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SIT Graduate Institute Hosts Annual Student-led TESOL Conference

By on May 16, 2013 in SIT Leaders: Faculty, Alumni, Students, Student Voices

Each year, students in SIT’s MA in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program organize a professional conference known as “Sandanona.” The Sandanona Conference is the culmination of the on-campus phase of the TESOL program. During the conference, students prepare and conduct a professional presentation that explores in depth a chosen area in the field of second-language teaching and learning. Sandanona-Pic

All events associated with the conference are free and open to the public, and will take place on SIT’s Vermont campus May 20-22, 2013.

The conference will feature two plenary speakers:

  • Scott Thornbury, an internationally recognized academic and teacher trainer in the field of English language teaching
  • Sedia Dennis, professor of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) at Marlboro College in Vermont and Tacoma Community College in Washington State

During the conference, SIT will be renaming one of its existing buildings. Known for the past thirty-plus years as the Undergraduate Building, the building will be given the new name of Sandanona Graduate Center. The dedication ceremony will be hosted by Alvino Fantini, Professor Emeritus at SIT Graduate Institute.

In the Abenaki language, Sandanona is interpreted to mean “great white light,” and the term was the original name for SIT’s Vermont campus.

For more information and to attend any of the conference’s events, please contact Joslin Roderick at joslin.roderick@sit.edu.

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SIT Hosts 30th Sandanona Conference on the Teaching and Learning of Languages

By on August 14, 2012 in SIT Leaders: Faculty, Alumni, Students, Student Voices, What's New?

SIT Graduate Institute’s 30th Sandanona Conference was held on SIT’s Brattleboro, Vermont, campus on August 5–7, 2012. The conference was the culmination of SIT’s current summer MA in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program designed for working teachers. Each student in the program gave a professional presentation on a topic in the field of second-language teaching and learning; several students gave presentations on using technology in the classroom.

Sessions included:

• Tamara Grobschmidt, “Using Web 2.0 Tools to Increase Learner Autonomy”
• Teresa Hernandez, “Empowering the First Person Narrative Through Cultural Awareness”
• Shawn McRae, “Interactive Reading Model: Utilizing the Learner as Materials Generator”
• Hasnaa Hafez, “L1 in the EFL Classroom: A Taboo or Privilege?”

The conference featured plenary speakers Diane Larsen-Freeman and Kathleen Graves, professors at the University of Michigan’s School of Education.

The Sandanona Conference is a mandatory part of SIT’s TESOL graduate degree program. It is currently held at the end of students’ second summer in the current summer MA program, and at the end of students’ second semester in the full-time TESOL MA program. The conference is patterned after major language conferences and gives students the opportunity to present original research and discuss it with their peers. For more information about the Sandanona Conference or SIT’s TESOL graduate degree program, contact admissions@sit.edu.

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New Video about SIT Student Life Published

By on July 20, 2012 in Alumni Perspectives, Program Details, Student Voices

SIT Graduate Institute recently published a new video about student life, including student organizations and activities on campus, by Marcus Van, an alumnus of SIT’s MA in TESOL program. In the video, Marcus interviews current students about their SIT experience. Watch and share it with others!

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SIT’s 43rd Sandanona Conference on the Teaching and Learning of Languages

By on May 17, 2012 in Faculty Notes, Program Details, SIT Leaders: Faculty, Alumni, Students, Student Voices, What's New?

The 43rd Sandanona Conference of SIT’s MA in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program will take place on campus May 21-23, 2012.

The Sandanona Conference is the culmination of the on-campus phase of SIT’s MA in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program. Patterned after major language conferences, it occurs in the final week of the program. Students plan and present a professional presentation that explores in depth a chosen area in the field of second-language teaching/learning. Here are a few highlighted sessions:

Alvino Fantini, “Teaching language as intercultural competence”
Hafsa Nassar, “English language ownership in a multilingual setting”
Elsa Auerbach: “Going global: Where in the world is participatory ESOL?”

You can access each day’s program at Sandanona program. For more information and to attend contact admissions@sit.edu.

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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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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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“Education for Regeneration” – SIT Alumnus Launches School Focused on Environmental and Social Change

By on July 14, 2011 in Alumni Perspectives, SIT Leaders: Faculty, Alumni, Students, Student Voices

Matthew Abrams (PIM 69), an alumnus of SIT’s MA in Intercultural Service, Leadership, and Management degree program, recently founded The Mycelium School, set to break ground outside of Asheville, North Carolina in 2012. The project was recently profiled in The Christian Science Monitor.

