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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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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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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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SIT Welcomes Health Professionals from Equatorial Guinea

By on January 21, 2011 in Uncategorized, What's New?

SIT welcomed a group of health professionals from Equatorial Guinea’s Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to the January language programs.

The eight students were selected to participate in an intensive nine-month specialized training program in malariology, and in the technical support services required to implement an effective malaria-control program. Their project, located on the Island of Bioko in Equatorial Guinea, has reduced the prevalence of malarial infection among children under age five by 60 percent, and reduced all causes of mortality for children under age five by 65 percent in its first five years.

Before coming to SIT, the group spent four months in Mexico at the National Institute of Public Health. They will return to Latin America to participate in a hands-on malaria-prevention practice at the end of January. 

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