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What's going to happen now that
the "2005: Year of Languages" initiative has ended?
Click on the logo above to find out.
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CCSU Conference for Language
Teachers
A Colloquium: Purposes and Pleasures of Foreign
Language Learning
Saturday - March 13, 2010
Central CT State University
Institute for Technology and Business Development
185 Main Street, New Britain, CT 06051
860.832.0700
Workshop Proposals will be
accepted until February 10, 2010
Information about the Conference
Workshop Proposal Form
Registration
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Concordia Language Villages
Offers Professional Development Opportunities
for World Language Teachers
during the Summer of 2010
Concordia
Language Villages is offering the following
professional development opportunities for world
language teachers during the summer of 2010:
Teacher
Seminars: June 20 – 30, 2010 at Concordia Language
Villages, Bemidji, Minnesota
Join
educators from across the United States and around
the world as they discuss current topics in world
language teaching and learning. You will observe
and participate in activities at Concordia Language
Villages as part of the seminar. You can register
for either the non-credit and graduate-credit
option. More information about Teacher Seminars
is available by clicking on:
http://www.concordialanguagevillages.org/newsite/Programs/Educators/teacher_sems1.php
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Master of Education in World Language Instruction:
An 18-month program combining coursework on-site at
Concordia Language Villages during the summer with
online coursework during the academic year. We are
accepting applications for Cohort IV now and will
begin selecting the twelve members of the cohort in
March, 2010. More information about this 34-credit
program is available at:
www.concordiacollege.edu/graduate.
You can also view examples of projects completed by
members of the masters program online at
www.concordiacollege.edu/graduate/projects.
If you have questions about any of
these programs or about Concordia Language Villages,
please feel free to contact Donna Clementi, Director of
Education and Research at
clementi@cord.edu.
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Increasing Student Achievement,
Using 21st Century YouTube
February 19 and 20 at Tunxis Community College
For more information,
please click here.
(The Workshop information is
located on page 16
and the registration information is located on page
26.)
Add
Video Clips to Ignite your lessons
Would you
like to show students authentic video clips in the
language in which they are learning? Would you like
them to sing the alphabet, colors, traditional
songs, rap songs, and more? Would you like to
introduce students to authentic recordings of
holiday songs and celebrations from around the
world? How would you like to present cooking
demonstrations of international dishes? Want to
see, or compete with, other school classes that have
posted videos? All of this, and a great deal more,
are available through the most popular video sharing
site on the planet- YouTube.
What is
YouTube?
YouTube is
a massively voluminous library of citizen
uploaded/submitted video clips. With an estimated
80 to 100 million entries in its coffers, an
estimated 6% of the videos are designated as
educational videos!! That’s 6,000,000 videos at
your fingertips. Videos include presentations of
grammar, vocabulary, songs, movie and TV clips,
presentations from students and classes, culture
-and the list goes on. What a resource for language
teachers! Download and use YouTube videos as a
spectacular supplement to your language teaching.
Use them in the classroom or assign them for
homework.
Why use
YouTube?
Rather than
use a live internet connection in school for
YouTube, you will want to download the videos, for
several reasons. Firstly, YouTube is blocked in
many school systems. So you have no choice but to
use downloaded videos. Secondly, in those school
systems in which you do have live access, you risk
exposing students to the many inappropriate viewer
comments, as well as to the risqué and unsuitable
video choices in the “Related Video” area. Plus,
many times those video clips get taken down from
YouTube, and are no longer available. Moreover,
once downloaded, a video clip can be run at any part
of the clip, without waiting for loading time.
Plus, TeacherTube just doesn’t possess massive
amounts of videos that YouTube does.
Workshop
Objectives
In this
seminar, you won’t just get an introductory
presentation, followed by a pat-on-the-back
goodbye. You won’t have to go home and spend time
creating material from this workshop. You will have
finished products, replete with clips and curricula,
to take back to your classroom and use immediately.
