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CLTA Online Newsletter CLTA Newsletter Spring Issue 2019
In This Issue
Conference Wraps
Advocacy Report
Don Doehla
Margaret Peterson
Summer Seminar
World Languages Framework
Summer Student Workshop
CLTA Looking for Confer-ence Chairs
San Jose Conference Wraps
By Tanya Zaccone
Congratulations to FLASCC and CLTA Conference Teams and all the
people who helped make this conference one of our most successful
in recent times. Headed by Mireille McNab and Michael Vossen, the
FLASCC Local Committee paid attention to every detail and more,
thinking of all the extra touches that brought a sense of
togetherness and humanity to our event. Paula and her team, Bethany
Thompson, Evelyn Bejarano, Nancy Perez, Carol Sparks, and our
photographer Cameron Chien, delivered a well-organized and
accommodating event for our professional family. Every minute was
filled with learning, sharing, meeting new colleagues and
connecting with old friends, celebrating transitions, celebrating
the now and giddily
looking to the future. Whew! That's a busy conference.
A highlight of the Saturday Awards luncheon was the presentation
of the CLTA-CIEE 2019 Language Student of the Year to Juan-Carlos
Lopez, who will live, study, and do service in Japan this summer.
Juan-Carlos's teacher and his parents were in attendance. Kyra
Batarse and Dakota Mendoza-Lewis were the two runners-up and were
recognized. This is the second year of the Student of the Year
program, as part of the Global Navigators program. The winner
receives a
$5,000 scholarship and the runners-up each receive $2,500 for
their travel-study.
After an inspiring welcome by Professor Emerita Carmen Sigler
from Santa Clara University, at the Saturday Plenary, Francisco
Jimenez shared vignettes and background stories from his literary
works. Attendees were able to speak personally to him and to buy
his books, as well as
books from Bill Van Patten.
From workshops and interest sessions, to TOY Talks and the
Awards Luncheon and Gala Sunday Brunch, we accomplished much in
four short days. We celebrated our Outstanding Teachers (Esther
Chau, Angela Raines & Cindy Triffo), CWLP Outstanding
Teacher-Leader Peggy Kao, 2018 & 2019 Hal Wingard Awardees
Alice Bell and Baocai Paul Jia, the Lorraine D'Ambruoso Award of
Meritorious Service to the Profession to Helene Chen, and our 2018
CLTA & California Teacher of the Year recognized our new 2019
TOY, Iman Hashem, who will represent California
at the SWCOLT Conference.
Due to the generosity of Cemanahuac Cuernavaca and the Spanish
government, Brian Whitfield will study in Cuernavaca, Mexico and
Julia Airapetyan will study in Spain this summer. Each of these
summer adventurers will receive a $300 LangAbroD stipend to help
cover travel and personal expenses. Our president Tonja Byrom
presented the President's Award to Laurie Stapleton, Director of
Secondary Education in the Santa Clara Unified School District.
And
we thank ACIS for generously providing a free trip to Barcelona
to a lucky winner!
We recognized Carol Sparks for her more than 40 years as
Exhibits Chair, and celebrated CWLP Executive Director Duarte Silva
all weekend long as he steps aside into retirement, and
heartily
welcome Margaret Peterson as the new CWLP leader.
Under the leadership of Joseph Pearson and Suzanne Contreras,
affiliates met together for the second year to discuss mutual ideas
and concerns, along with the help of Susie Watt, our liaison from
the California Department of Education. These ideas will be brought
back to the board for
further discussion, and are making an impact on how we move into
the future.
Click HERE for more Conference Wraps!
Become a CLTA Member
Now—https://clta.net/clta-member-benefits/
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Advocacy Avenue: How You Can Get Involved
At the Conference, we officially launched the first stage of our
member advocacy plan. For those who weren’t able to attend, it is
my pleasure to inform you that we are planning a series of filed
visits to legislators in various districts throughout California
asking for their support on issues that affect language learning
and teaching. All of this leads up to a big rally we’re planning at
the State Capitol in Sacramento in February 2020 celebrating
National Lead With Languages Advocacy Month and CLTA’s 50
th Anniversary!
However, in order for this to happen we need your help. Don’t
worry, we’ll prep you for it. In the next few weeks we will have a
training guide we will put on our website We want you go out in the
field and speak with your legislators at their district offices
either individually or in groups. Please take a few moments to fill
out the following survey and let us know what’s on your mind:
https://goo.gl/forms/PSMzACbzxbeROJzL2 . You don’t have to be a
member of CLTA to participate in these events so please pass the
link along to your colleagues with the hopes they will get
involved, too. The more the merrier because “if we’re not at the
table, then we’re on the menu.”
Lastly, I want to remind all of you that I’m here to help.
