Nearly 50 conference attendees, presenters, and vendors came together at the Park County Complex in Cody, Wyoming on Friday, April 23 and Saturday, April 24th for the 1st Annual WyoTESOL Conference.
Attendees were greeted Friday evening by WyoTESOL's Secretary/Treasurer/Liason Officer, Elizabeth Parker. Attendees received a welcome packet which included information on the conference schedule, presenters, and workshop topics before being escorted to Northwest College's main Conference Room where a sit-down dinner was served and the Keynote Speech was delivered by WyoTESOL President, George Miller (below).
After the Keynote Speech, WyoTESOL's 1st General Membership meeting was held. The WyoTESOL Consitution and By-Laws were reviewed, discussed, and approved by the membership. The Treasurer gave her report, and Board Nominees were introduced. WyoTESOL Board Nominees included: George Miller, President (pictured above); Susan Watkins, 1st Vice-President/Newsletter editor (below left); 2nd Vice-President, Mary Anderson (below middle); Elizabeth Parker, Secretary/Treasurer/Liason Officer (below right); and Misty Rios, Member-at-Large/Advocacy Representative (not pictured).
Workshops were held on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Below are brief descriptions of each presentation along with presenter bios (so you can see what you missed out on if you weren't able to attend...)
Ashlee Clark, ELL District Coordinator, Big Horn School District #1 presented her workshop entitled "Providing Classroom Support for ELL Learners." In her workshop, she discussed various methods for providing classroom support to ELL learners including: accomodations, suggestions for ELL students with disabilities, developing learning strategies, adapting lessons, and methods for incorporating accomodations. She ended her workshop with an interactive Q & A session.
Cyndie Turner, Director, ELS Language Center on the campus of UW in Laramie, flew all the way to Cody to tell us about the ELS Centers and the variety of services they offer. She also presented a sample "World Cup" lesson to demonstrate the teaching methods used at the ELS Centers.
Danel La Rose, Public Speaker and Trainer, led a dynamic workshop entitled "That's Entertainment!" The purpose of this course was to coach on-line educators in techniques that would make their presentations & interactions with students more exciting and memorable.
Joyce Brill, Eleutian Technology, gave an informative lecture entitled "TPR, the Left/Right, Left/Right...RIGHT-Brain Method to Second Language Acquisition." Her workshop introduced James Asher's TPR method along with many practical ways to incorporate it into one's teaching practice.
Mary Jane Keffer, Writers' Workshop Teacher, Cody Middle School, conducted a highly-interactive workshop entitled "Picture Books and Struggling Middle-Level Writers: Strategies for Improving At-Risk and ELL Student Writing." Mary's class showed attendees how to integrate picture books into writing remediation through a hands-on mini-lesson. The course wrapped up with a Q & A session and some exciting door prizes!
Milo Asay, Professor of ESL, Northwest College, Powell, Wyoming, led "A Discussion on Curriculum Design." Attendees discussed and summarized the principles of ESL curriculum with an emphasis on how different forms & facets of curriculum can be applied to benefit and assist ESL students.
Susan Watkins, Director of Program Development, Glacier Bay Training, Cody, Wyoming discussed Global Cyber Technology/Yellowstone Language Institute's new on-line TESOL Certificate Course which will be launching in the USA on September 1, 2010.
Taten Sheridan MFA, Professor, Northwest College, Powell, WY, led a Panel Discussion entitled "Challenges and Solutions in TESOL." All Conference attendees came together and brainstormed a list of challenges faced by TESOL instructors. Then, in smaller break-out groups, solutions were discussed. Finally, everyone re-convened for sharing, idea exchange, and further discussion.
The Conference wrapped up at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday as everyone headed for home. All attendees (who were interested and who attended all seven hours of the event) also recieved .5 CEU's from PTSB. All in all, our Conference was a fantastic bargain: two meals (a sit-down dinner on Friday evening & all the sandwich, chips and fruit you could eat on Saturday), .5 CEU's, and lots and lots of great, practical ESL teaching tips. If you couldn't make it this year...there's always next year! We hope to see you then!!
