Nova Scotia Community College is currently looking to develop an app to support international students who are or who wish to study there. The idea is that students are all using smartphones and so it would make sense to provide students with all the information they are looking for (information on study permits, tuition, and health insurance, for example) through the streamlined source of a single app.
Read more in The Chronicle Herald.
This is a survey that any professional in our field should be interested to hear about.
ELS Educational Services recently surveyed 662 international students at 26 American colleges and universities to ask them what they would like their professors to do differently. Here are some of the results:
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Read more in Inside Higher Education.
An interesting new study has come out of the University of British Columbia and argues that International students’ concept of what and where home is shapes their personal plans for where they settle after their studies. “Our study shows that migration plans for international students are far more complex than this binary of stay or return,” said study author Cry Wu.
TESOL approacheth again! We are super excited that it will be in Seattle this year, just down the road from the Pike Place Market. Hello tasty seafood! Of course, we are looking forward to the conference as well.
This year we are taking an exciting (to us at least) new (to everyone) approach to our booth. We will also be giving out free copies of our new game, Jetstream and Turbulence, so be sure to check us out. We also hope you will join us for one or both of our workshops (if you respond to bribery, let us tell you that you will get a free book if you come).
Title: Take your students to TASK: the Key to Success!
Date: Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Time: 11:30 AM – 12:15 PM
Location: 615
In this session we will examine how carefully designed activities in The Transferable Academic Skills Kit give students the skills that they lack but sorely need – such as critical thinking, presenting, researching and referencing – to succeed not only in their post-secondary studies but in their future careers as well.
Title: Students and Learning: the Whole Experience
Date: Friday, March 24, 2017
Time: 9:30 AM – 10:15 AM
Location: 614
Do you think your students would be better off if they were fully engaged in class, learned really useful and natural language, gained cultural awareness and became more fluent speakers? Find out why it is not as tall an order as it sounds: join us in exploring Jetstream.
We are celebrating our 15th anniversary this year and we asked for love notes from you to celebrate (and make us feel loved). The prize goes to Darryl Press, a Toronto-area teacher and long time customer, who wrote us a poem! Darryl experience of us is definitely more on a personal and retail level rather than through our North American distribution work, but the sentiment is lovely and heartwarming. Thanks, Darryl!
Amo,Amas,Amat,Amamus,Amatis,Amant!
Too verbose ,that would be wrong.
I remember a smallish shop-
At the back,a couch,a chaise longue?
Nicole presiding,friendly,informative,to the point,
Crikey,she has everything down pat in this joint.
Fast forward,where?
To a great new shop,on St. Clair.
A Pharos to teacher and student alike,
Visiting it is worth the hike.
So,Nicole,truth to tell,
You (et al) have done incredibly well.
Immigration officials are reporting that the number of “mature adults” applying ot come to Canada as international students is rising dramatically. Most of these students are coming with spouses and children as well. This phenomenon can presumably be explained by the recent changes in Canada’s immigration policies which fast-track immigration for people who come to study in Canada.
Read more in the Vancouver Sun.
You may have heard about this one already. In fact, no doubt you have, so here is just a small collection of articles that have been written about the academic community’s reactions:
Professors Fast to Protest Trump Ban
Amid Violence, Yiannopoulos Speech at Berkeley Canceled
Yesterday, Merriam-Webster announced that they just added 1000 words to their online dictionary. WHAT?!?!? Suddenly we find ourselves wondering what should be in a dictionary, because no doubt there is plenty of slang included as part of the additions. But is a word still slang once it makes it into a dictionary? This could be a very interesting discussion, but it is February and we hardly have the energy for it.
We will stick to the facts. Here are some of the words that have been added: Seussian, conlang, face-palm, binge-watch, photobomb, humblebrag and EpiPen. Just writing them down, the objections start coming to mind.
Anyway, read more for yourself.
ITBE’s 43rd annual conference, “Meeting the Challenge”, if quickly approaching. Senior ESL Specialist for Illinois Ellen Zlotnick will be exhibiting and also presenting on the highlights of our current catalog. If you are attending, we hope you will stop by our booth to say hello to Ellen and, if you are the awesome person we think you are, attend her workshop.
This one is a first for us. The University of South Carolina runs the National Resource Center for First Year Experience and Students in Transition. The Annual First Year Experience Conference “provides an ongoing forum where higher education professionals can share experiences, concerns, and accomplishments related to supporting student learning, development, and success in the first college year.”
We are excited to be attending and exhibiting this year, to learn and to spread the word about the Transferable Academic Skills Kit.
