Life Skills...communicate in another language

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Speak with your students about why they are studying language- show the ACTFL oral proficiency levels in the workplace

World language skills are LIFE SKILLS! Click on life skills to read the link.  Learning languages connects to interpersonal, learning, presentational and writing skills.

Please remember if you have any creative or interesting writing pieces...submit them to Phoebus.      Just email phoebuslitmag@gmail.com

Remember, writing will look different in the novice and intermediate stages.  For more ideas, prompts and ACTFL guidelines...look back at the SLIDESHOW from our last meeting.

Library News:  Thanks to Kari Dalane for purchasing some new Spanish and French resources for the US library.  They are audio magazines with mp3 audios that can be put into dropbox.

Punto y Coma Spanish Audio Magazine

• Puntoycoma nace, sobre todo, del amor al aprendizaje de una segunda lengua y del interés por una cultura diferente a la nativa. 

• Puntoycoma se dirige a estudiantes que tienen un nivel medio-alto (niveles avanzado y superior del Instituto Cervantes y B2, C1 y C2 del Marco de Referencia Europeo) 

• Puntoycoma es una revista de actualidad escrita por periodistas y expertos en los distintos temas.

• En puntoycoma todos los artículos se presentan con un glosario de traducciones y en muchos de ellos hay ejercicios con sus correspondientes soluciones.

• Esencialmente, puntoycoma es una revista de audio con su CD en el que podemos escuchar una gran variedad de acentos del español.

Bien-dire French Audio Magazine - From France for learners of French

• Articles variés sur la culture francophone spécifiquement écrits par des spécialistes de l'apprentissage de FLE
• Lexique de mots traduits en contexte et expressions idiomatiques
• Niveau de CECR précisé à chaque article
• Nombreuses illustrations qui facilitent la compréhension
• Points de grammaire
• Articles lus par des natifs francophones
• Exercices interactifs basés sur des articles des magazines

Diversity in Depth-

David Grant has published a website with various aspects of our Potomac Diversity.  Click to see what some WL teachers have submitted about CULTURAL COMPETENCE in their classrooms. Please submit more to David Grant to update his site (include pictures)!

LS/MS Buddy update:  All languages represented!

How exciting that all of our languages will be heard in the LS and MS hallways in the next months. You all have been great about bringing in your students for a meeting time and exchange.   Some groups have already met, some are being scheduled and others are still getting ready to debut in 2016!  If you have expressed interest I will be contacting you directly and serving as your matchmaker with a younger class.  We will compare schedules and look for a suitable meeting time.

* Thanks to those that have begun to submit your syllabus/course description and final exams for your courses- please don't forget to include a placement exam for your language.  I will accept the submissions both online and in paper format (just leave in my mailbox or on my desk in the language office.)

Interested in ideas like these?  
Creativity in the Classroom: Fostering Student Learning Through Creative Language Experiences

Teaching Language Through the Lens of Social Justice

Teaching Heritage Languages and Learners

Take a look at CARLA- Center for Advanced Resarch on Language Adquisition and it's summer insitutes for language teachers
SUMMER institutes and more

AP course refresher and new courses

Interested in AP?  

check out dates

Tech news in US

• Aileen is compiling information on how we use various platforms, Haiku, Google Classroom, etc. in hopes of  streamlining our student communication, let her know your thoughts 
• US Library scanner: Lots that can be accomplished with the scanner, even the ability to make digital books of our texts 
• Some US teaches have begun to record their classes with ipads to document their curriculum and share lectures with students
• US Hubs use for creative projects (Could we make movies/news programs in languages?)
• Dec 1 teachers share tech at 3:15 in room U231

Core Values: In the Languages  Some teachers already have our school values in the languages in their classrooms! HERE is a link for English/Spanish...change it to your language and use

December 9 meeting agenda

Location : OFF CAMPUS! Carpool if you like, we will meet at Greenberry's Coffee House

Address: 6839 Redmond Dr, McLean, VA 22101
Phone:(703) 821-9500
please try to get there as close to 3:30 as possible

• Core values in our mission statement, department philosophy and classes
• Spanish teachers: you will have Descubre rep meet you at Greenberry's for a question and answer time
• Holiday cheer!  Happy December!

Be bilingual!

Download and share this fun poster with your students and colleagues to show how learning a second (or third) language can make you smarter.
Classroom posters: 5 ways Being Bilingual makes you smarter


November 11th Meeting- location: Michele Maxson's room Middle School off of the square
Agenda

• Brigitte- share
• Atlas in the real world (skills)
• Wrting exemplars- examples of student writing (BRING FOR EACH COURSE) What does writing look like at different stages of the language aquisition continuum?
• List of US candidates for Governor's School (bring names for Spanish, Latin, French): Criterion

* Thanks to those that have begun to submit your syllabus/course description and final exams for your courses- please don't forget to include a placement exam for your language.  I will accept the submissions both online and in paper format (just leave in my mailbox or on my desk in the language office.)

