November is Here!

It’s hard to believe we are nearing the end of another year! We have been very fortunate to enjoy some beautiful weather with brilliant colours, so soak up the sun and enjoy the rest of this splendid fall season! Last month, Tracy shared another great PPT on Autumn – see the PDF below. Also, if you missed the workshop Marina and I held on assessment planning with Real world tasks, here is a copy of the presentation:

Here are a few topics you could teach in November: Health and Wellness, Flu Season, End of Daylight Savings Time, World Kindness Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Shopping and Consumerism. If you are looking for Remembrance Day resources, Danielle shared a link to many resources: Veterans' Week and Remembrance Day Learning Resources - Veterans Affairs Canada

We hope you enjoyed your time at the conference this year. Marina found a great resource from a session on the “Directory of Best Practices.” If you are looking for all PBLA related material with lessons, rubrics (filled and blank), assessments etc. please check it out here: https://bestpractices.teslontario.org/en/resources/resource_category/pbla-resource/ 

Tasneem found a useful resource from her session with Nancy Van Drop. You can find links to many free photos, audios and games here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UnvUQ68uQd56B6cCchAQw7Ofxsjz1qupSXWcBOt5weY/edit?usp=sharing

Thank you to all our instructors who continue to share great resources and links. Finally, a big thank you to Kate for sharing her lesson plans for November! Find them here:

Find the link to the documents here: NOV resources - Google Drive

Have a wonderful month,

Haleema and Marina 😊

It's October Time!

Welcome to fall and my favourite season! The days are cooler and leaves are changing from green to spectacular colours. It is also the official start of boot and sweater season. At this time, you may also be thinking of starting assessments with your classes. Remember to keep it simple for both your students and yourself. Most of you are probably using real world tasks in your classes just remember to make them skill using and include holistic feedback. You can use them as artefacts and include them in your assessment logs.

Here are a few topics for the month of October: 

Thanksgiving, Favourite Thanksgiving Recipes, Halloween, What Happens in Fall.

Haleema and I will be holding a PBLA review on October 7th. Also, Danielle will be holding an Avenue “New School Year Set Up’ workshop on October 5th. 

Here’s a friendly reminder to register for the TESL Conference being held October 26-28th and submit your claim for reimbursement to Mihaela.  

You can check out: https://www.realworldtasks.ca/  for ready made assessments.

Thank you Valerie for sharing her new and improved assessments. Big thanks to Kate for sharing her October lesson plans.

Please feel free to reach out to us if you need any help with PBLA related

Your PBLA Leads

Marina and Haleema

Welcome Back!

We hope you had a great summer and a great first week back! Here we are again, and this time, we are online AND in person! Whether you are staying online, or making the return to the classroom, we hope you have a wonderful year ahead with your students.

Getting things organized at the start of the school year can be a little overwhelming, but please remember to check the email, and the instructor handbook that was sent out by Carolyn at the start of September. There you will find everything you need from schedules, month end reports, sending IT tickets, leave requests and MORE!

To help get your classes started this year, be sure to check out the following:

Teacher / Student Expectations for Online Learning 

Registration Instructions for Zoom 

How to Open Google Classroom

Needs Assessment (CLB 1-2)

Needs Assessment (CLB 3+) - (for online students)

Needs Assessment (Advanced)

Remember to keep track of your RWTs and Skill Using Activities on the assessment tracking logs. Even if you don’t have a formal assessment but you did a meaningful real world task – use that as an artefact! For example, if your students did “Getting to know you” interviews and introduced his/her classmate to the class – put it in the log!

Here are just a few ideas for teaching topics in September:

Lower Level – Alphabet review, Greetings, Numbers, Colours, Calendar, the Classroom, Daily routines etc. 

Higher Level - Getting to Know You, Small Talk in Canadian Culture, Education in Canada, and Learning Styles etc.

A huge thank you to Kate for sharing her lesson plans!

Remember to check out the updates from Danielle about Avenue and Google Classroom.

Marina and I are always here to answer any questions and offer help for your PBLA planning needs, so please feel free to reach out! J

Have a wonderful September,

Haleema and Marina

Hooray for May!

With the month of May will (hopefully) come the sun, warmer weather, and new blossoms! Also, we are almost in our final stretch of teaching before the summer – yay! There are some fun things to talk about this month with your students.  At the beginning of this month a lot of students will be celebrating Eid-ul-Fitr, to mark the end of Ramadan. A favourite topic in May is, of course, Mother’s Day! This can also lend itself well into a discussion about gender roles and parenting.  There is also Victoria Day - the unofficial start of summer!  As well, those with a green thumb will start to get their yards summer ready and gardening is a great topic to teach your students! Click below to find a reading skill-using activity on the history of Mother’s Day, a PPT on Victoria Day, and a writing/listening skill-using activity on “How to Plant Flowers”: 

Here are some other observance days:

May 7 – National Child and Youth Mental Health Day in Canada

May 9 – National Nursing Week in Canada

May 15 – Energy Conservation Week in Ontario

May 17 – National Day Against Homophobia in Canada

Remember to check our Google Classroom and Avenue pages for updates and lots of helpful links posted by Danielle, who will be hosting another Avenue workshop on Friday May 6th at 10:00 am. 

As we are (almost) heading into reporting season, remember to fill out your assessment log forms to track student progress and help you when it comes time to change benchmarks. Stay tuned for a HARTS refresher by Marina and I closer to reporting time -TBA. If you are still having a hard time with creating rubrics, here are some very easy rubrics that were shared by Tania:

You can find the items below here!

