Polyglot Press
Messages for the World Language Teacher
Holiday Season 2011 – New Year Season 2012
圣诞快乐 新年快乐 - shèngdàn kuàilè xīnnián kuàilè
Fröhliche Weihnachten und alles Gute zum neuen Jahr!
Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año nuevo
Bravo
· Welcome to Amanda Kimbrough-Mancilla who has joined the staff at CATA teaching Spanish 1, 2 and 3. Amanda is a PWHS grad having studied Spanish with Deb Coats Bledsoe, not in the UCPS Communication Department. Welcome to Paul Cummings who joins Union County Early College teaching Spanish 1 and 2, preparing students for college Spanish at South Piedmont Community College. Paul did his student teaching at SVHS with Charlotte Hancock.
· Congrats to Jennifer Edenfield who is an advisor with the international club at Parkwood High. Parkwood High is establishing a sister-school in Nicaragua. They are collecting school supplies to send. Mrs. Edenfield’s Spanish 2 classes just completed a project that reached out to help a local preschool in Monroe, Emmanuel Childcare Center. This facility is currently under the process of getting state certified “stars”, w
· hich requires accommodations for Spanish-speaking children attending the preschool. All students in Mrs. Edenfield’s classes made Spanish labels for items that are located in the preschool classrooms. Each student chose an age group and researched what that age group would have in its classroom and created a list of those materials. The students then typed up the labels in Spanish with pictures and printed them out for the pre-schools to post. This activity allowed the students to use their knowledge to reach out to the community.
· The Senior class motto at Forest Hills High comes from a quote from Confucius, “Wherever you go, go with all your heart.”
· Jessica Garner shared Livebinder’s as a free online organizational tool that could be used for classes, student portfolios, school resources, etc. Livebinder is the organizational tool all UCPS schools are using to submit their entries for globalization activities and accomplishment. Jessica shared this tool on the recent DPI webinar for world languages. A past UCPS Spanish teacher and NC Teacher of the Year, Jessica now works with Race to the Top as a regional rep.
The Polyglot Press aims to inform the UCPS World Language teachers and keep them abreast of valuable links, news, professional developments, accomplishment, etc. This information is housed on www.polyglotpress.blogspot.com Feel free to access it there in the future. You can also add comments. No personal news or names will be included in the blog version.
Professional Development
· January 12, 2012 7:00 – 8:00 DPI World Languages Webinar with Ann Marie Gunther To register for the January 12, 2012, DPI Update webinar* from 7:00-8:00 p.m. go to https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/488042064 and complete the form. Like all of our webinars, the virtual space will open 30 minutes before the start of the webinar, or at 6:30 p.m., to accommodate early birds and those checking set-up.
· DPI Webinars * All are welcome at any webinar, regardless of the primary audience listed. Participation in the live broadcasts is documented, and a certificate noting accumulated contact hours for license renewal purposes will be issued at the end of the 2011-2012 school year. The archived webinars and materials can be used as PD resources locally, with contact hours documented by the district or school. For more information about all of the 2011-2012 World Language webinars, go to the wiki page at http://wlnces.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/2011-2012+Webinars .
· LARC has some wonderful online one hour free webinars. In 2012 there some on assessment.
· LARC (Language Acquisition Research Center) is one of the national Language Resource Centers. It is located in San Diego State University.
DPI Updates: World Languages New Essential Standards
The webinar materials from the December 8th and December 9th broadcasts have been posted on the WLES Wiki page dedicated to webinars (http://wlnces.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/2011-2012+Webinars) and are available for use. Note: Participation in the live broadcasts is documented, and a certificate noting accumulated contact hours for license renewal purposes will be issued at the end of the 2011-2012 school year. The archived webinars and materials can be used as PD resources locally, with contact hours documented by the district or school.
ACTFL Updates
· In Pennsylvania, public schools must offer two foreign languages, one of which must include a four-year sequence. And the goal should be to teach students to become fluent in those languages, according to Marty Abbott, the new President of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, Washington D.C. “Our goal should be classrooms where teachers speak the target language exclusively. Why shouldn't we be able to produce graduates who can negotiate a business deal or conduct diplomacy without an interpreter?" Abbott said recently.
· Students who take two years of a foreign language should be able to speak that language "at a minimal level," according to Danielle Moyer, North Schuylkill Spanish teacher.
· "When students graduate from a level-four foreign language course, they should be able carry on a complete conversation, to understand films and music in that language," said Nicole Stiles, lead teacher of foreign languages at Pottsville Area.
· IN a 2008 national study of language instrcution, ‘more than 5,000 public and private schools were surveyed. The percentage of elementary and middle schools offering foreign language instruction decreased significantly from 1997 to 2008: from 31 percent to 25 percent of all elementary schools and from 75 percent to 58 percent of all middle schools. The percentage of high schools teaching foreign languages stayed relatively steady at about 91 percent, according to the study. http://republicanherald.com/news/foreign-language-educators-encourage-fluency-but-students-say-it-s-a-challenge-1.1246439
HS Scholarships
The U.S. Department of State announces scholarships for American high school students to study abroad:
· The Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Abroad Program offers scholarships to American high school students to spend a semester or an academic year in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mali, Morocco, Oman, Thailand, and Turkey. This post 9/11 program focuses on increasing understanding between people in the U.S. and countries with significant Muslim populations. The application deadline is January 11, 2012. Visit the YES Program’s website for more information.