The school invites 18-30 year old students to gain an interdisciplinary education based on ecological principles, localization, and social innovation.

Mycelium is the root structure of a mushroom that network with other mycelia to share information and nutrients that support the health of the host ecosystem. The Mycelium School’s educational philosophy is for students to come together and give to their environment and each other, while growing personally and learning skills for the 21st century. The curriculum will be driven by hands-on service-learning projects and a focus on social entrepreneurship.

Initially, Abram expects to have 40 percent international students and by year five, 65 percent.

Abrams asserts that “One of the core tenants of The Mycelium School is that those who are connected to the cultures, challenges and needs of a place are best equipped to become authentic leaders who will discover opportunities and innovate solutions. To foster sustained and regenerative change, we cannot maintain the current co-dependent paradigm of so-called international aid.”

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SIT Alumna Challenges Merits of “Green” Consumption in Forthcoming Book

By on July 1, 2011 in Alumni Perspectives, SIT Leaders: Faculty, Alumni, Students, Student Voices, What's New?

SIT alum Kendra Pierre-Louis (PIM 67) recently finished Green Washed: Why We Can’t Buy Our Way to a Green Planet, scheduled to be released in March 2012 by Ig Publishing. Pierre-Louis is an alumna of SIT’s MA in Sustainable Development program.

Green Washed argues that buying environmentally-friendly products is only one step toward sustainability.

Pierre-Louis writes, “The message that our environment is in peril has filtered from environmental groups to the American consciousness to our shopping carts. Every day, millions of Americans dutifully replace conventional produce with organic, swap Mr. Clean for Seventh Generation, and replace their bottled water with water bottles. Many of us have come to believe that the path to environmental sustainability is paved by shopping green. Although this green consumer movement certainly has many Americans consuming differently, I ask, ‘Is this consumption really any better for the planet?’”

The book examines the greening of our society’s major economic sectors, including infrastructure, consumer goods, food, and energy, to see if they’re ushering in true sustainability or simply assuaging our collective eco-guilt without bringing about the ecological changes that we  need.

Pierre-Louis has worked as a sustainable development editor for Justmeans.com created outreach material for the United Nations Environment Programme’s Convention on Biological Diversity and conducted research for Terrapin Bright Green, an environmental consulting and strategic planning firm.

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Do-Nothing Teaching

By on February 25, 2011 in Student Voices

Learn through experience.  Learn by doing.  Doing teacher research.  Just do it.  What do these phrases* have in common?

They reflect an orientation toward action.  Just look at those verbs and gerunds!  In the US and many other places, being active and taking action have high cultural value.  Why wouldn’t teaching then, the world’s largest profession, reflect the value that being active is important?  In a compelling twist on this belief, SIT alumnus Kevin Giddens poses a challenge to teachers worldwide: do nothing.

Using his experience as a source of learning, Giddens asks teachers to consider their teaching in light of their students’ learning.  After all, why teach if no one’s learning?  What he does in his blog, Do-Nothing Teaching, is to challenge teachers to think more deeply about what they do.  He provides a few insightful and incite-full inspirations and states his dare up front.  He asks teachers to take a particular kind of risk.  He challenges them to do nothing as a way of teaching and then to write about it before June 1, 2011.  He even offers a prize.

Although his challenge begins with a verb denoting action, it finishes with the thing, a noun, that denotes no thing.  The juxtaposition gives his challenge grammatical spice while stirring the cooking pot of creativity and cognition.  Delicious!

In apparent contradiction to his challenging approach, Giddens has been busy.  He earned SIT’s MA in TESOL, is a World Learning-certified Best Practices in TESOL trainer, teaches English language at Sookmyung Women’s University, and is a founder of Korea TESOL’s Reflective Practice Special Interest Group.

 
Kevin Giddens

*  “Learn through experience” and “learn by doing” signal reflective practices and are at the heart of SIT educations.  Reflective teaching is based on theories of learning inspired by the works of John Dewey, David Kolb, David Hawkins, Carol Rogers, and many others.

Freeman, Donald.  Doing Teacher Research: From Inquiry to Understanding.  Pacific Grove:  Heinle and Heinle, 1998.  This book was written while the author was a professor at SIT.

 Just Do It! is a trademark of Nike, Inc.

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