Topic Thread

Welcome to the ACTFL Community!

Our ACTFL community gets bigger every day. Many of you already know one another, while others are brand-new faces. For everyone new, and not-so-new, take a little time to introduce yourselves.

Share your name, where you're from, what language(s) you teach, at what level, and why you believe language education is important.

I'll start: I'm Genevieve, I'm the Membership Manager at ACTFL. One summer in college, I taught English in Costa Rica for to young adults, it was a learning experience for everyone! In college, I minored in Spanish and studied abroad in Salamanca, Spain. I think language education is important because it expands our horizons, exposes us to new cultures and traditions, and empowers us to learn a little more about the rest of the world. 

Join the conversation - introduce yourself today and begin networking with your peers. I look forward to "meeting" many of you, learning more about you, and hearing the opportunities and challenges that you are facing.

Hi all,

I'm Lisa Campo, ACTFL's new marketing & communications manager.

In south Louisiana, I grew up in a family descended from Canary Islanders, who had assimilated by losing their original language and picking up some French sayings and words. As a result, I studied French all through elementary, high school & college, but still probably couldn't hold a full conversation in it. I love linguistics and learning about different dialects. I've also briefly studied Russian, Czech and my family's original language, Spanish. Eventually, I would like to have at least limited proficiency in Spanish so that I can reply when people assume I speak it!

As you can tell, I'm close to my extended family, who all still live in Louisiana -- many of whom are teachers or administrators in my hometown, St. Bernard Parish. I'm a huge supporter of education, and, by proxy, language education. 

I am excited to contribute to ACTFL's mission by helping Genevieve communicate our many benefits to you! I hope to speak to you all online and then at the conference in November.

Please message me with any comments, questions, suggestions, et cetera.

p.s. - if you're interested in learning more about the Canary Islands community in Louisiana, check out http://www.losislenos.org/

------------------------------
Lisa Campo
ACTFL Marketing & Communications Manager
lcampo@actfl.org
(703) 894-2900 ext 119

Original Message:
Sent: 03-10-2016 12:50
From: Genevieve Borello
Subject: Introduce Yourself Here!

Welcome to the ACTFL Community!

Our ACTFL community gets bigger every day. Many of you already know one another, while others are brand-new faces. For everyone new, and not-so-new, take a little time to introduce yourselves.

Share your name, where you're from, what language(s) you teach, at what level, and why you believe language education is important.

I'll start: I'm Genevieve, I'm the Membership Manager at ACTFL. One summer in college, I taught English in Costa Rica for to young adults, it was a learning experience for everyone! In college, I minored in Spanish and studied abroad in Salamanca, Spain. I think language education is important because it expands our horizons, exposes us to new cultures and traditions, and empowers us to learn a little more about the rest of the world. 

Join the conversation - introduce yourself today and begin networking with your peers. I look forward to "meeting" many of you, learning more about you, and hearing the opportunities and challenges that you are facing.

------------------------------
Genevieve Borello
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)
Membership Manager
gborello@actfl.org
(703) 894-2900
------------------------------

Hi all,

I'm Lisa Campo, ACTFL's new marketing & communications manager.

In south Louisiana, I grew up in a family descended from Canary Islanders, who had assimilated by losing their original language and picking up some French sayings and words. As a result, I studied French all through elementary, high school & college, but still probably couldn't hold a full conversation in it. I love linguistics and learning about different dialects. I've also briefly studied Russian, Czech and my family's original language, Spanish. Eventually, I would like to have at least limited proficiency in Spanish so that I can reply when people assume I speak it!

As you can tell, I'm close to my extended family, who all still live in Louisiana -- many of whom are teachers or administrators in my hometown, St. Bernard Parish. I'm a huge supporter of education, and, by proxy, language education. 

I am excited to contribute to ACTFL's mission by helping Genevieve communicate our many benefits to you! I hope to speak to you all online and then at the conference in November.

Please message me with any comments, questions, suggestions, et cetera.

p.s. - if you're interested in learning more about the Canary Islands community in Louisiana, check out http://www.losislenos.org/

Welcome to the ACTFL Community!

Our ACTFL community gets bigger every day. Many of you already know one another, while others are brand-new faces. For everyone new, and not-so-new, take a little time to introduce yourselves.

Share your name, where you're from, what language(s) you teach, at what level, and why you believe language education is important.

