Thursday, January 24, 2013


Polyglot Press
Staying Connected to World Language Teaching Resources
November 26, 2012
Here’s hoping that you have just enjoyed a restful Thanksgiving. I am very grateful for your dedication, intelligence, language skills, world knowledge and love of teaching. This digital newsletter is archived online atwww.polyglotpress.blogspot.com What you share is very helpful to all of us.

BRAVO
·         Congratulations to Paul Cummings and his wife on the birth of their first child. Their daughter was born Monday, November 12. Paul teaches Spanish at Union County Early College.   
·         Congratulations to Alice Shrader, Spanish teacher at Marvin Ridge High, who recently renewed her National Board Certification.
·         Here is what Lingyu Liao has worked on. This year at Cuthbertson Middle, the 7th grade and 8th grade students of Mandarin Chinese recently created skits that they performed in 'the pit' on October 26, 2012. In the skits, students pretended to go to a Chinese restaurant and order food in Chinese. They also made menus and created props. Parents were invited to watch the students' performance.
·         Parkwood High School students enjoyed National French Week - The school cafeteria served French dishes all week long, including ham and cheese croissants and French onion soup. Jean Patterson’s students researched fun facts and presented them on our school announcements daily.  French I and II classes had a speaker who had worked as a Bible translator for JAARS and had lived in Mali for over 10 years.  He presented artifacts, videos, and photos highlighting their daily lives there. Another day classes viewed the movie "Les Choristes" which is their favorite! Another day, they rotated in centers in order to review past vocabluary. Jean made Belgian waffles for her classes and for the faculty. On laptops, students researched sports and games in Francophone countries as well as cuisine.  They are highlighting the Tour de France 2013 (100 year anniversary) and the Lance Armstrong scandal.
·         New Spanish teacher, Laura Nicholson, at Piedmont High is learning very quickly about the games that can be made with SmartNotebook 11 templates.
·         The finalists for ACTFL Teacher of the Year, representing the five geographic regions of the U.S. are:  Jill Woerner, teacher of Spanish at Pendleton Heights Middle School, Pendleton, IN; Leslie L Boaz, a teacher of  French and Spanish at Wheatland High School, Wheatland, WY;  Lucy Lee, a Chinese teacher at Livingston High School in Livingston, NJ;  Noah Geisel, teacher of Spanish at Denver East High School in Denver, CO; and Thomas Soth, a Spanish teacher at Northwest Guilford High School in Greensboro, NC.

Professional Development
·         There are funds for in-state conferences. If you know of a relevant conference that you would like to attend, please email me donna.podgorny@ucps.k12.nc.us Include the name of the conference, date, location, sponsoring agency, and the prices for registration, meals, hotel.

Tech Tools
For presentational speaking or for interpersonal speaking simulation with two people… try Blabberize. Blabberize lets you find a face, play with the mouth on the face and then add a recording. One new feature is that now two faces (animals, etc.) can appear to talk to each other. See a Podgorny Thanksgiving sample at http://blabberize.com/view?share=874842 

NC Department of Public Instruction
·         Report Cards are Out on North Carolina Public Schools - Parents and interested citizens looking for a one-stop information source on their local public schools need look no further than the NC School Report Cards website – www.ncreportcards.org – which has just been updated to reflect 2011-12 school-year data. To read more about this year’s data release, please visit www.ncpublicschools.org and click on the appropriate link under “News.”
·         With many changes occurring in the NC Standard Course of Study, along with new assessments, a new educator evaluation system and more, the NCDPI has produced a number of podcasts for teachers, principals, parents and others. All the podcasts may be accessed at the NCDPI READY iTunesU site at https://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/ready/id415314572.
·         Data on NC Institutes of Higher Ed http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/ihe/reports/2011-12/full/performance.pdf Admission test data for gpa and SAT  for NC universities  - pages 20-21

Advocacy
·         Study Abroad data - Open Doors shows that 273,996 U.S. students studied abroad for academic credit during academic year 2010-2011.  Notably, U.S. students who study abroad are choosing increasingly diverse locations overseas—including China, India and South Korea—in addition to the historically “traditional” destinations in Europe. After studying abroad, American students return home with new perspectives, skills, and relationships, which they use to help strengthen their communities and advance their careers. “We all must do more to encourage more U.S. students to study abroad and continue to welcome international students to the United States.  We applaud that U.S. universities have invested in international education and opened their doors to international students and encourage them to do more to make study abroad a reality for their American students.  Students with experience overseas gain the international knowledge, skills, and self-reliance that are needed to compete in today’s globalized economy.”  International Education Week:  (November 12 – 16)
·         Australia pushes for multilingualism & prioritize learning Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian and Japanese "Language learning, regardless of language, has a significant impact on general literacy, cultural awareness, understanding and communication," Krishna Sen, president of the arts deans, says in a letter to Asian century minister Craig Emerson. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/a-humanistic-pitch-for-languages/story-e6frgcjx-1226513951430
·         The importance of learning Arabic – focus on five major US cities: Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Chicago and Philadelphia http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vf_Y_o1p3I&feature=youtu.be

