Keynote Speakers / 2011 Conference
Mary Ann Christison
University of Utah
Dept. of Linguistics/Urban Institute for Teacher Education
Plenary: Developing Effective Leadership Skills in English Language Education
If you believe that effective leaders are made and are not just born into their roles, then this is the presentation for you! The term teacher leadership refers to more than pedagogical expertise, professionalism, enthusiasm, passion, and commitment. All schools need these qualities in their teachers. Teacher leadership is action that enhances teaching and learning, that builds capacity and community, and that advances the quality of life for members of the community. This workshop will focus on identifying the actions of teacher leaders associated with bringing about the results described above. Participants will experience hands-on activities, including the role of the personal intelligences in developing leadership skills.
BIO: Mary Ann Christison is a professor in the Department of Linguistics and the Urban Institute for Teacher Education at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. She has taught in elementary, secondary, and adult education contexts. At the university level she teaches courses in both undergraduate and graduate programs for pre- and inservice teachers. She is the author of over 80 published and refereed articles on language teaching and second language research and 17 professional books including What English Language Teachers Need to Know I (Volumes 1 & II) and Leadership in English Language Education (co-authored with D. Murray), Multiple Intelligences and Second Language Learning, A Handbook for Language Program Administrators (co-edited with F. Stoller), Seeking the Heart of Teaching (co-authored with A. Palmer), Learning to Teach Language, and numerous activity and resource books for teachers, such as Look Who’s Talking, Community Spirit, Purple Cows and Potato Chips, and Drawing Out. Christison was TESOL president 1997-98 and currently serves as a trustee for TIRF (The International Research Foundation for English Language Education) She has been a classroom teacher for over 30 years and a teacher educator for 25 years, working with teachers in over 20 different countries.
Adrian Palmer
University of Utah
Plenary: Justifying assessment use in educational leadership
Leaders in education programs are frequently required make recommendations about the selection and use of language assessments. To convince stakeholders of the merits of these recommendations, leaders need to be able to provide justification for their recommendations. Such justification has frequently been framed terms of a set qualities of usefulness (for example, Bachman & Palmer, 1996). However, while these qualities are a reasonable starting point, what has been lacking is a specific structure for the argument that provides the rationale for assessment use. To provide such a structure, Bachman (2005) and Bachman & Palmer (2010) have proposed an Assessment Use Argument.
In this presentation, the overall structure of an Assessment Use Argument will be presented. The components of an Assessment Use Argument will be introduced and examples provided to illustrate how an Assessment Use Argument can be formulated and used by educational leaders.
BIO: Adrian Palmer teaches a variety of courses in applied linguistics at the University of Utah. His areas of specialization include language assessment, teacher training and professional development, and language teaching methodology. He regularly offers a variety of workshops and presentations on these topics at international language conferences all over the world. Two of his recent books include Seeking the Heart of Teaching (University of Michigan Press), 2007 and Language Assessment in Practice (Oxford University Press), 2010.
M. Celeste Grimau
STEPS / ARTESOL
Plenary: From Caterpillar to Butterfly- The Transformation of the Teacher
Making changes is mandatory for success in this rapidly changing world. Students are no longer passive, they need action, movement and to be the leaders of their own process. In this practical presentation the presenter will show teachers how to become the unforgettable butterfly that all teachers would like to be.
BIO: Prof. M. Celeste Grimau holds a degree of Profesora de ingléss graduated from Instituto Santa Brígida. She is the director of STEPS Cross-Cultural understanding and has been Head of the English Department of “Colegio Del Sol”. She has contributed articles on education to ARTESOL magazine, to the Buenos Aires Herald and offered a number of workshops in Argentina and Chile. She has also written articles and activities for the magazine English Teaching in Action and for E.I M magazine. She is a storyteller and specializes in storytelling as a teaching tool as well as games to teach languages. She has developed her own methodology based on the use of games in the classroom. She has been a presenter in many international conferences for teachers of English in Argentina and Chile. At the moment she is studying Drama at the Universidad Nacional de Rio Negro. Celeste is part of ARTESOL Board. She is a passionate teacher who considers teaching as her mission, not only her job.
