Central States Report 2005

by Trish Syring

March 10-12, Colombus, Ohio

How to celebrate 2005 Year of Languages was the central theme of the conference. Here is a short summary of successful projects from other states that you can implement yet this school yeaR

  • Plan now to attend the 2006 Central States Conference in Chicago, March 9-11 with a GRANT from CSC. Get a group of teachers together for the trip and have an IWLA Advisory Council member (Trish Syring or Duronda Schlue) submit a grant application for up to $1000.00 for your group to be able to car pool, etc. Grants are available for a wide variety of projects. Just send your idea to Trish Syring for submission. Deadlines are Feb. 15 and Oct. 15 each year.
  • Suggest that an administration or counselor attend the next 2006 CSC in Chicago so that they can attend workshops and see first-hand why languages are so valuable. If you have supportive administration, nominate your principle for the friend of language award.
  • Get together with your art teacher and suggest a poster contest to show how languages are important and hang them up all over school. Recruit students to write short statements or articles about why they feel foreign languages are important. Post these around school, and offer them to the student and local newspapers.
  • Pick an evening or weekend to spend a couple hours at the local mall giving out foreign candy lollipops or any small items while drawing attention to displays about the importance of FL in your school. Great community networking!
  • Convince your legislators to offer forgivable loans for language majors who become FL teachers in Iowa.
  • Ask your local mayor to declare 2005 the Year of Languages with the official proclamation, which you can find on the IWLA website, as signed by Gov. Vilsack. Display the proclamation in a prominent spot in the school, or even in the community library. Don’t forget to invite the local newspaper for the proclamation signing!
  • Have a group of FL students make a short presentation to the school board.
  • Lobby your senator and representative for a FL Rep for Iowa with more percentage of time than Carmen Sosa is allowed to devote in her current job.
  • Make a list of the ways you cover cross-curricular topics in your FL class, from math to political science and send it to the school board.
  • Send an email regularly to your IWLA list-serve to let your colleagues know what you are doing on the local front to get the word out in your community about the 2005 Years of Languages and why the study of languages is so important. Share the success!
  • Sport a YOL T-shirt, pin, cap, etc by ordering from their logo products catalog on line:www.yearoflanguages.org
  • The conference was HOT with the “CAN DO” statements that are the key assessment tool for the European Council on the teaching of languages. The European Union system uses levels A, B and C for competency in understanding, speaking and writing, and breaks those down into level 1 & 2 for “can do” competency statements. These are positive statements your students can use to become actively involved in their own student achievement. Get some great ideas from their website: www.coe.int. The Nebraska and Kentucky Departments of Education in conjunction with education programs at universities and a pilot group of high school teachers are going together to make the European “can do” statements a part of their states standards and benchmarks.   See a sample at www.nde.state.ne.us/forlg and have your students be proud of their own “LinguaFolio”!
  • CSC now will have an annual teacher of the Year Award, and that person will be in the running for the ACTFL Teacher of the Year.  Take a look at the CSC website for ideas: www.centralstaes.cc.  Thanks for the great opportunity to be your Central States delegate!