During the
workshop, you will research and search for YouTube
videos, organize and categorize them, create a
library for yourself, download/transfer the video
clips onto your flashdrive, as well as align the
video clips to World Language Standards. Moreover,
you’ll create lesson supplements and plans, and
you’ll create activities for the clips.
So come
join the YouTube bandwagon. One to two million
videos are being added each week. On YouTube you
can find supporting and supplementary videos for
almost anything you want to teach.
Source for
statistics- YouTube Community Help Forums
http://help.youtube.com/group/youtube-howto/browse_thread/thread/5117c37175284a91
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Objectives of the Workshop:
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To gain an overall view of the
workshop. To understand and
appreciate how YouTube videoclips
will enhance your classroom and your
students’
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To know
the teachers with whom you will be
exchanging and sharing YouTube
clips.
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To pick
a cultural/grammatical/vocab/function
topic(s) and compile a list.
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To
download videoclips to the workshop
computer ‘desktop’ and to your
Flashdrive.
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To
align clips with state/federal
standards and with your curricula.
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To design and create activities for
some of your downloaded videoclips.
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To
transfer your clips and software to
your home computer.
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To demonstrate and share, then
exchange finished products with
colleagues’ (topic and compilation
of YouTube sites, downloaded clips,
standard alignment, activities).
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Congratulations to the 2009
Recipients of the
CT COLT Student Awards for Excellence in World Languages
Please click one of the file types to
download a listing of the award recipients.
(MS Word)
(PDF) |
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Weekend Immersion Program
(Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese,
French, Italian, Spanish)
University College at Fairfield University and
The Rassias Center for World Languages and Cultures at Dartmouth
College
October 23-25, 2009
For more information, please visit
http://www.fairfield.edu/wips
and click on "Download our brochure" or call (203) 254-4110. |
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ConnTesol Fall Conference
Saturday -
November 7, 2009
Central CT State University
For more
information, please visit
www.conntesol.net
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TRAVEL FREE WITH TERRA LINGUA’S
SUMMER OUTBOUND PROGRAMS
Terra Lingua USA, a
quality student exchange organization is seeking groups
of students and chaperones to take part in exciting and
adventurous summer outbound programs. With every group
of 10 students, the chaperone travels for FREE!
Our programs are run with
a passion for education and culture. Traveling abroad
with Terra Lingua provides you with a dedicated
Coordinator and Manager to structure your program. Our
availability to you is outstanding, with 24 hour
management support, only a phone call away.
Tennis Anyone? We are
offering a challenging and fun tennis camp in France!
Learn to play this enjoyable sport while experiencing
the sights of France.
Another France option
includes a 3 to 4 week stay with a French family from
Bordeaux. Learn the French culture and language
firsthand in this unique experience. This trip offers a
3-day tour of Paris!
With our Amazing China
program, you can spend 2 unforgettable weeks learning
Chinese folk songs, poems, Calligraphy, handcrafting and
much more. This trip also includes excursions to
Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Wuzhen!
Finally, take advantage
of our Learn French in Canada program. You’ll spend 2
weeks in Canada where you’ll not only take French
lessons, but you’ll explore the sights and sounds of
Vancouver.
All programs are open to
students ages 12-18.
Please contact Kellie
Iacovella at
Terralinguaexchange@hotmail.com
for more information. Visit our website at
www.terralinguausa.org
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Clinton
Teacher of the Year Jessica Godburn writes a few notes in Spanish on
her portable classroom. She teaches 10 classes a day for 22 minutes
each, logging in lots of foot mileage in the halls at the Joel
School. |
Jessica Godburn,
Spanish FLES Teacher,
Named Teacher of the Year in Clinton
To read the
entire article about Jessica,
please click here. |
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France
Honors Five Connecticut Teachers
with the Ordre des Palmes Académiques
The
recipients of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques:
Carol A. Kearns, Margaret Nocturne,
Nancy Silander, Sharon Straka, and Brian
Carter pictured with Pierre Vimont,
Ambassador of France to the United
States.