I'll start: I'm Genevieve, I'm the Membership Manager at ACTFL. One summer in college, I taught English in Costa Rica for to young adults, it was a learning experience for everyone! In college, I minored in Spanish and studied abroad in Salamanca, Spain. I think language education is important because it expands our horizons, exposes us to new cultures and traditions, and empowers us to learn a little more about the rest of the world. 

Join the conversation - introduce yourself today and begin networking with your peers. I look forward to "meeting" many of you, learning more about you, and hearing the opportunities and challenges that you are facing.

Bonjour tout le monde.

Hello, I'm Dan Teitelbaum and I have been teaching French since 1988 (do the math :-) ) I am currently working at Ravenscroft School in Raleigh, NC. For the previous 9 years I served as the Chair of the World Languages Department here and this year I am taking a much needed year off! Currently I teach first year, second year, second year honors and AP French. I have been an AP reader since 2006 and for the last two years I served as a table leader for the Cultural Comparison. 

I earned my MA in French from American Univ. in DC and many years later earned an M. Ed. from NCSU here in Raleigh. 

Our department's current overarching goal is proficiency based planning, instruction and assessment. We are striving to incorporate comprehensible input along with IPAs. If there are colleagues our there with successful suggestions, strategies and even trials/errors that you've learned from, I would love to hear from you. 

Thanks, Genevieve, for the nudge to post. 

Dan

Hi all,

I'm Lisa Campo, ACTFL's new marketing & communications manager.

In south Louisiana, I grew up in a family descended from Canary Islanders, who had assimilated by losing their original language and picking up some French sayings and words. As a result, I studied French all through elementary, high school & college, but still probably couldn't hold a full conversation in it. I love linguistics and learning about different dialects. I've also briefly studied Russian, Czech and my family's original language, Spanish. Eventually, I would like to have at least limited proficiency in Spanish so that I can reply when people assume I speak it!

As you can tell, I'm close to my extended family, who all still live in Louisiana -- many of whom are teachers or administrators in my hometown, St. Bernard Parish. I'm a huge supporter of education, and, by proxy, language education. 

I am excited to contribute to ACTFL's mission by helping Genevieve communicate our many benefits to you! I hope to speak to you all online and then at the conference in November.

Please message me with any comments, questions, suggestions, et cetera.

p.s. - if you're interested in learning more about the Canary Islands community in Louisiana, check out http://www.losislenos.org/

Welcome to the ACTFL Community!

Our ACTFL community gets bigger every day. Many of you already know one another, while others are brand-new faces. For everyone new, and not-so-new, take a little time to introduce yourselves.

Share your name, where you're from, what language(s) you teach, at what level, and why you believe language education is important.

I'll start: I'm Genevieve, I'm the Membership Manager at ACTFL. One summer in college, I taught English in Costa Rica for to young adults, it was a learning experience for everyone! In college, I minored in Spanish and studied abroad in Salamanca, Spain. I think language education is important because it expands our horizons, exposes us to new cultures and traditions, and empowers us to learn a little more about the rest of the world. 

Join the conversation - introduce yourself today and begin networking with your peers. I look forward to "meeting" many of you, learning more about you, and hearing the opportunities and challenges that you are facing.

Hi all,

I'm Lisa Campo, ACTFL's new marketing & communications manager.

In south Louisiana, I grew up in a family descended from Canary Islanders, who had assimilated by losing their original language and picking up some French sayings and words. As a result, I studied French all through elementary, high school & college, but still probably couldn't hold a full conversation in it. I love linguistics and learning about different dialects. I've also briefly studied Russian, Czech and my family's original language, Spanish. Eventually, I would like to have at least limited proficiency in Spanish so that I can reply when people assume I speak it!

As you can tell, I'm close to my extended family, who all still live in Louisiana -- many of whom are teachers or administrators in my hometown, St. Bernard Parish. I'm a huge supporter of education, and, by proxy, language education. 

I am excited to contribute to ACTFL's mission by helping Genevieve communicate our many benefits to you! I hope to speak to you all online and then at the conference in November.

Please message me with any comments, questions, suggestions, et cetera.

p.s. - if you're interested in learning more about the Canary Islands community in Louisiana, check out http://www.losislenos.org/

Welcome to the ACTFL Community!