Projects 2015

I am beginning to compile a list of your projects (just new ideas you are working on)  for this year and am excited to see so many wonderful ideas. Please submit your idea to me either by Google Drive in the shared format or through email.  I will begin to set up appointments with you to see you and your projects at work in the classroom. 

I am happy to see that many teachers want to participate reaching out to a Lower or Middle School class.  I would love to see all languages represented! The activity need not be labor intensive, it can be as simple as reading a story, playing multiplication bingo, sharing a snack.  Look at a few ideas on these wikis below:

Helena Curtain

Wendy Brownell

Global Learning with Food

Building Bridges

Multi-lingual Magazine

Phoebus, Potomac's literary magazine, is officially accepting submissions. The magazine is going to be run online, so we will be taking submissions from a wide range of art styles; feel free to submit short stories, essays, visual art, photography, audio clippings, videos, or anything else you can think of. Just email phoebuslitmag@gmail.com with any submissions or questions.

We are hope to make Phoebus more interactive with the student body this year, and hope to be able to collaborate and discuss with other students on their writing and artwork. We also aim to have various get-togethers and activities with other interested students, so look out for more updates!

Upper School cell phone policy:

Please remember, Students are allowed to use cell phones during common free breaks and during lunch. They should not have them out in class unless the teachers ask them to take them out.

Changing Course Level – Grading Implications 

Becca clarifies some questions we may be having with this process... if you wonder, check out the link here

International Education Week: November 16-20, 2015

The 16th annual International Education Week (IEW) is November 16–20, 2015. This year's theme is "International Education: Advancing Access for All." Many activities—both virtual and in-person—are being planned around the country and the world.    Iniciatives

*Thanks to Ingrid and Sarah for updating us in their teaching from Middlebury interactive.  Could we see using this platform in other ways?   Have you taken a look at the demo?  Comment pros and cons.

Susan Lafky  
Susan Lafky, Middlebury Interactive’s lead German teacher, has been teaching world languages for parts of four decades, mostly in the Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia. At Fairfax, she also served as the Chair of the Foreign Language Department. Susan joined Middlebury Interactive full-time three years ago after health reasons made it impossible for her to continue at her classroom position. In our blog, she shares her thoughts on digital education, her students and the differences between teaching in the digital and brick-and-mortar classrooms.
what-students-really-think-about-learning-onlin

Lead with Languages!

I hope the first months of school have been getting off to a good start. Happy conferences and progress report writing!  If you have trouble with the link above, click here: Lead with Languages

Sharing a Classroom:
Our classroom designation can change from year to year and this year many of us find ourselves sharing a space and becoming more mobile.  Respecting each other's space and time in a shared classroom can be tricky.  If you have ideas, use the comment section to help each other out. Some ideas from the article attached are:
Stock up on everything
Keep it together and orgnaized
Prepare ahead of time
Collaborate with collegues
Bolster learning with mobile lessons
For more thoughts, read the complete article Lessons a La Cart

Subs in Upper School WL- Part 2  
Thanks for all of your patience with the emails this pst month trying to find sub coverage.  I will be emailing only those available during free blocks and putting together a schedule from there.  If you have any ideas to streamline the system, please don't hesitate to let me know.  Thanks!

Upper School Chromebook sign-up
Please use the calendar sign up for the Chromebooks.  We have a class set of 18 that can be used. You may check out the number of Chromebooks you need, so that others can share as well. They are housed in the World Language office in a couple of plastic bins.
*Remember that for MS/IS ipad checkout, an online calendar is also used

Library Usage-
Don't forget to tap into our MS/IS and US libraries.  Thanks to Kari Dalane we are working on Lib guides.  Please contact her directly to add to her list of resources in languages for our students.  Brian Parry has also purchased books in the last few years that are award winners and of diverse main characters. We can do research and connect other disciplines to ours, here is a list of ideas..
World Language Project Ideas

Midd Online- Thanks to Ingrid for this PDF of extension activities for the language classroom
Middlebury Extension Activities

US Spring Exam weight
The steering committee discussed the weighting of year-end US exams in terms of calculating semester grades. After much discussion of different alternatives—different weights for different grade levels or subjects—the committee decided to leave the existing exam weighting policy in place. In other words, final exams will primarily focus on the material studied in the second semester and will count for 20% (approximately) of the second semester grades.

Classroom projects for this year
Many of you have already shared ideas about projects you are continuing or initiating in your classes. I hope to be able to talk more with you about these projects and visit a class where I can see your project in place.  Please submit a form during our meeting about one idea you are developing and wish me to see and give you feedback on. Please bring a computer to our department meeting.


October meeting agenda
 I am beginning to collect course syllabi, placement exams and final exams (from last year) for our files.  Please bring what you have to the next meeting.  The items will be filed in our language office.  We can also begin an electronic file if you have any electronic copies of these items.  Please email me them as you can.

Our October 14th Meeting located in IS room- 187 (Sarah and Mark's classroom)
Please bring a computer to the meeting
1. Kahoot (Sarah Matey)
2. Announcements
3. VAIS update
4. Middlebury online demo

First Week!