May 9, 2008.
New Haven, CT — On Monday, May 12, Pierre Vimont,
Ambassador of France to the United States, conferred the
insignia of Chevalier of the Ordre des Palmes Acad émiques
upon five Connecticut teachers: Brian Carter, PIER
Outreach Director, European Studies, Yale University,
New Haven; Carol A. Kearns, French teacher emeritus,
Litchfield High School, Litchfield; Margaret Nocturne, French
teacher, Joel Barlow High School, West Redding; Nancy
Silander, French teacher, E.O. Smith High School,
Storrs; and Sharon Straka, Director, Center for the
Teaching of French, Yale University, New Haven.
The presentation took place at a private reception at
Yale University. Following the presentation, Ambassador
Vimont gave a public address on the topic "France,
Europe, and the United States: What Prospects for
Trans-Atlantic Relations" in Rosenfeld Hall, 109 Grove
Street, at 3:30 p.m.
The Ordre des Palmes Académiques
(Order of Academic Palms) was founded by Napoleon
Bonaparte in 1808. A brilliant administrator, Napoleon
appreciated the importance of education, and he
established the honorary titles of Titulaire,
Officier de l'Université,
and Officier d'Académie
as awards for devotion and accomplishment in the areas
of teaching,
scholarship, and research. In more recent times, this
award was made a ministerial Order under the French
Minister of Education and now has three ranks—Chevalier,
Officier, and Commandeur.
Pierre
Vimont was appointed Ambassador of France to the United
States by President Nicolas Sarkozy on August 1, 2007.
Prior to his present appointment, Mr. Vimont was
Chief of
Staff to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, a position he
had held since 2002. He was previously Ambassador and
Permanent Representative of France to the European Union
from 1999 to 2002. His talk can be accessed with this
link:
http://www.yale.edu/macmillan/multimedia.htm.
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Northeast Conference Selects Barbara
Lindsey’s "Participatory Pedagogy" as Best
of NECTFL 2008
Congratulations, Barbara!
Press release
by Rebecca R. Kline, Executive Director,
NECTFL
Carlisle PA, May
8, 2008 – Barbara Lindsey, Director of the Multimedia
Language Center at the University of Connecticut and former
president of the Connecticut Council of Language Teachers
(CT COLT), has been selected by the Northeast Conference on
the Teaching of Foreign Languages as the 2008 winner of the
"Best of NECTFL" award, presented for the conference
presentation judged most outstanding by attendees and the
Board of Directors.
The 2008
Northeast Conference was held March 27-29, 2008 at the
Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City. Over 200 workshops
and sessions were presented, and 2,500 foreign language
professionals participated in the conference and its events.
Professor Lindsey’s session, "Participatory Pedagogy:
Engaging Learners through Social Networking," is
automatically accepted on the program of the next American
Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages convention,
scheduled for November 21-23, 2008 in Orlando.
For additional
information on the Northeast Conference or its Best of
NECTFL award, contact Rebecca R. Kline or visit
www.nectfl.org.
About the
Northeast Conference
The Northeast
Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages serves
educators in all languages (including classical, less
commonly taught, and ESL), at all levels from kindergarten
through university, in both public and private settings. In
existence since the late 1940s, NECTFL is the largest of
five regional associations of its kind in the United States,
representing educators from Maine to Virginia but exercising
leadership nation-wide.
NECTFL holds an
annual conference for all concerned with foreign language
education, providing both outstanding professional
development and the chance to interact with colleagues. The
meeting’s events include the recognition of award winners
both within and outside the field. NECTFL has honored
President Jimmy Carter, Sesame Street, Senator Paul Simon,
and musicians Taj Mahal and Carole Fredericks, among others.
NECTFL publishes
a semi-annual magazine and occasional scholarly reports.
Current foci include cultural proficiency and languages in
preK-16+ urban educational settings. The organization is
widely recognized as providing cutting-edge leadership and
translating visionary work into practical classroom
application.
