Angela MacMichael, MAGMA Language School Manager
MAGMA’s Language School is looking forward to welcoming back students for the Fall/Winter term! August 16th was our last day of the Spring/Summer term. Teachers held Student Conferences the week of August 19-23rd in which students get to sit down one on one with their teacher and receive action-oriented feedback on their language learning progress. Teachers highlight to students their strengths and areas for improvement. Additionally, teachers review student portfolio binders with their learners and recommend them for advancement to the next level if they have collected the necessary evidence or encourage them to continue with their learning into the new term by collecting more evidence over the coming months. This “evidence” is completion of Canadian Language Benchmark aligned real world tasks/assessments that show their ability to apply the language in a practical way.
Our Student Achievement Ceremony will be held on September 3rd and we can’t wait to congratulate all students for completing the term!
Thank you, Teachers, for all your hard work and dedication to your learners!
New Classes & Spaces
This fall we have 34 classes offered to newcomers to Can- ada (mornings, afternoons and evenings: in-person, blend- ed format or online) from Foundational Literacy to CLB 8. Included is the 4th cohort of our highly successful and in demand Childcare Assistant Training Program as well as the 2nd cohort of our Start Up classes (beginner and intermediate levels) for non-Permanent Resident clients. Additionally, we will continue to offer two levels of informal English Conversation Circles and the Francophone International Student Retention Program. Programs are funded by IRCC and the Government of NB.
Our newly renovated classrooms now located on the 3rd and 4th floors of 22 Church Street allow us to increase our student capacity numbers. In the past, class size was limited to 12-13 students per room; our new space allows for up to 20 students per room.
“Un grand merci à nos enseignants pour leur travail acharné et leur dévoue- ment envers leurs apprenants !
This makes room for us to offer classes to over 500 students from our previous 380 spaces. More space means less wait times for students to access language training to help newcomers achieve their goals. These new classrooms are large, brightly lit with natural light, and welcoming spaces. We also have a new IT Lab with 20 new computer stations for learners to work on computer skills and to work independently on their language learning. Teachers now have more private spaces to conduct language assessments in newly allocated resource rooms and a Teacher Resource Room Library to help them to access books, tools and materials for lesson preparation.
Language Teachers have been working on a team project of writing Teaching Standards. Small working groups have been formed and teachers have been collaborating on creating documents focused on desired teaching standards for each CLB level. Expected completion date is late September. Action plans have also been submitted by teachers that will be used over the new term in their coaching sessions with their PBLA Leads in our teaching practice of Portfolio Based Language Assessment implementation.
