Inaugural Conference 2019
July 12-14, 2019 Sevilla, Spain
PRESENTERS
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Amanda Seewald, M.Ed.
Amanda Seewald, M.Ed., instructional coach and expert in multilingual curriculum and instruction, is the Author and Director of MARACAS Language Programs / Learning Kaleidoscope Educational Consulting.
During her 20 years in education, Amanda has taught all age groups, developed and published curriculum materials and music, and worked as a teacher coach and consultant to provide professional development to educators across the United States. She is a regular presenter at national, regional, and state conferences. Amanda is the former President of the Foreign Language Educators of New Jersey and serves on the executive board of the Joint National Committee for Language. Amanda spends much time advocating for language programs and policy with legislators. She speaks Spanish, French, and Japanese. It is Amanda’s hope that through engaging and dynamic programming, more language programs for young children will grow. María Martínez, Master in Bilingual Education.
María Martínez, Master in Bilingual Education, is the Project Manager of MARACAS Learning Kaleidoscope Educational Consulting initiative in Spain.
She has worked in language immersion and CLIL programs, both in English and Spanish, over the last 10 years. Her expertise in immersion instruction, curriculum development, and evaluation has made great impacts on the dual immersion program in Delaware where she taught for three years. María was part of the Building Leadership Team and was selected by the Department of Education as member of the ‘Delaware Dream Team of Educators’ for curriculum planning and materials design. She also presented at the International Conference about Language Immersion programs in Utah. She currently teaches in a CLIL program in Navarre. It is her hope that all teachers can get effective training to improve language teaching and learning methods and techniques. Rafael Vélez, Master & ABD in Applied Language
Rafael Velez is the current director of Spain Prep Academic Programs. For over 20 years, he taught Spanish and ESL in Seville, Spain, New Jersey and New York City, USA.
He participated in the development of the World Language curriculum for the Paterson school district (New Jersey) and for the Hewitt School (New York). As a Google-certified educator, he has led professional development sessions on the use of technology in the Language Classroom within his department at Hewitt, and he has presented in various conferences both in the US and in Spain on the topics of Blended Learning, TPRS and Comprehensible Input. He organizes Professional Development programs in Spain for American teachers and study trips abroad for high school students. Hugo Fernández
My name is Hugo Fernandez and I am an Early Childhood and Elementary Education teacher. I was born in Vigo, a big city in the south of Galicia (Spain) but, I grew up in Ferrol, in the north of Galicia. I studied my bachelor’s degree in the University of Santiago de Compostela and I also have two years of undergraduate study in Psychology. I have been teaching since 2006 when I started working at Colexio San Rosendo in Ferrol. After some great years at this school I felt like a needed new challenges and I decided to apply for a position at a school in the United States. I worked for three years at Pulaski Elementary School in Wilmington, Delaware. That’s where I had my first experience in Spanish Immersion and where I met the wonderful Amanda Seewald who has taught me everything I know about language learning. After a couple of years back in Spain teaching languages I am back in the US teaching Spanish Immersion at Barbieri Elementary School in Framingham, Massachusetts. Teaching is my job and my passion. I was very lucky to be born in a place where we speak two languages, Spanish and Galician. Being bilingual was a great gift as a child and as a learner I am thankful to have learned a new language, English, that has helped me follow new adventures and exciting paths in my professional life. I strongly support the new language learning and hope to see it grow in the future.
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THIS CONFERENCE IS A COLLABORATION BETWEEN:
