KEYNOTE SPEAKERS 2023
DAVID FAY
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A native Iowan, David Fay joined the State Department in 2003 after nearly two decades as a teacher, teacher trainer, and publisher, working in the United States, Costa Rica, Spain, and Turkey. He is currently the Regional English Language Officer in Mexico City. He has also served in Tashkent, Moscow, Lima, Ankara, and Islamabad. A Fulbright alumnus, he holds an undergraduate degree in Latin American studies and Spanish, and graduate degrees in English language education, U.S. literature, and resource management.
Three Stories of Building Resilience in Learners and Educators through Innovation
How can educators create learning experiences that embrace innovation and build resilience in students? What options do educators have themselves to innovate, especially in the digital sphere? This presentation will explore these questions through several stories and examples that focus on grounding class content in real world contexts so that students can use language to collaboratively create and explore solutions to authentic issues, as well as on equipping educators with the know-how and tools to accomplish this.
CYNTHIA S. WISEMAN
Professor Cynthia S. Wiseman served as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar, Vietnam (2015) at Pham Van Dong University in Quang Ngai, Central Vietnam where she worked with English language teachers in the Department of Foreign Languages.
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Professor Wiseman has taught English as a Second/Foreign Language for more than 40 years, teaching English as a Foreign Language in Senegal, West Africa; Catalao, Brazil; Colima, Mexico; Paris, France; Shilou, Xinzhou & LinXian, Shanxi Province; QingLong and Shizhizhuang, Hebei Province; Chifeng Inner Mongolia; Binhai, Haiuan, and Xinghua, Jiangsu Province; Xinzhou, Wuhan Province; and Huang Ping County, Guizhou Province in China; and English as a Second Language (ESL) in New York, Maryland, Vermont and New Jersey in the United States.
Using trauma-informed pedagogy to create a culture of care to facilitate learning.
The notion of ‘normalcy’ does not inspire hope and optimism but somehow feels dissonant with what we are experiencing. This strong push to return to normal is fostering a sense of unease and discomfort! For teachers, whether they are teaching in a brick-and-mortar classroom or online, an understanding of trauma and its effects on learning are proving to be a powerful tool. This talk will define trauma, describe the effect of trauma on learning, and present suggestions for pedagogical practices informed by trauma to build a culture of care, a context that fosters learning rather than inhibiting it!