Banfi Days in Davis

The Stanford Alumni Association organised a talk on Wednesday 27th with keynote speakers from the Graduate School of Education, including its Dean, Dan Schwartz, and two of its star faculty, Guadalupe Valdes y Mike Kirst, experts in language teaching and educatinal policy respectively.      The venue certainly set the scene for a wonderful event that was populated by Stanford alumni from different disciplines.       The talks were very interesting indeed, with each presenter sharing their experience in a relaxed yet deep atmosphere.     It is truly encouraging to see organisations wholly devoted to thinking about the future of education, and education for all. Here are some of the slides of the presentation that preceded the interesting discussion:             It was a special treat to meet Guadalupe in person. I remember reading her work when we were working on th...

On Facebook I shared a few photos of some of the talks I gave both at UC Davis, at other universities and at various conferences, but I didn't think that was the place to share my perceptions of the experience. So here go some observations. There is a mix of levels of formality and informality that contrasts to what I have experienced in other places. On the one hand, there is formality in the punctuality when people come together for these events and how they come to be silent without been told to do so. Introductions have a level of formality but are not stuffy and detached. The style of interaction also presents quite a few differences. People are much more cautious when taking turns or asking questions, there is practically no overlap of voice and there is widespread use of hedging and clarification to ensure there is no offense. Students are politely interested in what I tell them, although I can't be sure that they can fully understand the content of the presentat...

I've been very fortunate to be in a position to vsit schools and have a glimpse of what goes on there. It was a central part of my research project since I wanted to get to know (up close and personal) how innovative projects with languages actually work, but we all know how protective principals and teachers can be of the work they do. It was of great help to have colleagues in the School of Education with existing strong links with schools and with the generosity to spend their time organising these visits for me (thanks are due in this sense to Leslie, Nadeen and Margarita!). The first school I visited was the Language Academy of Sacramento where we were welcomed by Lalo, its over all Principal. He spent the afternoon with us and generously answered all my questions and more! LAS is a charter school that was created when the bilingual strand of the school were they were did not prove to be the best fit to serve the community of children and families who wanted a truly bilingu...