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!