Our ACTFL community gets bigger every day. Many of you already know one another, while others are brand-new faces. For everyone new, and not-so-new, take a little time to introduce yourselves.

Share your name, where you're from, what language(s) you teach, at what level, and why you believe language education is important.

I'll start: I'm Genevieve, I'm the Membership Manager at ACTFL. One summer in college, I taught English in Costa Rica for to young adults, it was a learning experience for everyone! In college, I minored in Spanish and studied abroad in Salamanca, Spain. I think language education is important because it expands our horizons, exposes us to new cultures and traditions, and empowers us to learn a little more about the rest of the world. 

Join the conversation - introduce yourself today and begin networking with your peers. I look forward to "meeting" many of you, learning more about you, and hearing the opportunities and challenges that you are facing.

Hi all,

I'm Lisa Campo, ACTFL's new marketing & communications manager.

In south Louisiana, I grew up in a family descended from Canary Islanders, who had assimilated by losing their original language and picking up some French sayings and words. As a result, I studied French all through elementary, high school & college, but still probably couldn't hold a full conversation in it. I love linguistics and learning about different dialects. I've also briefly studied Russian, Czech and my family's original language, Spanish. Eventually, I would like to have at least limited proficiency in Spanish so that I can reply when people assume I speak it!

As you can tell, I'm close to my extended family, who all still live in Louisiana -- many of whom are teachers or administrators in my hometown, St. Bernard Parish. I'm a huge supporter of education, and, by proxy, language education. 

I am excited to contribute to ACTFL's mission by helping Genevieve communicate our many benefits to you! I hope to speak to you all online and then at the conference in November.

Please message me with any comments, questions, suggestions, et cetera.

p.s. - if you're interested in learning more about the Canary Islands community in Louisiana, check out http://www.losislenos.org/

Welcome to the ACTFL Community!

Our ACTFL community gets bigger every day. Many of you already know one another, while others are brand-new faces. For everyone new, and not-so-new, take a little time to introduce yourselves.

Share your name, where you're from, what language(s) you teach, at what level, and why you believe language education is important.

I'll start: I'm Genevieve, I'm the Membership Manager at ACTFL. One summer in college, I taught English in Costa Rica for to young adults, it was a learning experience for everyone! In college, I minored in Spanish and studied abroad in Salamanca, Spain. I think language education is important because it expands our horizons, exposes us to new cultures and traditions, and empowers us to learn a little more about the rest of the world. 

Join the conversation - introduce yourself today and begin networking with your peers. I look forward to "meeting" many of you, learning more about you, and hearing the opportunities and challenges that you are facing.

Hi all,

I'm Lisa Campo, ACTFL's new marketing & communications manager.

In south Louisiana, I grew up in a family descended from Canary Islanders, who had assimilated by losing their original language and picking up some French sayings and words. As a result, I studied French all through elementary, high school & college, but still probably couldn't hold a full conversation in it. I love linguistics and learning about different dialects. I've also briefly studied Russian, Czech and my family's original language, Spanish. Eventually, I would like to have at least limited proficiency in Spanish so that I can reply when people assume I speak it!

As you can tell, I'm close to my extended family, who all still live in Louisiana -- many of whom are teachers or administrators in my hometown, St. Bernard Parish. I'm a huge supporter of education, and, by proxy, language education. 

I am excited to contribute to ACTFL's mission by helping Genevieve communicate our many benefits to you! I hope to speak to you all online and then at the conference in November.

Please message me with any comments, questions, suggestions, et cetera.

p.s. - if you're interested in learning more about the Canary Islands community in Louisiana, check out http://www.losislenos.org/

Welcome to the ACTFL Community!

Our ACTFL community gets bigger every day. Many of you already know one another, while others are brand-new faces. For everyone new, and not-so-new, take a little time to introduce yourselves.

Share your name, where you're from, what language(s) you teach, at what level, and why you believe language education is important.

I'll start: I'm Genevieve, I'm the Membership Manager at ACTFL. One summer in college, I taught English in Costa Rica for to young adults, it was a learning experience for everyone! In college, I minored in Spanish and studied abroad in Salamanca, Spain. I think language education is important because it expands our horizons, exposes us to new cultures and traditions, and empowers us to learn a little more about the rest of the world. 

Join the conversation - introduce yourself today and begin networking with your peers. I look forward to "meeting" many of you, learning more about you, and hearing the opportunities and challenges that you are facing.

Welcome to the ACTFL Community!

Our ACTFL community gets bigger every day. Many of you already know one another, while others are brand-new faces. For everyone new, and not-so-new, take a little time to introduce yourselves.

Share your name, where you're from, what language(s) you teach, at what level, and why you believe language education is important.

I'll start: I'm Genevieve, I'm the Membership Manager at ACTFL. One summer in college, I taught English in Costa Rica for to young adults, it was a learning experience for everyone! In college, I minored in Spanish and studied abroad in Salamanca, Spain. I think language education is important because it expands our horizons, exposes us to new cultures and traditions, and empowers us to learn a little more about the rest of the world. 

Join the conversation - introduce yourself today and begin networking with your peers. I look forward to "meeting" many of you, learning more about you, and hearing the opportunities and challenges that you are facing.

Welcome to the ACTFL Community!

Our ACTFL community gets bigger every day. Many of you already know one another, while others are brand-new faces. For everyone new, and not-so-new, take a little time to introduce yourselves.

Share your name, where you're from, what language(s) you teach, at what level, and why you believe language education is important.

I'll start: I'm Genevieve, I'm the Membership Manager at ACTFL. I'm from Virginia and attended the University of South Florida in Tampa (Go Bulls!) One summer in college, I taught English in Costa Rica for to young adults, it was a learning experience for everyone! In college, I minored in Spanish and studied abroad in Salamanca, Spain. I think language education is important because it expands our horizons, exposes us to new cultures and traditions, and empowers us to learn a little more about the rest of the world. 

Join the conversation - introduce yourself today and begin networking with your peers. I look forward to "meeting" many of you, learning more about you, and hearing the opportunities and challenges that you are facing.

------------------------------
Genevieve Borello
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)
Membership Manager
gborello@actfl.org
(703) 894-2900
------------------------------

I am Kelly Ochoa. I teach AP Spanish at a small high school in south eastern Massachusetts. I spent 15 years teaching Spanish 1 at the middle school level and 3 years ago switched to being a high school Spanish teacher. I went to Union College in upstate NY and earned a BA in Latin American Studies. I then joined the Peace Corps and served in Honduras. After Peace Corps, I decided I wanted to teach and entered a Peace Corps Fellows program to get my teaching license. I graduated from Wichita State University in Wichita, KS with an MA in Curriculum and Instruction. I also taught for 3 years in the Wichita Public Schools for 3 years as a middle school teacher. Shortly after the birth of my twins, I moved back to Massachusetts to be closer to my family. I love teaching language and am very intrigued by the way in which our profession (language teaching) is evolving. I think the next few years we will see lots of new things in education due to technology. 

Welcome to the ACTFL Community!

Our ACTFL community gets bigger every day. Many of you already know one another, while others are brand-new faces. For everyone new, and not-so-new, take a little time to introduce yourselves.

Share your name, where you're from, what language(s) you teach, at what level, and why you believe language education is important.

I'll start: I'm Genevieve, I'm the Membership Manager at ACTFL. I'm from Virginia and attended the University of South Florida in Tampa (Go Bulls!) One summer in college, I taught English in Costa Rica for to young adults, it was a learning experience for everyone! In college, I minored in Spanish and studied abroad in Salamanca, Spain. I think language education is important because it expands our horizons, exposes us to new cultures and traditions, and empowers us to learn a little more about the rest of the world. 

Join the conversation - introduce yourself today and begin networking with your peers. I look forward to "meeting" many of you, learning more about you, and hearing the opportunities and challenges that you are facing.

------------------------------
Genevieve Borello
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)
Membership Manager
gborello@actfl.org
(703) 894-2900
------------------------------

Welcome to the ACTFL Community!

Our ACTFL community gets bigger every day. Many of you already know one another, while others are brand-new faces. For everyone new, and not-so-new, take a little time to introduce yourselves.

Share your name, where you're from, what language(s) you teach, at what level, and why you believe language education is important.

I'll start: I'm Genevieve, I'm the Membership Manager at ACTFL. I'm from Virginia and attended the University of South Florida in Tampa (Go Bulls!) One summer in college, I taught English in Costa Rica for to young adults, it was a learning experience for everyone! In college, I minored in Spanish and studied abroad in Salamanca, Spain. I think language education is important because it expands our horizons, exposes us to new cultures and traditions, and empowers us to learn a little more about the rest of the world. 

