was the 2019-2020 President of the Board of Directors of TESOL International Association.
She started her career in community ESL, teaching immigrants and refugees. She taught for many more years in intensive English programs in Oregon, with a mid-1980s stint in Yemen.
Now an online and face-to-face teacher educator, she writes and presents extensively internationally (Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, US) on appropriate use of technology in language teaching.
Her doctorate is in Computers in Education. Building Community and Making Learning Memorable –
Avenue Teacher Showcase: YMCA of Greater Saint John Newcomer Connections
In this demonstration, three teachers from YMCA Newcomer Connections in Saint John, NB, Rhonda Kelley, Erin Stewart, and Marijke Geurts, show how they use the Avenue courseware to support their Canada School and Sector Specific Employment Language Training programs.
The show how they use the Moodle platform to engage their learners in blended learning and PBLA.
Learning Objectives: – see different ways teachers use Moodle/Avenue to support blended delivery and PBLA – learn about some of the benefits of using Avenue – get some tips to help you implement blended learning
Features of Google Classroom – A Cross-Platform Comparison of Avenue and Google Classroom
Presented by LearnIT2teach mentor and developer, Jen Artan, this pre-recorded webinar looks at the features of the two learning management systems.
What does Google offer?
How does Avenue compare?
Are there functions that work better for our Adult Newcomer learners?
Customization features, learner analytics, PBLA materials and other features will be outlined and compared.
Image Editing
This webinar by LearnIT2teach mentor and developer, John Allan, guides participants through essential image editing skills.
Using a free, online tool., the skills practiced in this session can be applied to other photo editors.
Training for Language Volunteers in IRCC-funded Programs
TESL Basics for Language Volunteers (TBLV) team members Marijke Geurts and Matthias Sturm delivered this webinar about the TBLV online course, which offers basic TESL training and an orientation for volunteers working with newcomers.
After piloting the course, New Language Solutions now is looking for SPOs who would like to run this online training for their own language volunteers.
The course is about 15 hours in length, delivered online over a period of 7 weeks.
Each week a new topic is introduced, including an introduction to the CLBs, working with lower-level learners, using realia, and volunteering in an online environment.
What we are looking for:
– IRCC funded organizations/programs
– ability to assign your own volunteer coach (an experienced ESL instructor)
What we offer:
– Free Train the Trainer course & support
– Your own TBLV course to use with your volunteers
CLB7 8 Participating in Workplace Meetings Tour
In this session, LearnIT2teach mentors and content developers Marjan Bateni and Paul Carter give Avenue teachers a guided tour through the PBLA module for CLB 7/8, Participating in Workplace Meetings.
The session demonstrates: – how to use the new PBLA module with your class – skill-building and skill-using tasks – assessment tasks and rubrics – files for in-class use – ePortfolio artifacts from the module
Jamboard and Avenue.ca
In this interactive webinar, LearnIT2teach mentor Jennifer Artan shows how to create, use, and share Google Jamboard.
Jen demonstrates how this interactive whiteboard is a useful tool for synchronous or asynchronous online classes.
She also examines the different ways that this tool can be used throughout the CLB levels and stages, and she explains how it can be used to create an ePortfolio artifact
Are You Using Avenue? Instructional Design in Avenue
In this webinar, Avenue/LearnIT2teach mentor Bonnie Nicholas and One World One Centre teacher Anne Chandler explain and demonstrate how to build accessibility and engagement through course design and organization using tools in Avenue.
Exploring LearnIT2teach Stage 4
An overview of LearnIT2teach Stage 4 is provided in this webinar by LearnIT2teach developer and mentor John Allan.
In Stage 4, teachers master the creation of their own e-activities and the skills needed to upload them to the Tutela.ca digital repository where they can be shared with other professionals across Canada.
Stage 4 participants are encouraged to create their own self-correcting ESL exercises using H5P, Hot Potatoes and TextToys.
Teachers are introduced to project-based learning and webquests.
Third Party, Web 2.0 tools are harnessed to generate learning objects that can be used in language instruction.
Assessing and Collecting Samples for PBLA
In this webinar, LearnIT2teach mentor Marjan Bateni provides tips and step-by-step demonstrations on how to collect artifacts for all four skills and add them to a learner’s portfolio on Avenue.
Marjan also shows how to assess different skills and assign a Benchmark for PBLA purposes.