Smithsonian Names Brattleboro, Vermont 11th “Best Small Town in America”

By on April 20, 2012 in Uncategorized

Smithsonian.com recently named Brattleboro, Vermont 11th out of 20 “Best Small Towns in America.”

Brattleboro's Common

To create the list, the online magazine asked the geographic information systems company Esri to search its data bases for high concentrations of museums, historic sites, botanic gardens, resident orchestras, art galleries and other cultural assets common to big cities. But they focused on towns with populations less than 25,000, so travelers could experience what might be called enlightened good times in an unhurried, charming setting. We also tried to select towns ranging across the lower 48. Read more online here.

The magazine describes Brattleboro as follows: “Nestled in southern Vermont, the riverside town of Brattleboro is a common rest stop for travelers driving up Interstate 91 from Massachusetts. Once you’ve strolled through the downtown historic district, lined with galleries, antiques shops, theaters and dance studios, it might be hard to get back in the car. Brattleboro takes pride in its reputation as a hidden artistic haven. On the first Friday of every month, local artists, galleries and museums exhibit new work and put on performances as part of the traditional Gallery Walk. Even if you don’t plan it, your visit will likely coincide with at least one of the many annual festivals in town: there’s the Womens’ Film Festival in March, the summer Brattleboro Literary Festival, and the Brattleboro Music Center’s Northern Roots Festival in January, which celebrates Northern music. In the unlikely event of boredom, take a day trip to nearby Naulakha, the estate of Rudyard Kipling, who once wrote of “a desire to be back on Main Street, Brattleboro, Vermont, U.S.A., and hear the sody water fizzing in the drugstore…and get a bottle of lager in the basement of Brooks House and hear the doctor tell fish yarns.”

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SIT’s New International Language Institute (ILI) of Massachusetts Partnership

By on March 29, 2012 in Uncategorized

SIT and the International Language Institute (ILI) of Massachusetts are partnering to provide more international students opportunities to pursue master’s degrees in the United States. Through this partnership, qualified students who have finished the Intensive English Program at ILI can earn conditional acceptance to SIT.

ILI, which is based in Northampton, MA, already offers an SIT Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) certificate program. It also administers an Intensive English Program, free English classes to area immigrants and refugees, and foreign language classes in French, Chinese, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and Portuguese.

SIT will accept completion of level 8 of ILI’s intensive English (ESOL) program as meeting SIT’s English proficiency requirement, meaning those applicants will be exempt from taking the TOEFL exam for admission to SIT’s degree programs.

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SIT Professor to Teach Virtual TESOL Seminar on Grammar

By on March 16, 2012 in Faculty Notes

SIT’s MA in TESOL professor Dr. Elka Todeva will be teaching an online seminar, “A TESOL Virtual Seminar on Grammaring–Unpacking the Concept,” on Wednesday, April 11, 2012 from 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM.

Register online by April 5th. This seminar is free to TESOL members. Non-members pay $45.

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SIT Alumni and Faculty Presenting at Annual TESOL National Convention March 28-31, 2012 in Philadelphia

By on March 6, 2012 in Alumni Perspectives, Faculty Notes, SIT Leaders: Faculty, Alumni, Students, Uncategorized

SIT alumni and faculty are featured again at this year’s annual national TESOL Convention in Philadelphia from March 28–31, 2012. Here’s a small sample of the dozens of presentations to be given by SIT alumni and faculty:

• Radmila Popovic (SMAT 20), “Using Comic Literacy and Multimedia to Advance Language Learning”
• Thomas Farrell (MAT 23), “Professional Role Identity of Novice ESL Teachers Through Reflective Practice”
• Jane Hoelker (MAT 17), “Professional Development Through Life Coaching Competencies” and “What Your Students Learn from Project Work”
• Irena Vodopija-Krstanovic (SMAT 19), “Exploring Teacher Excellence Through the Eyes of NNESTs in Croatia”
• David Kertzner (MAT 26), “Creatively Designing Intensive Business English Programs to Meet Learner Needs” and “Online Stories to Address Pronunciation, Intonation, Vocabulary, and Grammar”
• Cynthia Wiseman (MAT 13), “Using Web 2.0 Research Tools in ESL Classes”
• Radmila Popovic (SMAT 20), “Using Comic Literacy and Multimedia to Advance Language Learning”
• Elka Todeva and Leslie Turpin, SIT faculty

We hope to see you at the Convention. Be sure to visit SIT at booth 801!

