Dear Colleagues,

As you all know, in November 2014, the President created a White House Task Force on New Americans.  The goal of the Task Force is to develop a federal immigrant and refugee integration strategy that allows new Americans to contribute to society to their fullest potential and bring new Americans together with their receiving communities to strengthen communities.

Yesterday, the White House issued a Blog post highlighting the creation of the Task Force.  Additionally, the blog is intended to serve as a CALL FOR IDEAS to help shape the focus of the federal immigration and refugee integration strategy.  The White House created a specific email account for gathering stakeholder ideas; Please send your ideas, big or small, to NewAmericans@who.eop.gov by February 9^th, 2014. 

New MOOC: “Seven Essential Practices for Developing Academic Oral Language and Literacy in Every Subject”

If you’re looking at improving your practice in teaching ELLs, the Electronic Village Online might be just the place for you. It’s five weeks of free professional development. Who could say no to that?

This link will take you to the EVO.

Last year I tried making an ebook in the Creating eTextooks class. It was so fascinating, listening to experts in our field and expanding my own horizons. Here is the book I made.

And here is the welcoming message from the site:

For five weeks in January and February, TESOL experts and participants from around the world engage in collaborative online discussions or hands-on virtual workshops of professional and scholarly benefit. These sessions bring together participants for a longer period of time than is permitted by land-based professional development conventions and allow a fuller development of ideas than is otherwise possible.

Sessions are free and open to anyone around the globe. It is not necessary to attend the TESOL Convention in order to participate. All you need is access to the Internet. Choose a session from this year’s offerings, listed below.  And please inform your colleagues about this unparalleled professional development opportunity!

 Nina Liakos, on behalf of the EVO Coordination Team

So make a new year’s resolution to try something new! I’m thinking I might enroll in Flipped Learning this time around… What have you got to lose?

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Beth Evans is the NNETESOL webmaster and teaches English language learners in Vermont.

The CAEP Reviewer applications deadline has been extended to Monday 12 January 2015.

TESOL International Association is seeking experienced ELL teachers, administrators, researchers, and/or program evaluators in the United States to serve as CAEP reviewers. If you are interested in ways to increase your professional expertise and help advance the field, this is a great way to get involved!

Reviewers will contribute their expertise to the adjudication of TESOL program reports submitted by institutions seeking recognition in the United States by the Commission for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP, formerly NCATE).

For more information about what reviewing entails, benefits of participation, and reviewer qualifications, please visit TESOL/CAEP Reviewers homepage.

Call for Proposals Now Open Through February 1

The call for proposals is now open for the 2015 WIDA National Conference, which will take place October 15-17 in Las Vegas. All educators, regardless of Consortium member status, are encouraged to submit proposals. For more information, including instructions, guiding questions, and timelines, please visit theWIDA Conference website.

U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and the U.S. Department of Justice Release Joint Guidance on English Learner Students and Limited English Proficient Parents
On Wednesday, January 7, 2015, the U.S. Department of Education’s (the Department’s) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) released a joint guidance entitled “Dear Colleague Letter: English Learner Students and Limited English Proficient Parents,” which outlines the legal obligations of state and local education agencies (SEAs and LEAs) to English learner (EL) students under civil rights laws and other federal requirements. The guidance can be found on OCR’s resource page on the Department‘s website.

http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/ellresources.html

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U.S. Department of Education Releases First Chapter of “English Learner Tool Kit” for State and Local Education Agencies
The first chapter of a new English Learner Tool Kit—intended to help SEAs and LEAs in meeting their obligations to ELs—has been published on the web by the U.S. Department of Education (the Department). The tool kit is meant to be read in conjunction with the Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) newly-released joint guidance, “Dear Colleague Letter: English Learner Students and Limited English Proficient Parents,” which outlines SEAs’ and LEAs’ legal obligations to EL students under civil rights laws and other federal requirements. The first chapter of the Tool Kit, “Tools and Resources for Identifying All English Learners,” can be found on the website of the Department’s Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA). More tool kit chapters will be posted there (and will be announced here in Nexus and on the NCELA website) as they are published. The joint guidance and other relevant resources can be found on OCR’s resources page.

http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oela/eltoolkitchap1.pdf

Did you miss our conference at SIT?

It was fantastic! And a few of our presenters are willing to share. You can check out some of the presentations at this link while you’re thinking about coming next year when we do it all over again…

From our mailbox…

My name is Alexis Lopez and I am a Research Scientist at Educational Testing Service (ETS) in Princeton, New Jersey.  My colleagues and I are conducting a research study to examine how teachers use their students’ home language in instruction and assessment.

To collect this information, we are inviting ESL teachers in middle and high school to complete a 15 minute on-line survey about how they use or facilitate the use of the students’ home language in the classroom and in assessment.  The survey results are completely confidential.

We are requesting that you send this email invitation to ESL teachers in your organization, which contains a link to the online survey.  If you yourself are a(n) ESL teacher in middle or high school, please feel free to complete a survey.

https://www.surveyresearchonline.com/se.ashx?s=7321E7ED0C9AC1EF

Our research team thanks you in advance for your time and consideration.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Thank you for your assistance.