spanish-american institute

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Faculty Meeting and Workshop Minutes

Date: May 18, 2013

Time: 10 am to 1:00 pm

Faculty and Staff Present:

Last	First	Last	First
Agarkova	Anna	Machado	Maria A.
Andryushchenko	Galyna	Manliclic	Erlinda
Arbai	Jenny	Marcus	Melvin
Azoidou	Evdokia	Marzhokhova	Madina
Bobrysheva	Tetiana	Matiychyk	Zoryana
Brazhnikova	Olesya	Panganiban	Nori
Bush	F. Ann	Ramos	Emiliano C
Compaore	Dressa	Rodriguez	E. Karina
Castillo-Eligio	Eligio	Ruck (Dolina)	Loreen
Davis	Caryn	Schiffman	Paul
Deb	Malabi	Schwenke	Thomas S.
Diaz-Gladys	Gladys	Sergeeva	Svetlana
Dimitrova	Iliyana	Shcheglova	Svetlana
Dolina	Leonila	Tagnan	Benjamin
Engulatova	Dilyara	TULDANES	Alumna U.
Ergashev	Anvar	Ulmasov	Sukhrob
Ferraro	Dante	Vedernikova	Svetlana
Gogin	Ilya	Zatulovski	Irina
Grajo	Libertad
Kiryeyeva	Yana
Klavtsen	Lyudmila

Minutes – Topics Discussed

General Housekeeping: Reviewed the following items –

• Introduction of new faculty and staff: Malabi Deb and Ana Arnakova
• In order to prepare for the Institute’s eventual move to their new location this year, faculty and staff need to begin to clean out their lockers and desks
• The Institute’s new location may be at 64 West 35 Street (near Sixth Avenue).
• The school will be housed on three floors with its own entrance and elevator with facilities and layout similar to its current location including a special events center, faculty kitchen, classrooms, and office space.

CEA Standards Reviewed and Compliance Activities:

• Student Orientation and Testing: Faculty will focus on Ongoing new-student and current student Orientation during Monday and Tuesday of each starting week (new students are admitted to existing classes on the second Monday of each month). Faculty refer to their printed and online copies of the Institute's Guide to Ongoing Student-Orientation Procedures (http://www.sai2000.org/Handbooks/OrientationTOC.html) for orientation guidance. During Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of each starting week, teachers will refer new students to the Testing and Assessment center for NorthStar MyLab pre-tests.
• Program Development, Planning and Review Standard 1: Six new committees have been set up and are scheduled to meet in June and July. Committees will use elements of the TESOL Self-Review Instrument when conduction the program development, planning and review process.

· Faculty Standard 2/Program Development, Planning and Review Standard 1: New on-line surveys for faculty meetings were made available. Faculty and staff used these surveys for the February and May faculty meetings. These surveys are an important part of reviewing the needs of the faculty and staff for the overall success of the program, as well as ensuring the program provides in-house professional development activities appropriate to their teaching assignments.

· Faculty Standard 3: Current faculty and staff are using the TOEIC pronunciation module, as well as the TOEIC Examinee Handbook, which was distributed to staff, as well as posted on the SAI website, to continue to prepare for the TOEIC speaking test. In May, faculty and staff started taking the test, and others will be scheduled for June. New and prospective teaching staff will begin taking the TOEIC test from June 2013 as well.

· Student Achievement 4: Students will continue to take both a pre and post exam at each ESL level in order to document the grade changes at the beginning and end of each level. This data will be an additional criteria used to analyze student achievement. In addition, all students pre and post tests will be reviewed at session reenrollment points. These are meaningful assessments for the students, faculty and staff, and emphasis on the collegial and cooperative nature of this endeavor needs to be communicated in print and in person.

Faculty Standard 2: Teacher Exchange

• Three faculty members (Erlinda Manliclic, Ilya Gogin and Sukhrob Ulmasov) attended the NY State TESOL Mini Conference at Hunter College in April. They found this to be an excellent networking opportunity, and benefited from publisher’s materials and handouts. They each provided excellent reports on the workshops they attended:
• Critical thinking and ways to help students develop critical thinking in the classroom
• Essay writing and the CUNY Language Immersion Program’s approach that employs peer reviews and numerous revisions
• Using Eportfolios, such as mahara.com, which can be shared, is a way to incorporate formative assessment in the classroom and as a tool for new and experienced teachers to keep track of their growth and development.

Student Achievement Standard 2: Developing and Using Speaking and Writing Assessments and Rubrics: Dean Davis and Professor Christina Cavage

• Faculty and staff worked together in small groups. They used Institute students’ speaking and writing samples from a variety of levels to develop assessments and rubrics, as well as activities, based on the proficiency descriptors and outcomes for each level.
• These assessments and rubrics will be implemented on a bimonthly basis, and scores will be documented to determine whether or not the assessments and rubrics are appropriately assessing student achievement.

At 1:00 pm the meeting was adjourned to a luncheon "Idea Exchange" gathering at Killari Greek Taverna where informal discussions of the day’s topics continued until dusk.