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SIT Attending 46th Annual IATEFL Conference in Glasgow, UK

By on February 23, 2012 in Faculty Notes, SIT Leaders: Faculty, Alumni, Students

SIT Graduate Institute will be attending the 46th Annual International IATEFL Conference in Glasgow, UK from March 19 to 23, 2012. SIT professor Dr. Susan Barduhn will be in attendance. Barduhn teaches in SIT’s MA in TESOL program.

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SIT alumna and faculty member Sheepa Hafiza appointed to UN Peacebuilding Fund Advisory Board

By on February 14, 2012 in Faculty Notes, Program Details, SIT Leaders: Faculty, Alumni, Students

SIT alumna and faculty member Sheepa Hafiza was recently appointed to the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund’s 10-member Advisory Group by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Sheepa Hafiza

Hafiza is also the director of the Gender, Justice, Diversity, and Advocacy for Social Change unit of BRAC, a development organization dedicated to empowering the poor. The majority of BRAC’s work is in Bangladesh, but the organization also works worldwide.

Formed in 2006, the United Nations’ PBF Advisory Group advises the Secretary-General on how to allocate funding for peacebuilding through193 projects in 22 countries.

Hafiza obtained her MA in Intercultural Service, Leadership, and Management from SIT as well as a post-graduate diploma in NGO management from SIT, in collaboration with the Global Partnership in NGO Studies. She also holds an MA in public administration from the University of Dhaka. Hafiza recently co-taught a policy advocacy course in Bangladesh with SIT professor Jeff Unsicker. There were 16 SIT students and 11 Bangladeshi participants from an NGO there.

She co-authored the BRAC technical manual “An Action Learning Approach to Gender and Organizational Change.” She has also conducted numerous seminars, workshops, and lectures related to organizational development. Prior to joining BRAC in 1990, Hafiza worked as a teacher and language facilitator at Westgate Hill Pilot High School in Newcastle Upon Tyne in the UK.

In recent years, the UN is putting more focus on peacebuilding mostly in post-conflict countries. For more information, visit the UN Peacebuilding Fund’s website.

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Teachers from Around the World

By on December 21, 2011 in Faculty Notes, SIT Leaders: Faculty, Alumni, Students

by Ian Hefele

In this post, I profile Badar Al Shahiri, who teaches Arabic for SIT Graduate Institute’s Language and Culture department. (Earlier this fall, I profiled Beatriz (Bea) Fantini, the director of the department.

Al Shahiri is from Salalah, Oman. Before coming to the US, Al Shahiri received his BA in English Literature and continued studying for a fifth year to earn his teaching diploma. Now, Al Shari is enrolled in SIT’s MA in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program and teaches Beginners Arabic 1 and Intermediate Arab 2 at SIT.

Al Shahiri has been a teacher since 2007 in and around Salalah, and he learned about SIT through his teaching supervisor in Oman who knew about SIT from the ministry of education at the US Embassy.

While working in Oman, Al Shari applied for a Fulbright Scholarship. He said, “I never believed I would win the scholarship,” but fortunately, he did. Al Shahiri described the application and acceptance process as “long but soon enough, I had a proposal from SIT sent to Oman and I accepted it.” He told me, “For me, SIT is a perfect job. It offers such variety of international experience and is set in such a beautiful part of the country!”

Al Shahiri will be at SIT in Vermont until May 2012 teaching Arabic. When he completes his studies at SIT, said he said, “I look forward to using the valuable techniques I’m learning at SIT. However, I will greatly miss all of the students and staff I have befriended, so far.”

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Return to Fukushima

By on November 15, 2011 in Alumni Perspectives, SIT Leaders: Faculty, Alumni, Students, Student Voices, Uncategorized

by Amy Cameron

In 1997, I studied in Australia with SIT Study Abroad, and I knew it was the beginning of a lifetime of travels. I loved immersing myself in a new culture and learning through experience. After college, I looked for opportunities to live and work overseas, so I applied for The Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program, which matches native English speakers with public schools in Japan. Soon, I would spend two amazing years of my life on the other side of the world, which led to further involvement with SIT – leading an Experiment in International Living (EIL) trip for high school students to Japan in 2002, and completing my SIT MA in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) degree from in 2003. My years in Japan were spent in a rural prefecture north of Tokyo, which at the time most people had never heard of, Fukushima.

