Let the Learning Continue Throughout the Summer with NEW ESOL PD Center Resources

What a year it has been! Throughout it all, we have sought to be your source for ESOL professional development and resources designed to support ESOL teachers and learners throughout Massachusetts and beyond, and the summer is no exception. Summer is a great time to slow the pace and reflect, catch up on the many articles, videos, and sessions that you have been meaning to read, view, or investigate further, and take stock of the year while planning for the next. With this goal in mind, we would like to point you in the direction of some wonderful new resources - and some other favorites - that will help you on your path to reflection, application, and planning for the new year:

1. The Introduction to the Revised MA Professional Standards for Teachers of Adult Speakers of Other Languages - These three brief videos introduce you to the revised ESOL professional standards with links to the documents and assessments included on the ACLS Educator Effectiveness page. Check out the videos to see what has changed, what has stayed the same, and what teachers of ESOL should know and be able to do in order to provide effective, rigorous, standards-based ESOL instruction.

2. ESOL Resources That Promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the ESOL Classroom: Visit this page on the ESOL launch page of the SABES website to access the newly created Google site which features curated lists of ESOL DEI resources to help you support your work, understanding of, and instruction on this vital component of ESOL instruction. 

3. The Learners' View on Zoom - A Collection of Tiny Videos and Viewer's Guide for Smartphone Use on Zoom : Ever wonder how your carefully created lessons translate onto the small screen of student cell phones? Question no more. These six tiny videos will provide you with insight on how Zoom sessions look and feel to your learners, show basic tips on improving the ESOL student experience using Zoom on a smartphone, and help you build your confidence in creating engaging, interactive virtual sessions for both you and your students in a Zoom classroom.

4. ESOL Recorded Session Library: Want to re-visit one of our popular sessions on Google Forms, Docs, or Classroom? Interested in seeing recordings of the informative roundtables on Zoom, Google Apps, and WhatsApp? Want to review some basic Zoom ESOL instructional strategies? If so, visit our recording library and watch the recordings of these PD sessions which took place over the past year.

5. And don't forget about some of our other favorites: An Introduction to the MA ELPS, the ESOL Intructional Videos, and more - found on ESOL PD Center website launch page.

We are hard at work planning and scheduling high-quality PD sessions for the upcoming months and encourage you to reach out with specific suggestions for PD that will help you and your colleagues to best provide rigorous, standards-based, engaging ESOL instruction to your students. We would love to hear from you! 

Our best to you all! You are amazing and resilient educators.

The ESOL PD Center Team:

Dori McCormack - dmccormack@qcc.mass.edu

Kate Anderson - kateanderson@qcc.mass.edu

Laura Porter - lporter@qcc.mass.edu

(A brief and light-hearted video with tips on participating in virtual sessions :).