Congratulations to September’s NJTESOL/NJBE Member of the Month,
Karen Demarest

Karen Demarest teaches in the Roxbury School District. She has watched the program change, evolve and improve throughout her 33 years of teaching. She advocates for her students and their families while supporting her district. Karen is an integral part of the Roxbury School District’s ESL program. She is passionate about what she does and has been actively involved in the Morris/Sussex NJTESOL/NJBE Chapter since it restarted a few years ago.

In her own words, she states “I am honored to be the NJTESOL/NJBE member of the month. As I begin my 33rd year of teaching in Roxbury, I look forward to another year of teaching English to some of our youngest MLs and getting to know each of their families along the way. I am very fortunate to work with a great group of colleagues in Roxbury and to have the support of NJTESOL/NJBE.”

Thank you Karen for all that you do!

Nominate the member of the month!

NJTESOL/NJBE has so many amazing teachers throughout our state that it would be fitting to highlight some of them. Nominees could be colleagues who are available to answer questions about ELLs or the Bilingual Education code; educators who support students and their families beyond the classroom with projects, college applications, and extracurricular activities; someone who joins committees in support of ELLS or to implement positive change for the community. The nominee must be a member of NJTESOL/NJBE. Nomination Link

2024 Spring Conference Silver Sponsor

Announcements

We are so excited to share our FIRST Morris/Sussex Chapter meeting for 2024-2025! It will be on Thursday, September 12th from 4:30-6:30. The topic will be: How to use student ACCESS/MODEL/WIDA screener scores to plan and set goals with students for the beginning of the year.

In response to the survey we sent out, this first meeting will be virtual. Please mark your calendars and sign up here.

If you have any questions, please let either me or Kathryn Tepedino morris-sussex-1@njtesol-njbe.org (the leader of the Morris/Sussex Chapter) know.

Michelle Land past-president@njtesol-njbe.org
NJTESOL/NJBE Past President and Scholarship Chair
TESOL International Incoming Social Responsibility Co-Chair

Lesson Plans from Dave’s ESL Cafe

Here are a few of the multiple, immediately usable lesson ideas on Dave’s ESL Cafe.

The Math: ESOL Strategy Sheet by Dawne Golden
Golden provides a list of 25 ways to help MLs solve word problems. Here are some of the first options from her list:

M1. I taught vocabulary using realia and or demonstration.
M2. I related math problems and vocabulary to prior knowledge and background.
M3. I taught concrete first then abstract.
M4. I applied problems to real life situations.
M5. I used manipulatives to introduce, develop and practice concepts.
M6. I used drawings for word problems.
M7. I encouraged students to think aloud when solving word problems.
M8. I had students give oral explanations of their thinking.

Writing: Anatomical Aliens by Anne
Anne describes each of six steps in this lesson plan for beginners. She begins with video clips of aliens from Star Wars. Each student describes one of the aliens. Then they are given six other pictures of aliens to describe to their partners who must guess which one they chose. After that, they draw their own aliens and write a description that includes a name and telling whether it is friendly or not.

Speaking: A Cup Of Conversation by Tracy
Tracy prepares questions on slips of paper that she puts in a coffee cup. At the beginning of class, each student takes one and then looks for a partner to talk to for about five minutes. As the semester progresses, students learn about their classmates’ experiences and cultures. She makes up her own questions and gets more from The Internet TESL Journal. http://iteslj.org/questions/

Speaking: $64,000 pyramid by Alex Neff
Neff follows the format of the game show. Students are divided into two teams. One student on each team gets a piece of paper with seven words based on a theme. In a two-minute time limit, the student with the list of words describes each one so that their teammates can guess what the words are. A point is given for each correct answer. Then the other team takes its turn.

You can find more ideas here.

Science of Reading Podcast 1: Language is Always an Asset
and
Science of Reading Podcast 2: Nurturing Multilingualism

Congratulations to September’s NJTESOL/NJBE Member of the Month, Karen Demarest

Announcements

Lesson Plans from Dave’s ESL Cafe

ARTICLES: SUMMER 2024

Congratulations to September’s NJTESOL/NJBE Member of the Month,
Karen Demarest