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The transition to our new website has finally finished and the 2016 ITBE Convention proposal system has finally been opened.

In the last issue of the Link, we surveyed ITBE members about their favorite go-to vocabulary activities. Here are some of the best suggestions.

D. Scott Enright TESOL Interest Section Service Award - See more on TESOL's website.

Heather Torrie

In managing life as busy ESL teachers, it is often difficult to prioritize with so many tasks on our to-do lists. This article discusses Covey’s “Important-Urgent” time management matrix and how it can be beneficial to teachers, helping us to achieve balance and professional growth.

Debbie Sternecky

This past April I was a member of a bias and sensitivity review panel for the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), in Denver for three days. The purpose of the panel was to review draft PARCC test questions for possible bias and insensitivity. The group consisted primarily of K-12 educators and higher education administrators, as well as a few teachers from all across the United States.

Joe Voigts

While teaching composition to international students at DePaul University this past year, I fell into a ritual that I would like to share, a way of making habitual the aim of every rhetoric course (or language course), a novel path to "joining the conversation" (Graff, 2015). Every class, I write a quotation at the top of the board. Even though my long arms create a minor spectacle, the students may not notice the first time, when I invoke Sinclair Lewis: "Writing is just work—there's no secret. If you dictate or use a pen or type or write with your toes—it's still just work" (as quoted in Lindemann, 2001, p. 10).

Thomas Hansen

In this book, Danielson presents a clear framework for evaluating and monitoring the work of classroom teachers, including four domains of emphasis for teaching in K-12 classrooms.  The author makes many suggestions, and many states and school districts have embraced her recommendations.  In some cases this is statewide by learning area; in other cases this has to do more with certain buildings or regions of a state.

Jennifer Rockafellow

Each academic year, Fulbright offers English teaching assistantships to recent college graduates, young professionals, and graduate students who wish to engage in language and cultural exchange with English language learners abroad.