Join the conversation - introduce yourself today and begin networking with your peers. I look forward to "meeting" many of you, learning more about you, and hearing the opportunities and challenges that you are facing.

------------------------------
Genevieve Borello
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)
Membership Manager
gborello@actfl.org
(703) 894-2900
------------------------------

Aloha from Maui!

My name is Jeenna Canche and I teach Spanish 2, 3, and 4 at Maui High School.  I have been teaching Spanish for ten years and I have also taught at Kihei Charter School and King Kekaulike High School.  I am very passionate about teaching and learning languages and I am especially interested in finding and testing teaching strategies that work and in finding ways to positively impact student self-efficacy and motivation in the classroom.  My passion for languages stems from my belief that learning languages opens doors that can change people's lives by providing opportunities and bringing people and cultures together.  Plus, it's just a lot of of fun!  :-)

Welcome to the ACTFL Community!

Our ACTFL community gets bigger every day. Many of you already know one another, while others are brand-new faces. For everyone new, and not-so-new, take a little time to introduce yourselves.

Share your name, where you're from, what language(s) you teach, at what level, and why you believe language education is important.

I'll start: I'm Genevieve, I'm the Membership Manager at ACTFL. I'm from Virginia and attended the University of South Florida in Tampa (Go Bulls!) One summer in college, I taught English in Costa Rica for to young adults, it was a learning experience for everyone! In college, I minored in Spanish and studied abroad in Salamanca, Spain. I think language education is important because it expands our horizons, exposes us to new cultures and traditions, and empowers us to learn a little more about the rest of the world. 

Join the conversation - introduce yourself today and begin networking with your peers. I look forward to "meeting" many of you, learning more about you, and hearing the opportunities and challenges that you are facing.

------------------------------
Genevieve Borello
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)
Membership Manager
gborello@actfl.org
(703) 894-2900
------------------------------

Hello,

My name is Paula Dimler. I teach Spanish at Cody High School in Cody, Wyoming. I actually am on schedule to retire this year but recently renewed membership with ACTFL because I really don't know what lies around the next bend. I am a former Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador, South America, where my husband and I both served and am also proud to have a daughter who served as a Volunteer in the Dominican Republic. I am a veteran teacher but have always been passionate about the Spanish language. On a personal note my daughter married into a Spanish speaking family and my grand-daughter is growing up bilingual. She lives right here in Cody and just turned 2 years old in March. I love to hear language explode from her and am fascinated how at present she uses English and Spanish vocabulary interchangeably. She is yet to have a filter for one language over the other. 

 I have been eyeing the scholarship opportunities for Spanish in Mexico, Chile and Guatemala. I have been involved in mission work in Guatemala with Living Waters of the World and would genuinely just like an opportunity for an intensive language experience abroad as I have had in previous experiences in my past. I do not know if the scholarship opportunities through ACTFL are a match for me, but I am hopeful.

I wonder what others might contribute to this conversation.

Paula Dimler

Hello, I'm Pete Swanson and I'm the 2016 ACTFL President. This year has been a pleasure for me as I traveled to each of the regional conferences and met a lot of great people working hard on behalf of language teachers. I started my career as a Spanish teacher in the late 1980s teaching in Colorado and Wyoming. After 15 years in the classroom, I decided to pursue my doctorate.

in 2006, I accepted a tenure track position at Georgia State University (GSU) in Atlanta. At GSU, I am the Coordinator of the FL Teacher Education Program and I work with some of the best colleagues in our profession. Each year we prepare highly qualified language teachers in five different languages. I am also the Director of Graduate Studies for our department. I teach undergraduate and graduate classes in a variety of areas such as pedagogy and assessment, technology integration, and research in second language to name a few. 

As ACTFL President this year, we are focusing efforts on language teacher recruitment and retention. I've been writing about the language teacher shortage and the need to address teacher recruitment and retention in both Foreign Language Annals and The Language Educator. It's something that is close to my heart as we are advocating nationally for the Seal of Bliteracy and increased funding for world languages in the newly reauthorized Every Student Succeeds Act, formerly known as No Child Left Behind. I hope you will join the advocacy effort and let your legislators know about the virtues of language teaching and learning.  Finally, I hope to see you at the 2016 ACTFL Convention in Boston in November. It's ACTFL's 50th anniversary of the founding of the organization that is working daily to help language teachers and learners. 

