Fostering a Community of Learners in the Classrooms and Beyond
On Saturday, April 27, 2024, an impressively-sized group of around 100 English language teaching professionals gathered at San Diego State University for our first in-person conference since the pandemic. The event was generously sponsored by SDSU Global Campus, Pearson, Cambridge, ellii, and National Geographic. A dedicated team of volunteers helped the event to run smoothly, staffing the registration table, ensuring an abundance of tasty refreshments, and helping attendees to navigate the conference space.
Ingrid Sbacchi Bairstow, Associate Professor at Imperial Valley College, kicked off the event with a compelling plenary session entitled "The Power and Evolution of Community: A Reflection and a Call to Evolve." Bairstow spoke about how instructors can harness the power of community to empower our learners in an era when the rise of online, hybrid, and even in-person workplaces and classrooms is creeping into
time allotted for motivational and enjoyable community-building activities. She emphasized the importance of humanizing these settings, making sure to incorporate laughter and joy. She led us in a reflection on the growing extinction of traditional community activities and how we can co-evolve with the future of how we educate and collaborate.
Next, conference participants had the opportunity to choose from a total of nine different presentations during three concurrent 45-minute sessions:
Thank you to all of our conference attendees for joining us! We hope that your participation in the chapter will continue and expand to a variety of roles and events in the near future. We also would like to extend our thanks to our distinguished speakers who contributed greatly to the conference with their vast amount of knowledge in the TESOL field and their experience in the classrooms and beyond. We could not have had this conference without them! Finally, very special thanks to our conference planning committee and the day of conference volunteers who worked diligently managing and completing a variety of tasks, making this conference a reality.
Preparing for this conference was such a steep learning curve, but it was also a highly rewarding and exciting journey that we are so glad that we did not miss!
Ingrid Sbacchi Bairstow, Associate Professor at Imperial Valley College, kicked off the event with a compelling plenary session entitled "The Power and Evolution of Community: A Reflection and a Call to Evolve." Bairstow spoke about how instructors can harness the power of community to empower our learners in an era when the rise of online, hybrid, and even in-person workplaces and classrooms is creeping into
time allotted for motivational and enjoyable community-building activities. She emphasized the importance of humanizing these settings, making sure to incorporate laughter and joy. She led us in a reflection on the growing extinction of traditional community activities and how we can co-evolve with the future of how we educate and collaborate.
Next, conference participants had the opportunity to choose from a total of nine different presentations during three concurrent 45-minute sessions:
- JOHANNA GLEASON, SDCCE: Teaching Literacy to Absolute Beginners
- CHRIS STILLWELL, SADDLEBACK COLLEGE & UC IRVINE & US DEPT OF STATE’S ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAMS: All's Well That Begins Well: Best Ways to Begin Courses
- KRISTI REYES, OTAN & MIRACOSTA COLLEGE: Projects Allowing Creative Expression with Technology Generate Confidence and Joy
- RYAN DETWILER, MIRACOSTA COLLEGE & PALOMAR COLLEGE, HOLLY BELL, PALOMAR COLLEGE & SDCCE: Practical Teaching Strategies to Boost Community in Beginner-Level Classrooms
- ALLISON WALTER, IEC@OCC: Strategies for Engaging Students in Financial Literacy and Language Development
- KRISTI REYES, OTAN & MIRACOSTA COLLEGE, and MARIANA SILVA, MIRACOSTA COLLEGE: Foster Student Connections by Reducing Cognitive Overload in LMS
- YASSIN HENNAWY, SDCCE: The Impact of ChatGPT and Wordtune Integration in Our Classrooms, KELLY METZ-MATTHEWS, SDCCE, RYANE WILLIS, SDCCE, JASON GREENO, SDCCE, JIA SUN, SDCCE, and JOHANNA GLEASON, SDCCE: Navigating Multiple Literacies in Adult Education Contexts: Critical Learnings from the Classroom
- MARY ANN DHUYVETTER, ALI & SDSU: Best Practices in Teaching Listening and Speaking
Thank you to all of our conference attendees for joining us! We hope that your participation in the chapter will continue and expand to a variety of roles and events in the near future. We also would like to extend our thanks to our distinguished speakers who contributed greatly to the conference with their vast amount of knowledge in the TESOL field and their experience in the classrooms and beyond. We could not have had this conference without them! Finally, very special thanks to our conference planning committee and the day of conference volunteers who worked diligently managing and completing a variety of tasks, making this conference a reality.
Preparing for this conference was such a steep learning curve, but it was also a highly rewarding and exciting journey that we are so glad that we did not miss!