Sarah Kathleen Soltesz received her Bachelor of Teaching and her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a minor in Spanish and Dance from the University of Calgary. She has also taken Spanish language courses at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in Spain and at Technológico de Monterrey in México. She is currently working towards her Master of Education and is enrolled in the interdisciplinary topic area of Teaching and Learning Languages for the 2015 - 2016 school year.
She is an elementary Spanish bilingual teacher in an International Spanish Academy (ISA) in southern Alberta. Her previous experience with technology included the use of Edmodo and Blurb with her students to co-author and publish a classroom book two years in a row. The books were based on cross-curricular content from the Alberta Program of Studies for Grades 1 and 2.
She was also involved in a Dual Language research project with Dr. Rahat Naqvi from the University of Calgary from 2012 - 2014 that studied the effects of metalinguistic awareness for the acquisition of L2 and the enhancement of L1. In May of 2014 she accompanied Dr. Naqvi to OISE in Toronto and presented the research at the Celebrating Linguistic Diversity conference in honour of Dr. Jim Cummins. In October of 2014, she was invited to shadow Dr. Naqvi at the University of Calgary and speak to graduate students about the work they had done with the dual language books.
Near the end of the 2013 - 2014 school year, Sarah Kathleen was introduced to the Neurolinguistic Approach (Netten & Germain, 2012) by Lilien Perrera Perez from Global Learn with the Calgary Board of Education, which was based on the French Intensive Model (Netten & Germain, 2004). She presented some of the work she had done with her students at the NLA conference in August 2014.
Lastly, she was accepted to present at the VI Encuentro de Profesores de Español de Alberta in May of 2015, to demonstrate the effectiveness of creating cross-curricular dual language books in order to foster and nurture the biliteracy of bilingual students.
She is an elementary Spanish bilingual teacher in an International Spanish Academy (ISA) in southern Alberta. Her previous experience with technology included the use of Edmodo and Blurb with her students to co-author and publish a classroom book two years in a row. The books were based on cross-curricular content from the Alberta Program of Studies for Grades 1 and 2.
She was also involved in a Dual Language research project with Dr. Rahat Naqvi from the University of Calgary from 2012 - 2014 that studied the effects of metalinguistic awareness for the acquisition of L2 and the enhancement of L1. In May of 2014 she accompanied Dr. Naqvi to OISE in Toronto and presented the research at the Celebrating Linguistic Diversity conference in honour of Dr. Jim Cummins. In October of 2014, she was invited to shadow Dr. Naqvi at the University of Calgary and speak to graduate students about the work they had done with the dual language books.
Near the end of the 2013 - 2014 school year, Sarah Kathleen was introduced to the Neurolinguistic Approach (Netten & Germain, 2012) by Lilien Perrera Perez from Global Learn with the Calgary Board of Education, which was based on the French Intensive Model (Netten & Germain, 2004). She presented some of the work she had done with her students at the NLA conference in August 2014.
Lastly, she was accepted to present at the VI Encuentro de Profesores de Español de Alberta in May of 2015, to demonstrate the effectiveness of creating cross-curricular dual language books in order to foster and nurture the biliteracy of bilingual students.
Mar Lara Padrisa received her Teaching English as Foreign Language (TEFL) degree from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and has been teaching since 1998. In her endeavour as a life long learner, she has continued her studies of TEFL methodologies at the University of Edinburgh and Trinity College in Dublin.
Within the context as a primary teacher in a trilingual program (Catalan, Spanish and English), she has included Information and Communication technologies (ICT), Applied Science Technology (ACT) and Mobil Learning (mLearning) in her pedagogical practice in order to teach content.
She currently uses Moodle, an online platform for communication, pooling resources, and building classroom community. After her course this summer in mLearning development, she will introduce the use of mobile technology, specifically the use of apps, to facilitate her students’ learning.
Within the context as a primary teacher in a trilingual program (Catalan, Spanish and English), she has included Information and Communication technologies (ICT), Applied Science Technology (ACT) and Mobil Learning (mLearning) in her pedagogical practice in order to teach content.
She currently uses Moodle, an online platform for communication, pooling resources, and building classroom community. After her course this summer in mLearning development, she will introduce the use of mobile technology, specifically the use of apps, to facilitate her students’ learning.