Hello, I'm Pete Swanson and I'm the 2016 ACTFL President. This year has been a pleasure for me as I traveled to each of the regional conferences and met a lot of great people working hard on behalf of language teachers. I started my career as a Spanish teacher in the late 1980s teaching in Colorado and Wyoming. After 15 years in the classroom, I decided to pursue my doctorate.

in 2006, I accepted a tenure track position at Georgia State University (GSU) in Atlanta. At GSU, I am the Coordinator of the FL Teacher Education Program and I work with some of the best colleagues in our profession. Each year we prepare highly qualified language teachers in five different languages. I am also the Director of Graduate Studies for our department. I teach undergraduate and graduate classes in a variety of areas such as pedagogy and assessment, technology integration, and research in second language to name a few. 

As ACTFL President this year, we are focusing efforts on language teacher recruitment and retention. I've been writing about the language teacher shortage and the need to address teacher recruitment and retention in both Foreign Language Annals and The Language Educator. It's something that is close to my heart as we are advocating nationally for the Seal of Bliteracy and increased funding for world languages in the newly reauthorized Every Student Succeeds Act, formerly known as No Child Left Behind. I hope you will join the advocacy effort and let your legislators know about the virtues of language teaching and learning.  Finally, I hope to see you at the 2016 ACTFL Convention in Boston in November. It's ACTFL's 50th anniversary of the founding of the organization that is working daily to help language teachers and learners. 

Hello,

My name is Paula Dimler. I teach Spanish at Cody High School in Cody, Wyoming. I actually am on schedule to retire this year but recently renewed membership with ACTFL because I really don't know what lies around the next bend. I am a former Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador, South America, where my husband and I both served and am also proud to have a daughter who served as a Volunteer in the Dominican Republic. I am a veteran teacher but have always been passionate about the Spanish language. On a personal note my daughter married into a Spanish speaking family and my grand-daughter is growing up bilingual. She lives right here in Cody and just turned 2 years old in March. I love to hear language explode from her and am fascinated how at present she uses English and Spanish vocabulary interchangeably. She is yet to have a filter for one language over the other. 

 I have been eyeing the scholarship opportunities for Spanish in Mexico, Chile and Guatemala. I have been involved in mission work in Guatemala with Living Waters of the World and would genuinely just like an opportunity for an intensive language experience abroad as I have had in previous experiences in my past. I do not know if the scholarship opportunities through ACTFL are a match for me, but I am hopeful.

I wonder what others might contribute to this conversation.

Paula Dimler

Welcome to the ACTFL Community!

Our ACTFL community gets bigger every day. Many of you already know one another, while others are brand-new faces. For everyone new, and not-so-new, take a little time to introduce yourselves.

Share your name, where you're from, what language(s) you teach, at what level, and why you believe language education is important.

I'll start: I'm Genevieve, I'm the Membership Manager at ACTFL. I'm from Virginia and attended the University of South Florida in Tampa (Go Bulls!) One summer in college, I taught English in Costa Rica for to young adults, it was a learning experience for everyone! In college, I minored in Spanish and studied abroad in Salamanca, Spain. I think language education is important because it expands our horizons, exposes us to new cultures and traditions, and empowers us to learn a little more about the rest of the world. 

Join the conversation - introduce yourself today and begin networking with your peers. I look forward to "meeting" many of you, learning more about you, and hearing the opportunities and challenges that you are facing.

------------------------------
Genevieve Borello
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)
Membership Manager
gborello@actfl.org
(703) 894-2900
------------------------------

Welcome to the ACTFL Community!

Our ACTFL community gets bigger every day. Many of you already know one another, while others are brand-new faces. For everyone new, and not-so-new, take a little time to introduce yourselves.

Share your name, where you're from, what language(s) you teach, at what level, and why you believe language education is important.

I'll start: I'm Genevieve, I'm the Membership Manager at ACTFL. I'm from Virginia and attended the University of South Florida in Tampa (Go Bulls!) One summer in college, I taught English in Costa Rica for to young adults, it was a learning experience for everyone! In college, I minored in Spanish and studied abroad in Salamanca, Spain. I think language education is important because it expands our horizons, exposes us to new cultures and traditions, and empowers us to learn a little more about the rest of the world. 

