It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Well, perhaps the "end" of 2020 will indeed be the most wonderful part of the year! The promise of a new year can certainly give us hope. What a whirlwind of change it has been, and kudos to all of you for your resilience to adapt so quickly and so well to the challenges of online teaching!

Also, how apropos that the TESL Ontario conference this year was themed “Resilience!” We hope you enjoyed your time, as it was very well-organized and a great new way to network with your peers. If you want to watch a session that you missed, remember that conference attendees can access the videos simply by logging back into the conference virtual platform where they attended the live conference and selecting the session they want to view.

We posted the “Avenue Challenge” in November to get you on your way to getting your Stage 2 certificate. Hopefully you have all enrolled your students in your course, were able to complete the tasks, and have completed (or almost completed) Stage 2! If not, remember that we are here to help you - you’ve got this! 

It was great to have a sharing session on our experiences with Avenue, and it’s fantastic to see so many teachers becoming more and more comfortable using different activities with their students! Suja shared instructions on how to upload and H5P from Tutela to Avenue. See it here!

Here are a couple of other resources that may be helpful to you:

Video lessons from www.canlearnenglish.com  

Danielle found a great resource with print articles for reading and videos of the weather forecast or other stories. You can watch live online as well from 6 to 10 am. Check out CHCH News here: https://www.chch.com/morninglive/  

Danielle discovered a fun site called WORDART. Check it out here!

 

Also, for anyone who may need a little extra help during this time you can find list of food support organizations from www.burlington.ca/COVID19resources or you can also call 311.  

This list is only for Burlington but many cities have the same supports. Check www.halton.ca for other community organizations in Halton Region.  

Marina found a helpful resource on Tutela - Best of the Reader for lower levels. Ana has uploaded all 15 e-book readers on Google Classrooms here!  

 

Carolyn shared an excellent video geared toward the higher levels  that is great for teaching  SHOPPING and CONSUMERISM. The Story of Stuff - see it here! 

The holidays are going to feel very different this year with all the restrictions on gatherings, but there are still ways you can enjoy the festive season with your family. Danielle shared some great virtual celebrations you can experience from the comfort of your own home! Check them out.

Toronto - Saturday, December 5th @ 7pm on CTV & CTV2 for the Original Santa Claus Parade.     

https://thesantaclausparade.com/  

Burlington – Sunday December 6   

https://www.burlington.ca/en/live-and-play/Santa-Claus-Parade.asp  

Oakville – November 21   

https://www.oakvillesantaclausparade.ca/  

** There is nothing for Ottawa, Milton or Hamilton. They have cancelled their events all together.   

Royal Botanical Gardens – Winter Wonders Event (Nov. 18 – Jan 3)   

https://www.rbg.ca/things-to-do/by-season/winter-wonders/  

Niagara Festival of Lights – November 14 - January 10  

https://www.niagarafallstourism.com/events/winter-festival-of-lights/  

 

With the holidays around the corner, remember to take time to relax, indulge, and enjoy!  Wishing you and your families a very merry Christmas, happy holidays and all the best in 2021!  

Haleema and Carolyn 

November - Avenue Challenge!

If you haven't figured out how to enroll students and navigate through the Avenue platform, don't worry! We're here for you! Reach out to us or to those who have figured it out if you need help getting started. And when you do get on the road that leads to Avenue, take a few steps further and challenge yourself this month with the following!

•  Enroll one class on Avenue (AM / PM / Eve)
•  Complete one course activity as a group on Zoom
•  Complete one uploaded activity as a group on Zoom
•  Assign an activity for your students to do independently

What's the End Goal? Complete Stage 2 and Return Assessment Form to Nancy!

Here are some handy dandy resources and links we've collected and added to the blog this month!

Teach-This: Over 1500 ESL Resources - WE ARE NOW SUBSCRIBED TO! 

REAL WORLD TASKS: A Bank of Assessment Tools and Tasks

Kate Maven's Google Drive : Tons of Resources here!

Reading and Writing Skill Using - Winter Driving Tips - Haleema Jafer

Reading and Writing - Holistic Feedback - Winter Driving Tips - Haleema Jafer

QWEASK - Resources to Get Your Students Asking Questions

I'd love to say, SEE YOU AT THE CONFERENCE this year but ain't gonna happen. Still, we hope you have a good time checking out the online presentations. In spirit, we can meet for our coffees and for those who partook in some evening cocktails, see you there! I will certainly miss going into the BIG CITY!

Have a great month!

Carolyn and Haleema

Keep it Simple!

    

Sore back, strained eyes, and countless hours of creating that perfect lesson to teach online – Been there, done that! Now let’s add trying to conduct valid PBLA assessments online into the mix.   The good news is, and there really is some, it is possible. The days of in-class teaching and conducting in-class assessments may feel like a distant memory, however a lot of what we did can be adapted to work in an online class.   

 

Listening and speaking are two skills which naturally lend themselves for assessments during a Zoom class.  We all regularly use many real-world reading and writing tasks with our classes, but we just have to remember to make them skill-using activities with holistic feedback and count them as artefacts for our students’ portfolios.  Keep track of everything in the assessment logs!  (See previous post for the links)

 

As you know, there are different tips and tricks to use to ensure we are getting authentic answers from our students. As well, there are lots of resources out there to help you find real world tasks to use as either assessments or skill-using activities. 

 

Here is the PowerPoint we did with ideas for whole class and 1:1 assessment strategies: 

 

PowerPoint - Strategies for Valid Online Assessments

 

You can give your students a copy of “Assessment Rules during Zoom Class” here.

                                                                                                                                     

Here are some other useful links: 

  

Real World Task Bank 

 

Curriculum Real-World Tasks CLB 1-8 from Tutela 

Kate Maven's link to ALOT of her resources (check out! It's full of goodies!)

ReadWorks (great for assessing reading)

 

Whatever is your preferred method of assessing your students, try not to re-invent the wheel and create extra work – Remember, keep it simple!  

You all have great ideas, so please share with each other! Feel free to scroll through our past blog entries to get inspiration for October teaching ideas and activities, and take time to enjoy the rest of these crisp fall days. 

Happy online teaching (and assessing) everyone! And if you need some laughs about it ALL....check out this video that Kate shared here. It's hilarious!

Your PBLA team - Haleema and Carolyn