Highlights of CATESOL

This year’s CATESOL conference held at the SDOE was in my estimation one of the best I have attended. From the keynote speaker and discussion groups, lunch time raps and of course the breakout sessions there was something for everyone. Generally I am not fond of keynote speakers. In the past I have found them to speak on general or esoteric topics which while appealed to my intellectual self, offered me nothing to take into my classroom. To my delight, our keynote speaker, Marian Thacher gave us a well spent hour on using the internet as a tool and how to integrate lessons, portfolios and bookmarks “in the cloud.” She also talked about using social networking sites. Her materials were very informative and included many lists of websites to surf and gather materials. She asked an interesting question, how many of us store our bookmarks for websites exclusively on our home computer. I believe everyone in the room agreed that is exactly what we did. She then told us that by joining Delicious.com we could store our bookmarks and have access to them on any computer. This would be very handy if you teach at more than one campus and would like to show your students that one perfect website you have marked at home.
The first session I attended was given by Suzanne Woodward from MiraCosta college. She showed us how to teach verb tenses with games and activities. Most of the activities she explained came from her book, Fun with Grammar, and I of course immediately ordered a copy for my classroom. One of her activities is played like musical chairs and practices the simple past. The teacher stands in the middle with students occupying chairs around her. She makes a factual statement about something she did in the past, “ I ate breakfast this morning,” If anyone didn’t, they must say, “I didn’t,” and give up their chair. The teacher then takes their chair and they are in the middle. Students learn to be crafty, girls saying, “I washed my new dress yesterday.” Of course, the young men can’t very well stay seated in agreement, so must say “I didn’t,” and give up their chairs. It seems a very lively game and one that would help past tense practice. The other idea she gave us that looked like a lot of fun was the Wanted Poster. This could be past or present perfect exercise. It is very easy to find online programs that will convert your photos into wanted posters. Students in groups must name their gang, then come up with several misdeeds they are guilty of. Although the teacher had some misgivings about putting students in roles of thieves and criminals, it seems her students really enjoyed the activity and got into the spirit of the crime. People feeling squeamish about this part of it could use lessor “crimes” like parking in the teacher parking, or thowing away a perfectly good sheet of paper. The posters can then be presented perhaps in a powerpoint for the whole class perusal and explanations by each “gang.” Suzanne then gave us a great list of songs that use different tenses. They would be good for cloze activities as well as having the class sing along for oral practice. There were so many good ideas, I’ll save the rest to share for next week.