Here is a summary of some of our summer shares.  Please take a look and see if anyone has done an experience you want to learn more about or want to be shared with your classes!

Sharing of summer experiences

• Carolina & Michele: AATSP : online tools, curriculum development, resources, assessment, different domains of language learning; games; insight into classrooms around country; networking; multi-level; themes: communicative language teaching; indigenous languages in the Americas & classroom incorporation; voice recording tech; ways to input authentic media  - interactive & free with Q&A incorporated; proficiency vs. performance
• connect with faculty
• service learning involvement
• Grant to China: Sarah Jessup: rethink China vis-a-vis age of travelers & for trip-traveling purposes & learning Chinese (slow down)
• Dan Shannon: Austin, TX: workshop for AP Lit; majority of teachers were experienced; pragmatic & methodological; instructor as leader of readers; how exams are graded & assessed; integration of literature and culture (push): looking at significant cultural understanding and context of literature; 3 docents & art presented in 3 different ways at museum/art gallery
• Tricia: AP grader in Cincinnati, Ohio; benchmarks & rubrics: ideas on how to provide feedback faster; networking of 1200 Spanish teachers
• Christine V: Dominican Republic service learning: Nobis Project; bringing global awareness & cultural competency to classroom without travel by students; framework focused on global issues and social justice; 1 week helping teachers at Mariposa with literacy, resources, etc.; 10 teachers then unpack what they’re learning @ Dominican history, race relations, global poverty
• Ingrid: 2 weeks in Westminster, MD: 40 experienced Chinese language teachers; scaffolding, UbD language; practice techniques & strategies to get students to speak/use language in class; also did translation work (art historian); Chinese ruware ceramics imperial pottery
• Sarah & Ingrid: Middlebury Interactive; training & conversations
• Cindy & Brigitte: took 19 US students to Quebec; practicing what they had learned in school; Gothic architecture & symbolism; customized trip makes it relevant to students; guides spoke in French; students had to speak in French; resilience & adaptability of students; only levels 3, 4, & 5 invited; stayed in 3 different hotels; 24-hr local tour guide (male)
• Cindy: 2 weeks in Brittany, France for a course; immersion

Paw Prints!

Check out news about this summer's trip to Quebec in the last Paw Prints!


One useful took is using an online planbook.  Many Potomac teachers already use this one! Check it out:

Planbook

Substitute Procedure for MS, IS and US in the WL Department

MS and IS

Please notify the department head, division head and administrative assistant of your absence.  A substitute will be found for you.  In the case of not finding a substitute the language teachers in the department will cover your class.  Covering your class is proctoring and you are in charge of leaving a lesson plan for your class.

US

Please notify both department head, division head and administrative assistant of your absence. Substitute teachers are not provided unless you have an extensive absence.  A language teacher in the department will cover your class.  Covering your class is proctoring and you are in charge of leaving a lesson plan for your class.

Michele sent in a cool contest for Spanish teachers!
Dia de los Muertos

Birthday, Cumpleaños, Anniversaire, Natalis, 生日
Please let me know of your birth date! We all need reasons to celebrate!

August 2016 Welcome Back!

Welcome Back!

I hope everyone has had a great summer!
It was fabulous to see those of you that could make it to our get together at the end of the summer.

This is our first entry of the year.  I will be putting up important information and articles/videos that can motivate us in our teaching.  Please feel free to comment or add to the information listed.  If you have a video or article that you would like me to post, please send it to me.

First meeting
Wednesday September 2, 10:30- 12
IS Room 184

Agenda

1. Ice breaker
2. Summer share- travels, conferences, AP
3. Share blog: preps, new budget procedure, Spanish adoption, archive of placement and exams, Middlebury/OPI trainings interest
4. Philosophy and mission
5. Core values - bridges, ACTFL Can do, exemplars, publicize

Teaching Assignments

Chinese

Ingrid
Chinese 1,2,3 and Advanced Chinese Studies 1

Sarah
IS 7 and 8, Chinese 4 and Advanced Chinese Studies 2


French

Kabahita
IS 7 and 8

Cindy
French 2, 3, AP French Language

Brigitte
French 2a,3a, Advanced French Studies 1 and 2 and Masterpieces of French Literature

Antonietta
French 4and 5

Latin

Sarah
IS 7 and 8

Jason
Latin 2a,3,4a,5,AP Latin Vergil, Independent Study

Don
3a

Spanish

Michele
MS 4 and 3 sections of 5

Diana
MS 1 section of 5, 4 sections of 6th and IS 1 section of 8th

Christine
7th and 1 section of 8th

Mark
IS 1 section of 8th, US Spanish 2

Tricia
Spanish 1,2,AP Spanish Language

Tracy
Spanish 2a and 3, 3a

Carolina
Spanish 3 and Electives: (Fall- Span in the Media/Sp- The Art of Spain)

Daniel
Spanish 4, AP Spanish Literature and Advanced Spanish Studies

Alex
Advanced Spanish Studies