Join the conversation - introduce yourself today and begin networking with your peers. I look forward to "meeting" many of you, learning more about you, and hearing the opportunities and challenges that you are facing.

------------------------------
Genevieve Borello
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)
Membership Manager
gborello@actfl.org
(703) 894-2900
------------------------------

Welcome to the ACTFL Community!

Our ACTFL community gets bigger every day. Many of you already know one another, while others are brand-new faces. For everyone new, and not-so-new, take a little time to introduce yourselves.

Share your name, where you're from, what language(s) you teach, at what level, and why you believe language education is important.

I'll start: I'm Genevieve, I'm the Membership Manager at ACTFL. I'm from Virginia and attended the University of South Florida in Tampa (Go Bulls!) One summer in college, I taught English in Costa Rica for to young adults, it was a learning experience for everyone! In college, I minored in Spanish and studied abroad in Salamanca, Spain. I think language education is important because it expands our horizons, exposes us to new cultures and traditions, and empowers us to learn a little more about the rest of the world. 

Join the conversation - introduce yourself today and begin networking with your peers. I look forward to "meeting" many of you, learning more about you, and hearing the opportunities and challenges that you are facing.

------------------------------
Genevieve Borello
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)
Membership Manager
gborello@actfl.org
(703) 894-2900
------------------------------

Hi Chris!

Here's my take on your conundrum.  I think you're putting your energy into the wrong place.  You're wondering about "how" you should teach.  I suggest you should be putting your energy into how well the students are learning.  (Learning being defined, in this case, as indicated by the ACTFL Standards, Proficiency Levels, Rubrics developed to determine formative and summative assessments.)  You can track your students now as they move from Novice-Low, Novice-Mid, Novice-High, etc.

If you usually teach by standing on your head in the middle of the classroom and spinning and your students are becoming proficient, keep spinning!  But, if students aren't becoming proficient, re-think the spinning thing.  ; - )

As a former World Language Coordinator, I always told "my" teachers, I don't care "how" you teach, as long as the students are becoming proficient.  But, if they're not becoming proficient, change what your doing.

Everything in your classroom should be driven by how proficient students are becoming in Communication.

Try something, if it works, keep it and improve on it.  Try something else, if it works, add it to your toolbox.

That's my take on it.

Regards,

db

Welcome to the ACTFL Community!

Our ACTFL community gets bigger every day. Many of you already know one another, while others are brand-new faces. For everyone new, and not-so-new, take a little time to introduce yourselves.

Share your name, where you're from, what language(s) you teach, at what level, and why you believe language education is important.

I'll start: I'm Genevieve, I'm the Membership Manager at ACTFL. I'm from Virginia and attended the University of South Florida in Tampa (Go Bulls!) One summer in college, I taught English in Costa Rica for to young adults, it was a learning experience for everyone! In college, I minored in Spanish and studied abroad in Salamanca, Spain. I think language education is important because it expands our horizons, exposes us to new cultures and traditions, and empowers us to learn a little more about the rest of the world. 

Join the conversation - introduce yourself today and begin networking with your peers. I look forward to "meeting" many of you, learning more about you, and hearing the opportunities and challenges that you are facing.

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Genevieve Borello
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)
Membership Manager
gborello@actfl.org
(703) 894-2900
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Hi everyone,

I'm Grant Boulanger, a Spanish teacher at a middle school near St. Paul, MN. I've been teaching for 16 years and in a variety of contexts - I helped cofound a project-based bilingual high school, taught middle school immersion but ultimately I've found passion teaching middle school novices in a traditional secondary program. 

I'm a firm believer in finding ways to deliver language that build real and measurable fluency. That may look different depending on one's context, but my path has been marked by an intense focus on getting better at making learning learning more meaningful, relevant and equitable to the students in front of me. I've learned I need to create an environment in which all my students are welcomed and honored - one which allows them to come into language learning on their own terms.

Language learning is important because it connects us. It connects us to others throughout the world, but equally as important is that it helps us trust and connect with our neighbors. I've learned, teaching novices, that building students' abilities to trust, connect with and honor one another is a crucial first step to helping them build bridges across world cultures.