Amy Cameron with her former JET Program supervisor

Fast forward to March 11, 2011 in Boston, Massachusetts. That morning, I woke to the sound of text message notifications from my cell phone. Kristin, a friend who had also lived in Fukushima, texted “bad earthquake and tsunami in Fukushima!! :’( very bad!!” In the days that followed, I scrambled to contact friends in and around Nihonmatsu City, my Japanese hometown. Manami, a fellow MAT 34 student at SIT now living in Tokyo, helped to contact my former supervisor and “Japanese Papa” Mr. Tanji. He cried on the phone when he heard that I was thinking of him. The earthquake had not destroyed much in Nihonmatsu, he reported, and they were far enough from the epicenter to be safe from the tsunami. However, as events unfolded, it became clear that radiation from the Daiichi nuclear plant on the coast was becoming a danger. For weeks I alternated between being glued to media reports and trying to avoid them altogether because they were so horrifying. I ached to visit. Gradually, the news slowed.

Then in June, the Japanese government announced a special invitational program for former JET participants who had lived in the affected Tohoku region to return for one week. I applied immediately and was accepted.

My return to Fukushima was incredible. On one hand, I had the amazing experience of stepping back into my former life. I visited schools, team-taught once again in the classroom, and participated in karate class. I caught up with old friends, and it was as if time had not passed at all. And yet, there were constant reminders that so much had changed. There were tumbled gravestones and roofs covered in tarps from earthquake damage, rows and rows of temporary housing units set up for evacuees, daily radiation level reports and children wearing dosimeters. On the coast, there were vast stretches with nothing left by the tsunami but foundations, and fields with large boats scattered about. There was a radiation “hot spot” in the mountains, now a deserted ghost town.

The future is still uncertain for the people of Nihonmatsu, and all of Fukushima. Earthquakes still strike a couple times a week, the economic outlook is grim, and the long-term impact of radiation is still unknown. And yet, somehow, life in the region goes on. My 76-year old conversation partner in Nihonmatsu put it this way,: “Japanese people have survived so many things. We will survive this, too. This is what it means to be human.”

Read more about Amy’s return to Fukushima on her blog here.

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Join us in congratulating the 2011 recipients of the professor emeritus title: professors Beatriz (Bea) Fantini, Claire Halverson, and Patrick (Pat) Moran.

By on October 24, 2011 in Program Details, SIT Leaders: Faculty, Alumni, Students, Uncategorized

Having met the criteria set forth in the SIT Graduate faculty handbook, they were conferred the rank of professor emeritus/a by the World Learning Board of Trustees earlier this year following their nomination by the SIT provost.

We invite you to share your memories and experiences working with and learning from them below.

Collectively, these faculty have devoted more than 100 years of service to the organization. They have made numerous contributions to the curriculum, intellectual capital of the institution, their academic fields, and the organization’s global impact and mission.

Bea Fantini

Bea Fantini
Professor Fantini began working with the Experiment in International Living in 1966 and has been involved in almost every aspect of the institution in the 45 years since, including most significantly, the Experiment, the Master of Arts in Teaching program, and SIT Study Abroad. She has been the director of the Language and Culture Department for more than 20 years.

Fantini has brought visibility to SIT, particularly through her work in developing teaching guides for African and Asian languages and her ability to empower teachers to be creative and trust their own abilities as teachers of their native languages. Fantini has assumed the role of advisor to the president and provides the historical view on our values and traditions. In 2004, she received the World Learning Presidential Medal. Her work has included numerous outside consultancies for the Peace Corps.

Pat Moran

Pat Moran
Professor Moran has made tremendous contributions to both the Master of Arts in Teaching program and Graduate Institute at large throughout his 34 years of service. He has created and updated curriculum, taught multiple courses in different MA in Teaching programs, and participated in reshaping the program as prompted by need and innovation. He has published widely and has presented worldwide on the topic of training teachers and cultural experiences in the classroom.

Moran’s pursuits have included Peace Corps training, global activism, and national and international presentations on teacher training and cross-cultural experience. His work has provided an enriching and dynamic classroom setting for his students. He is considered one of the cornerstones of SIT’s Master of Arts in Teaching program.

