Ellen Ericson

2020 Teacher of the Year, Illinois Council of Teacher of Foreign Languages

Ellen Ericson earned her BA in the Teaching of Spanish and her MA in Educational Policy Studies, both from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. She has 24 years of experience teaching Spanish in both public and private schools in central Illinois. She currently teaches at Mahomet-Seymour High School in Mahomet, IL. She writes educational materials for Fluency Matters and presents at state and regional conferences. She is the incoming president of the Illinois Council of Teachers of Foreign languages. Ellen’s sessions were named as “Best of Illinois” in 2014 and 2019 and “Best of Central States” in 2016. She is the recipient of an ICTFL Distinguished Service Award for Exemplary Teaching and was recently named as the ICTFL 2020 Teacher of the Year. Ellen is passionate about incorporating best practices into her classroom while pushing her students to continue their path to proficiency and to be life-long language learners.

Maximizing Move and Picture Talks

Teaching in the target language is vital for the success of your students. Context-embedded lessons are vital to move students along their path to proficiency. How can you maximize your use of the target language in a fun, compelling, and engaging way that allows for best practices and aligns with research? Try a movie or picture talk! Do you have a great video or set of images but aren't sure how to maximize them? Come learn how to boost your resources by incorporating all 3 modes of communication, 90% target language use AND make the most out of every moment in your class period. We will discuss pre, during and post video activities, and learn how to get your students running back to class the next day!

This presentation will be available for on-demand viewing on December 2nd during Global CRED. Register for Global CRED below, it’s quick easy and free!