The American Organization of Teachers of Portuguese (www.aotpsite.org) is pleased to announce the panel of education as part of the sixth annual edition of the Focus Brazil Congress (www.focusbrazil.com). With the theme "The Use of Technology in Foreign Language Teaching: Tools and Strategies", the panel will have as special guests Susanna Florissi - Director of SBS in Brazil, Michael Ferreira - Professor at Georgetown University, and Leila da Costa - Professor at the University of Miami. The event will be held on April 14th from 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm , at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW Fifth Avenue - Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Teachers of elementary and high school, professors, university students, and all those interested in teaching and learning Portuguese are invited to attend the AOTP panel, which has support from the Boca Raton Rotary Club (http://rotaryclubbocaraton.com), the Brazilian Business Group (www.brazilianbusinessgroup.com) Educa Brazil Publishing (www.educabrazil.com) and Plus Media Marketing (www.pmmsite.com). Immediately after the panel, highly regarded and world-renowned Brazilian writer Luis Fernando Verissimo will take the stage.
About Susanna Florissi
Susana is the International Director of SBS - Special Book Services and HUB Publishing, owner of the Torre de Babel Idiomas, partner at Galpão Publishing, and a graduate from the Catholic University of Pernambuco. Susanna has a postgraduate degree in Literary Theory through PUC Campinas with advanced courses for executives in the editorial market, MBA FIA. She is the Director of the Brazilian Book Chamber Library and is part of the Jabuti Award’s organizing committee, as well as the digital book committee for the Brazilian Book Chamber. She is author of print and digital instructional materials and co-author of best selling titles for teaching Portuguese as a foreign language such as "Bem-Vindo! A Língua Portuguesa no Mundo da Comunicação. Presently, she lives in Brazil.
About Leila da Costa
Leila da Costa, born in Sao Paulo, has an MA in Linguistics from the University of Michigan and is currently affiliated with the University of Miami, in Florida. Her research fields include linguistics, language teaching, literature and culture of Brazil. This year, Leila is responsible for teaching Portuguese for Hispanic speakers and a cultural module in the "African Faces of Brazil congress" in Middlebury.
About Michael Ferreira, Ph.D.
Born in Manhattan, NY, and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Michael J. Ferreira received his doctoral degree in Hispanic Philology and Linguistics (2001) and his M.A. in Luso-Brazilian Literature (1994) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Recognized for his teaching by several institutions, Dr. Ferreira received the 2010 Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching and was voted three years in a row by the classes of 2009, 2010, and 2011 to be honored by the College Academic Council at Georgetown University. His main areas of expertise are Lexicography, Philology, and Portuguese as a Foreign Language. He is the Co-author of 501 Portuguese Verbs (Hauppauge, N.Y.: Barron's Educational Series, Inc., 2005), director of the Dictionary of the Old Portuguese Language Project, and is currently working on several projects which involve the use of technology in the foreign language classroom.
About Focus Brazil
The sixth edition of FOCUS BRAZIL - International Congress for Culture, Media & Brazilian community is marked by important debates on current topics of interest to more than 3 million Brazilians who live abroad. Focus Brazil is a free event, with simultaneous broadcast in English and Portuguese, open to professionals, students and the general public interested in Brazilian issues abroad. More than 700 participants and 80 media representatives from nine countries attended the event in 2010 and it is expected that it will be an even bigger event in 2011. For more information, visit www.focusbrazil.com or register by e-mail, info@aotpsite.org.