The Board of
Directors of the Northeast Conference is committed to
educating citizens for participation in a peaceful global
community.
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2008 Student Awards for Excellence in
World Languages
To view the list of awardees for 2008, please click on the link
below.
List of Awardees for 2008 |
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An Interesting
Free World Language Related Web Site
Bill Zimmerman wants to share with you news of his newest
educational project and also ask for your help to make it
succeed.
A year ago he launched a new
web site --
http://
www.makebeliefscomix.com
-- where children and adults can create their own comic
strips. They can select from 15 fun characters with
different moods -- happy, sad, angry, worried – and write
words for blank talk and thought balloons to make their
characters talk and think. There also are story ideas and
prompts to help users create graphic stories.
This site can be used by educators to teach language,
reading and writing skills, and also for students in
English-as-a-Second-Language programs to facilitate
self-expression and storytelling, as well as computer
literacy. It is now being used in 150 countries by
educators.
Some educational therapists use it with deaf and autistic
people to help them understand concepts and communicate.
Parents and children can create stories together, print them
to create comic books or email them to friends and family.
Others will find the site a resource to be creative, calm
down and have fun.
Because so many Spanish-speaking users asked us for the
ability to write their cartoons in Spanish as well as in
English, we recently upgraded the site to accept words
written in Spanish, including appropriate accent marks. This
can be a useful tool for someone who is learning Spanish as
well as someone whose first language is Spanish. This
feature is being expanded to other languages, such as
French, Italian and German.
Mr. Zimmerman hopes that you
will share
http://www.makebeliefscomix.com
with your colleagues, teachers, students or readers of your
publications and resource lists. The site is free with no
advertising. Any help you might offer in getting word out
about this project will be greatly appreciated.
If you can suggest other people or groups whom he might
contact to make them aware of the site please send me their
names, email addresses or phone numbers. Any list-servs he
might join? Relevant Internet resource sharing groups would
be helpful, too. It takes a community to build a useful
resource like this one.
As one
who learned to read with comic books, he knows that creating
comic strips can help people tap into their creativity and
practice their language and storytelling skills. The site
is free and stems from his lifelong mission to create
resources that help people find their voice and express
themselves. The concept for makebeliefscomix.com
is derived from his earlier books, Make Beliefs
and Make Beliefs for Kids of All Ages (which can be
found on his other web site: http://www.billztreasurechest.com.
A Make Beliefs interactive feature appeared for 13 years on
his syndicated Student Briefing Page for Newsday, and in
National Geographic’s World Magazine.
He hope you like
http://www.makebeliefscomix.com
and will use it in your work
and personal life. Your feedback is welcome and very
helpful. Mr. Zimmerman may be reached at
wmz@aol.com.
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Last year, in an effort to
promote foreign languages, TFLTA
(Tennessee Foreign
Language Teaching Association)
sponsored a state-wide quilt project.
Their end result was
an amazing quilt which represented
several schools, elementary through university
levels in the state of
Tennessee.
This year, because
the TFLTA state
conference will be held in conjunction with
ACTFL, TFLTA is broadening
the scope of their original
project by making a “national” quilt.
They have encouraged
all the state organizations to send a quilt
square representing their
individual states.
The quilt squares from the
various states will then be made into a
quilt which will be on display in Nashville at
the ACTFL convention in November.
Above you will see CT COLT's contribution to
this national quilt that will be on display at
the ACTFL convention in Nashville, Tennessee.
CT COLT's quilt square was designed and created
by Lynne Campbell (Glastonbury Public Schools),
the ACTR representative to the CT COLT board of
directors. Great job, Lynne!
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 Downloadable
CT COLT Tri-fold Brochure
This
tri-fold brochure has been designed for members and
non-members of CT COLT. If you are a
member, you can download this brochure,
print it and pass it on to your non-member
colleagues. If you are not a member of
CT COLT, we encourage you to download this
brochure and check out the benefits that CT
COLT offers to its members.
CT COLT
Brochure
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