Claire Halverson

Claire Halverson
Professor Halverson came to SIT in 1985 and has made significant contributions to SIT’s educational mission and programs. Her accomplishments include the initiation of core courses in the SIT curriculum; helping to frame faculty/administrative participation in the governance of SIT (she served as the first chair of the Faculty Assembly); and initiating the SIT Diversity Committee in the late 1990s. Her work with the Diversity Committee to build templates for diversity goals, objectives, and methods of evaluation raised cultural understanding for the campus as a whole and earned her World Learning’s first Diversity Award.

She is well known for her work at the intersection of human and organizational development and social justice education and for her consulting in the areas of teambuilding, diversity, training of trainers, organizational assessment, and leadership management.

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Sandonana Conference Honors Perspective of ‘Elders’

By on September 8, 2011 in Alumni Perspectives, Program Details, SIT Leaders: Faculty, Alumni, Students, Student Voices, Uncategorized

By Jessmaya Morales

 From thousands of feet above the West coast, I reflect on our recent Sandanona Conference at SIT Graduate Institute.  By “we” I mean the 29th class of the Summer Master’s in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) graduate students. Over the course of the summer, we planned a conference together.

While, traditionally, a conference has a keynote (or two), and perhaps a few plenary speakers, in addition to workshops; our class decided we’d like to do something that both reflected us as a group, and honored the fact that many of the people who’d been foundational members of the faculty for the MA in TESOL program would be in Brattleboro over the summer.  We would take some of the essential ingredients of our program and really embody them in our conference: experiential learning, group process, and culture.

We opened the conference with a performance of sorts, each of us entering the crowded auditorium with suitcases and bags, greeting each other and our guests in different languages as we made our way to various places in the room, in which everyone was seated in a circle.  Beginning and ending with a song, each of us shared a few words of welcome and inspiration with our attendees, and then asked everyone to envision what they’d like to take away from our conference.

After the opening, we began our workshops.  The topics were varied and engaging, and each of us brought something totally different. Attending our workshops were current Summer MA in TESOL students, professors, community members, friends, and family.

The highlight of the conference was our diwaniya, a departure from the traditional conference keynote.  It was a gathering we held in which chairs were arranged in a circle, and we asked our SIT ‘elders’ to come and talk about their experiences at SIT, their visions for the future of TESOL, and what they hoped we would take away from our experiences at SIT.   With humor, candor, and thoughtfulness, all of the 13 ‘elders’ in attendance spoke to us and told their stories.

Some of them are published and renowned authors in the TESOL field; others have been key stakeholders and pioneers in the field.  All of them have been co-creators of a master’s program that is world renowned for its perspectives and approaches to teaching and learning language.  What distinguishes this group typifies why teachers don’t get a lot of attention in the press: it is not the long list of famous people they’ve met with, nor their relation to world politics at the macro level.  Instead, they are distinguished by years of work and inquiry in the field, and their unflagging dedication to thinking critically about the micro-politics and dynamics of the classroom, the role of culture in language teaching and learning, and the day-to-day practice of building an incredible program that sends thoughtful, skilled, and reflective teachers out into the world to do amazing work.

Our cohort was excited to bring all of these key people together for a conversation in a manner that has never really happened before. 

Toward the end of the meeting, Leslie Turpin quoted Myles Horton, founder of the Highlander School in the late 1960s, and encouraged us to remember the idea that he expressed when authorities wanted to close the Highlander School down, something to the effect of, ‘you can’t close this school, because this school is not a building, it’s people.’  Leslie encouraged us to take with us the experience of working in relationship to each other, and the legacy our program has created for groups of people working together over many years. 

As I travel at high speeds through cloud clusters over the lakes and peaks and valleys of the Cascade mountain range, I reflect on what I had in my ‘suitcase’ as I came into the Summer MA in TESOL program at SIT.  Gone are the values of individual performance, competitive learning, and traditional testing and assessment I came with.  Upon leaving SIT, I’ve re-packed my suitcase with what I see as the truly revolutionary tools of a teacher.  I’ve got the principals of collaborative group process; the experiential learning cycle; active listening and reflection; and the knowledge that my strength and success as a teacher is dependent upon how I relate to my students, my colleagues, and my cultural context.  I also have the contact information for an extraordinary group of teachers who have done or will do the kind of revolutionary work that changes lives, however quietly at first, and lay groundwork for the networks that change the world.

This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes of Arundhati Roy’s: “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”

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