As always, a huge thank you to Kate for her monthly plans, and everyone who continues to share resources and materials with our team! You’re all awesome!  

Have a wonderful month,

Haleema and Marina 

Spring Has Sprung!

Welcome to April! We have officially made it to Spring
even though Mother Nature seems to have other plans for us. With Spring starting, this is a great time to discuss gardening and spring cleaning with your classes. We also have the start of Ramadan (April 2nd) and Easter (April 17th). Ellii (formerly ESL Library) has lessons on both these topics at various levels. Let's not forget about Earth Day on April 22nd.

For fun, in April you can also celebrate:

Apr. 1: Sweet Potato Day

Apr. 6: International Pillow Fight Day

Apr. 7: National No Housework Day

Apr. 17: Blah, Blah, Blah Day

Apr. 21: Go Fly a Kite Day

Apr. 26: National Richter Scale Day

Apr. 27: National Sense of Smell Day

I came across this resource: Online Resources_16_CLB Ref Rubrics for PBLA in MS Word.pdf (languagepeelhalton.ca).  This links you to various PBLA rubrics and also rubric generating tools by level and skill in Tutela.

As always, please continue sharing resources you come across. Big shout out to Kate for sharing her April lesson plans. 

Don’t forget to check out Danielle’s Avenue post.

Please feel free to reach out to either Haleema or myself for any PBLA related questions or concerns.

Have a great month!

Marina and Haleema

Marching On!

We have been ploughing through the year, both figuratively and literally with all the snow we’ve been getting, but soon we have the March break to look forward to! 

These are unprecedented times in the world, and there is so much to learn and talk about with our students. Things can get heavy, but remember we always have our tried and true teaching topics to fall back on in March. Some special days to talk about with your students this month: March 8th International Women’s Day, March 13th Daylight Savings Time starts, March 17th St. Patrick’s Day, and one of my favourite days - March 20th the first day of spring! You can check out some more ideas for special dates here: Holidays and observances in Canada in 2022 (timeanddate.com)

Don’t forget to check for Avenue updates from Danielle, and remember to reach out to her if you want to join the zoom session on Friday March 4, at 1:00pm to learn about the Read Aloud Poodle she shared at the end of our last meeting. Also have a look at our Google Classroom where you will find some helpful links such as one on vocabulary here: https://www.languageguide.org/english/vocabulary/

Finally, a big thank you to Kate who shared her awesome plans for March!click here

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Here is the link to the resources:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1h-O0LWG9OsrCxSbrMyUDUYpsiDycNGjA?usp=sharing

Have a great month everyone,

Haleema & Marina

Welcome to February!

Allegedly spring is 47 days away...but who’s counting. We may be in the throes of winter but February offers a whole host of fun lesson topics. Of course, there is Valentine’s day on February 14th which is a great time to talk about symbols and customs of love, relationships and friendship.

This year the Chinese Lunar New Year is on February 1st. This is a great opportunity to cover adjectives used to describe personality associated with the animals of the Chinese zodiac.

We also have Groundhog Day on February 2nd, where we learn how much more winter we have in front of us. And, we can’t forget the Beijing Winter Olympics which starts on February 4th. ESL Library has material related to this. 

February is also Black History month which is observed not only in Canada, but also in the U.S. and the United Kingdom. It is a special month to honour the experiences and legacies of those who became an important part of black history. 

Recommended Movie for Black History Month for High -  Intermediate / Advanced Students:

An aspiring author during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s decides to write a book detailing the African-American maids' point of view on the white families for which they work, and the hardships they go through on a daily basis.    

A friendly reminder that Progress Reports should be submitted no later than February 4th. You can always reach out to your PBLA Leads if you need any help with this. 

Big thanks to the instructors who shared resources in January. Keep them coming!

A shout out to Kate for sharing her lesson plans. 

Also, don’t forget about Danielle’s February 14th Avenue challenge. I’m sure Danielle will be happy to answer any questions about this challenge and provide assistance.

Your PBLA Leads - Marina and Haleema

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone! Welcome back. We hope you had a happy and healthy holiday season and are ready to get back into the groove of online teaching in 2022!  As January is reporting month, we know that everyone will be busy trying to get in as many assessments and skill-using activities as possible.  Here is a link to some instructor administered assessments from Bow Valley College for CLB levels 4-7: Instructor Administered Assessments.pdf (bowvalleycollege.ca) There are a lot of resources out there, but make sure to check out the “PBLA” tab above and look through the “Recommended PBLA Links.”

Also, remember to fill out the assessment tracking log to keep proof of the 6-8 artefacts needed per skill to change a CLB level. Keep on the lookout for more instructions from Carolyn on the reporting procedures.  Marina and I will have a refresher workshop for anyone who needs help with using HARTS to complete progress reports, the date is TBD – stay tuned!

Check out the “Avenue” tab on our blog to see updates from Danielle, and remember to try the Avenue challenge by February 14th! 

Thank you again to Kate for sharing her lesson plans for January! Please find them here:

Jan - March 2022 - CLB 3+ Lesson Plans

January - 2022 - CLB 3-5

January - 2022 - CLB 5-8

Here's the link to the associated resources - Please remember to SAVE AS so that you don’t overwrite the originals:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dkKNrxgXDbu2bDSdioMepu4CKu_SsQEP?usp=sharing

See you soon on Zoom!

Stay safe and have a wonderful month,

H & M ☺