Roundtable.
Discussion questions:
1. How do you see the increasing use of media and more imaginative technology in the classroom such as Hybrid, Online, and MOOCs, affecting the way we as instructors teach, assess students and provide them with feedback?
2. While there often exist challenges when an instructor first adopts new technology or creative resources, how do you personally see this benefitting students? Do the benefits extend to the instructor as well?
3. When we are held to a syllabus or state tests and guidelines, how do we as instructors find the time for creativity in our classroom?
4. How should we react when a well-planned creative lesson falls flat? What is there to take away from this disappointing experience?
Attendees will have the opportunity to pose their own questions at the end of the roundtable.
The panel:
Dr. Chesla Bohinski (Binghamton University), Assistant Professor in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
Professor Chesla Ann Bohinski received her Bachelor’s degree from Marywood University (Scranton, PA), her Master’s degree from Millersville University (Millersville, PA), and her Ph.D. from Temple University (Philadelphia, PA). Her areas of specialty include second language acquisition and applied linguistics. More specifically, she has interest in L2 vocabulary acquisition and technology integration in the L2 classroom. Professor Bohinski is the supervisor of Binghamton University's Department of Romance Languages and Literatures lower-level language program and is also the program coordinator of the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) in French and Spanish Adolescence Education.
Dr. Erin Kearney (University at Buffalo), Assistant Professor in the Department of Learning and Instruction
Dr. Erin Kearney is an Assistant Professor of Foreign and Second Language Education in the Department of Learning and Instruction in UB's Graduate School of Education. She works with pre-service and in-service foreign language teachers there as well as doctoral students who seek to become applied linguistics researchers. Dr. Kearney's research is focused on closely analyzing classroom discourse and interaction in L2 classrooms and the ways these support or hinder various language learning processes and development of cultural and intercultural competence. She has done this classroom-based research in pre-school classrooms, K-12 environments and at the university level. She also researches L2 teacher education in order to better understand how language teachers come to do their work and how they grow and evolve over time. All of Dr. Kearney's efforts are intent on improving foreign language education in the U.S. from the very beginning stages and across the entire lifespan.
Dijana Savija, M.A. (University at Buffalo), Teaching Assistant and Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Romance Languages & Literatures
Dijana Savija is a graduate student in the Romance Languages and Literatures Department at University at Buffalo. Her main research interests are Latin American 20th century literature, fantastic literature, and narratology. She is currently preparing for her preliminary exam on spatial restrictions in 20th century Argentinian novels where the escape from these spaces is created mainly by rihzomatic narratives. Also, she is a president of Spanish Learners Club where she organizes Spanish conversation table, Spanish movie and game nights for those who like to work on improving or just maintaining their Spanish language.
James Lyons (Lancaster High School) Foreign Language Teacher
James Lyons has a Bachelor's degree from Buffalo State in Spanish Secondary Education and an MA from University at Buffalo in Spanish. He lived and worked in Panama from 1990-93 where he was an English teacher for the last two years. When he returned to Buffalo he worked at the English Language Institute at UB as an English instructor and at Niagara County Community College as a Spanish instructor. Mr. Lyons has been a Spanish teacher at Lancaster High School for 20 years. In 2006 he was granted a Fulbright award for the Teacher Exchange Program and taught for the 2006-07 school year in Corrientes, Argentina. He is an American Translators Association-certified Spanish to English translator and a New York State-certifiied courtroom interpreter.
After the panel:
Learning groups will follow the roundtable discussion. Groups of attendees will discuss strategies and ideas that they have implemented in their own classroom. Don't miss this opportunity to share and learn from fellow educators!