PAL program begins

Students have returned to UNT’s campus, which means it’s time for me to return to our blog. I was busy last week running orientation and helping new students getting settled in Denton. We took 30 new students shopping at Walmart and also went to a UNT basketball game for fun one night. The men and [...]

IELI STAR Fall 2010

The new IELI Star magazine is out! You can read it here. Thanks to all of the students and teachers who contributed to the magazine. It turned out great! Check out the last page to read some stories about successful IELI alumni. If you graduated from IELI and would like to share your story, you [...]

Congratulations Fall 2010 graduates!

Congratulations to our 33 Fall 2 graduates! The graduation ceremony was on Friday. We heard great music from some of our students, as well as speeches from a Level 6 IELI graduate and a graduate of IELI’s unique Graduate Preparation Course. Here’s the speech given by Mohammed Al-Sadah, the Level 6 graduate. He did a [...]

Conversation Partners

IELI students can participate in the Conversation Partner Program to help them get speaking practice outside of class and make an American friend. We had a big party on Monday this week to start off the Conversation Partner Program for the semester. The UNT student newspaper, The North Texas Daily, came to our party and [...]

Conversation Hour

This summer, we started a new program at IELI called Conversation Hour. I wanted to give students an opportunity for extra speaking practice during the summer when we do not have our conversation partner program. Conversation Hour meets on Fridays from 12 – 1 p.m. in our building. I recruit American volunteers to come each [...]

Spring 2 Wrap-Up

Take a look at some of the fun things that took place in IELI this term: At the ranch, students and teachers relaxed, played volleyball, basketball, and soccer, flew kites, went on tractor rides, played field games, went through a giant maze (see below), and had a great lunch. It was a perfect day to [...]

IELI Happenings

It’s Week 1 in the IELI term, and we are busy, busy, busy.  This Sunday, I am taking students to hear the Dallas Symphony Orchestra play at the Meyerson in downtown Dallas. I always love going to the Meyerson, and now it is even more fun to go downtown. Dallas recently celebrated the completion of [...]

The IELI Star

This semester’s IELI Star magazine is now up on the IELI website. The Star features some of our students’ writing from the Fall 1 and Fall 2 terms. Some students wrote articles on their own for the Star, and some teachers essays and poems that their students had written in class. Either way, I always look [...]

Conversation Partners

Last week, IELI launched its Conversation Partners Program for Fall 2009. This semester, I have 74 volunteers and 170 students participating in the program. That’s the most volunteers I have ever had at the beginning of a term! More and more people are finding out about IELI and want to get involved with the program, which is [...]

IELI Stats

Hello readers! I thought some of you might be interested in this information. This term in IELI, we have 366 students enrolled in classes. This includes 130 new students. Here’s the break down of our students by country: China – 144 Saudi Arabia – 55 Korea – 52 Taiwan – 42 Japan – 25 Libya [...]