Teaching Resources
·         90% Plus: How to Stay in the Target Language  ACTFL’s October 2012 magazine the Language Educator share strategies on how to stay in the target language http://www.actfl.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/TLE_pdf/TLE_Oct12_Article.pdf
·         Foreign Language House - Shared by Amanda Mancilla at CATA http://foreignlanguagehouse.com./

Chinese Resources
·         An online guide for how to pronounce more than 10,000 words in Mandarin Chinese. http://www.forvo.com/languages/zh/ Users find the character/s that want to pronounce and click on it to hear the pronounciation.
·         Read Chinese: Novice, Intermediate, High  materials http://readchinese.nflc.org/?lang_id=1003&lev_id=1&page=1

French Resources
·         An online  audio guide for how to pronounce more than 50,000 words in French http://www.forvo.com/languages/fr/ If you are your students are not sure how to say a word, look it up and listen to it.
·         Technology terms in French http://www.frenchetc.org/2011/06/02/techno/
·         Technology terms in French – Quizlet flashcards http://quizlet.com/2621295/technology-french-vocabulary-words-flash-cards/
·         Quizlet French 1 – Chapitre 1 http://quizlet.com/12693592/allez-viens-1-1-wsm-flash-cards/
·         Quizlet – French 1 – Chapitre 2 http://quizlet.com/16340360/allez-viens-i-chapter-22-flash-cards/
·         Quizlet – French 1 – Chapitre 3 http://quizlet.com/1898654/madame-leger-allez-viens-ch3-1-flash-cards/
·         Quizlet – French 1 – Chapitre 7 Premiere Etape http://quizlet.com/16343555/allez-viens-i-chapter-71-flash-cards/
·         French verb conjugation practice http://conjuguemos.com/list.php?type=verbs&division=verbs&language=french


German Resources
·         Deutsch Aktuell 1 - Online Workbookhttp://irc.emcp.com/ircfiles/DeutschAktuell6e/WBLevel1/German6e-WB1.html
·         Deutsch Aktuell 2 – Online Workbook - http://irc.emcp.com/ircfiles/DeutschAktuell6e/WBLevel2/German6e-WB2.html
·         Deutsch Aktuell 1 – Online Text - http://irc.emcp.com/index.php?titleID=2640&title=Deutsch%20Aktuell%206e%20Level%201
·         Deutsch Aktuell 2 – Online Text - http://irc.emcp.com/index.php?titleID=2641&title=Deutsch%20Aktuell%206e%20Level%202
·         An online  audio guidefor how to pronounce more than 100,000 words in German http://www.forvo.com/languages/de/ If you are your students are not sure how to say a word, look it up and listen to it.
·         Technology terms in German http://german.about.com/library/blcomputer.htm




Spanish Resources
·         An online  audio guide for how to pronounce more than 50,000 words in Spanish http://www.forvo.com/languages/es/ If you are your students are not sure how to say a word, look it up and listen to it.
·         Test YOUR level of Spanish according to AVE and the European model of levels A, B and C. http://ave.cervantes.es/prueba_nivel/registro/test_de_clasificacion.php?origen=webAVE  The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages is explained at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_European_Framework_of_Reference_for_Languages
·         Technology terms in Spanish http://spanish.about.com/od/wordlists/a/computers.htm
·         Revista virtual "Aprender para Educar con Tecnología" http://e-ducadores.com/aprenderparaeducar/
·         Practica Español  Aprende con noticias reales. Dispones de una variedad de contenidos con diferentes temáticas: Espana, Mundo, Deportes, Entretenimiento, Viajes, Salud, Negocios, Cultura, Cinecia y Gastronomía. Todos los contenidos tienen soporte en Texto, Sonido, Imágenes (Video y Fotografía). Lo que te permite Leer, Escuchar, Practicar, aprender y Participar a través de los ejercicios que te proponemos. Para conocer el significado de una palabra: puedes hacer doble click sobre ella y se abrirá un DICCIONARIO INSTANTÁNEO que te mostrará además su traducción a los idiomas más extendidos. Con los Videos de Canal EFE en You Tube oirás las voces de la música hispana. Maestro Spot te ensenará con anuncios en español. Hay adivinanzas de la Fundación de la Lengua Española.    http://www.practicaespanol.com/
o    Estudia español porque el mundo habla español –advocacy video on  the importance of learning Spanish and the usefulness of the Practica español website http://www.practicaespanol.com/es/didactica-proyecto-practica-espanol/art/17/
·         Spanish Videos online to learn Spanish: Beginner Level http://www.lingus.tv/category/learn-spanish-videos/beginner/

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