· The Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange Program (CBYX) was established in 1983 to celebrate German-American friendship based on common values of democracy. Secondary school students live with host families, attend local schools, and participate in community life in Germany. Young professionals (undergraduates) and high-school graduates of vocational studies ages 18-24 study and participate in practical training. Scholarships are now available for academic year 2012-13. Prior German language skills are not required. For more information visit USAGermanyScholarship.org.
· The American Youth Leadership Program offers opportunities for American high students and educators to travel abroad on a three- to four-week-long exchange program to gain first-hand knowledge of foreign cultures and to collaborate on solving global issues. Several different organizations implement this program, and each has organized an academic and experiential educational exchange focused on dialogue and debate, leadership development, and community service. Recruitment areas and application deadlines vary, so please check the American Youth Leadership Program website for more information.
· The National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) offers merit-based scholarships to U. S. high-school aged students for overseas study of seven critical foreign languages: Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Hindi, Korean, Persian (Tajik), Russian and Turkish. The NSLI-Y program is designed to immerse participants in the cultural life of the host country, giving them invaluable formal and informal language practice and sparking a lifetime interest in foreign languages and cultures. Applications for summer 2012 and academic year 2012-2013 programs are due November 3, 2011. Visit www.nsliforyouth.org for more information.
Online Resources
· Guide for Educators includes lots of useful information especially about rubrics.
o Rubrics are the way to grade World Languages Essential Standards 1 and 3: 1) interpersonal communicational, and 3) written presentational communication and oral presentational communication http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/assess.html
o Rubrics are also very useful for project-based learning.
· WL Rubrics - Fairfax County Virginia created some highly useful rubrics that are particular to world languages Performance Assessments for Language Students http://www.fcps.edu/is/worldlanguages/pals/index.shtml
Globalization
· Migration – current and historic With the International Migrants Day at the 18th of December approaching, there is a new animated video clip dealing with international migration. The questions are: What exactly is migration? What are its underlying causes? And what are problems and opportunities? The clip can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOZmqIwqur4 This short clip would provide food for thought for classrooms or clubs.
· World Celebrations - Kiva shares about: Mongolia’s Tsangaan Sar, (Lunar New Year Celebration), Perú’s Inti Raymi (The Sun Festival) and MassKara Festival of Bacolod, Philippines (The Festival of Smiles; http://www.kiva.org/updates/kiva/2011/12/08/celebrations-of-world-through-eyes-of.html?utm_source=jg&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=jg%5FMasks%2C+Milk+Tea%2C+and+Merriment%3A+Holidays+around+the+World+%28268267862%29&utm_content=d%5Fpodgorny%40yahoo%2Ecom
· Peace Corps and Coverdell World Wise announce Global Issues in Focus . http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/educators/enrichment/globalissuesfocus/index.cfm This resource offers teachers a starting place to help students engage in inquiry about global issues while building interdisciplinary research, analysis, and problem solving skills. Global Issues in Focus provides an introduction to nine critical global issues and their domestic and global significance. For each issue, there is a problem-based WebQuest to guide student investigation and cross-disciplinary teaching suggestions to promote further inquiry. By incorporating authentic stories about the ways Peace Corps Volunteers are working with communities to address critical concerns, 500 new Peace Corps Volunteers are waiting to be matched with a classroom educator! Engage in a two-year exchange of ideas, stories, pictures, and artifacts that helps U.S. students learn about the people, geography, and cultures of the world from the direct experience of Volunteers living in other countries.
· Taboo and safe conversation topics – this list of safe and taboo topics in the US could be researched for the countries of the language you teach. http://www.headbloom.com/index.php/resources/post/making_small_talk_with_americans/
· Language Groups in NC - Find out what languages were spoken by how many people in North Carolina in 2005 http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-recent/6196
Spanish Resources
· En esta pagina hay buenas actividades para trabajar con las vocales. http://ntic.educacion.es/w3//eos/MaterialesEducativos/mem2003/vocales/ Yo la trabaje con los ninos de 6to en la primera unidad del libro Aventuras. Es muy bueno. Shared by Dennise Nelson
· Growth in Latinos in North Carolina since 1970. Visit http://www.learnnc.org/lp/mapliner.php?id=nc-recent-census-maps and choose “Percent Latino Population”. Change the map data from 1970, to 1980, to 1990, to 2000 to see change over time per county in NC.
Quotes
“Americans who travel abroad for the first time are often shocked to discover that, despite all the progress that has been made in the last 30 years, many foreign people still speak in foreign languages.” Dave Barry