Thanks to CLTA Member and German Teacher Angela Raines at last
year’s conference about her concern of the state of German programs
in California, CLTA was able to start a task force of Angela,
myself, and 2 others to work on solving this problem. As a result,
over the past year we have started to partner with other
organizations to help us and the German teachers had a chance to
meet in-formally at the Conference to express their needs.
I want to take this opportunity to remind you that I am your
voice, but I can’t speak for you unless I know what you’re
thinking. As Angela told me a few weeks ago, “don’t be the frog in
the boiling water who doesn’t know he’s being cooked until it’s too
late”. In other words, don’t wait until it’s too late to speak up.
Tell me what you need, tell me what good you are doing in your
schools to inspire others. Let’s keep the lines of communication
open so your professional development organization can continue to
serve you to its fullest.
Have a great rest of the school year and I look forward to
speaking to you again in our Summer newsletter!
Advocacy Report
By: Tom Beeman, CLTA Advocacy Chair
[email protected]
Post-conference salutations! It was great seeing everyone in San
José with a special shout out to my fellow CALLI members. I can’t
wait to see how you continue to grow as leaders in the language
teaching community. Also, welcome to our newest Advocacy Committee
member Josefina Cid.
Legislative Watch
In February, a delegation from California went to Washington,
D.C. for National Lobby Day where we had a chance to discuss
important issues such as increased funding for language education
and for study abroad programs. There were over 160 delegates from
42 states plus the District of Columbia who met with legislators
and their aides on Capitol Hill on Valentine’s Day. For the first
time some states brought student delegates.
One of the issues we advocated for on Capitol Hill is the
Biliteracy Education Seal and Teaching Act, other-wise known as the
BEST Act. While California already has a State Seal of Biliteracy
(see the presentation from the CLTA Conference for more information
https://goo.gl/LDKfnA), some students need to take a test to meet
the new oral proficiency requirement and the BEST Act would help
districts offset the cost of these tests. We will be keeping an eye
on how this bill progresses when it is introduced.
The California Legislature started a new session in January and
with that comes the start of a new 2-year legislative cycle. Thus
far there have not been any bills introduced that are related to
language learning and teaching. However, we are keeping an eye on
any bills that might come through in the coming weeks. In the
meantime, we can celebrate the successful adoption of new State
Standards and the current formation of a Framework!
https://goo.gl/forms/PSMzACbzxbeROJzL2https://goo.gl/forms/PSMzACbzxbeROJzL2mailto:[email protected]://goo.gl/LDKfnAhttps://goo.gl/LDKfnAhttps://www.zazzle.com/clta+gifts
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Welcome Margaret Peterson, New CWLP Executive Director
Margaret Peterson is working with languages again, and feels
that in many ways she has come home. CLTA is happy to welcome her.
Margaret’s first love in the profession was as a Japanese teacher.
She then became Program Administrator for World Language at San
Francisco State
University. She was Site Director and Team Member at the
Stanford World Language Project and held that position for many
years. Before becoming the Executive Director of the California
World Language Project (CWLP), she was principal at Lowell High
School in San Francisco.
You can see that although we must bid farewell to Duarte Silva
in this position, we are in good hands with Margaret. She is
working hard and juggling many hats in her new position, and she is
at the same time working on her doctorate as the University of San
Francisco in Educational Leadership.
Summer Seminar happens with work and skill. Margaret has been a
participant at Summer Seminar and was a facilitator at STARTALK for
many years, so she knows and recognizes the task before her as her
new position includes being Co-Convener for-Summer Seminar in Santa
Barbara.
Being Executive Director of CWLP, says Margaret, “is the best
professional learning that any educator could ever hope for.”
Don Doehla, MA, NBCT
Don Doehla is already working hard to bring the 2019 Summer
Seminar to fruition. He replaces our beloved Lorraine D’Ambroso,
Co-Convener for the last several years, and longtime former CLTA
Executive Director.
Don comes to the position with impeccable credentials and
experience. While a teacher of French at Vintage HIgh School in
Napa and Vallejo High School, he began his service with Edutopia
and is Co-Director of the Berkeley World Language Project. At
Summer Seminar Don is well known as the PBLL guy (Project Based
Language Learning - teaching languages through an inquiry-based
approach), and the Twitter Guy. He holds an annual Summer Seminar
Twitter Contest which encourages participants to tweet all week
long about their learning and experiences. He has published books
on PBLL and has held work-shops at Summer Seminar and many other
venues on the subject. He is also interested in tech tools and
authentic resources in culturally relevant contexts with
proficiency-based linguistic outcomes.
Don has lived and studied all over the world, holding a BA in
French from UC Berkeley, and an MA in French from UC Santa Barbara.
He is a National Board Certified Teacher, and holds the CLAD and
the CA Single Subject Teaching Credential in both French and
History. He was honored as the 2015 California Language Teacher of
the Year.
In spite of his many accomplishments and responsibilities, Don
is a very approachable guy, so if you haven’t yet had the pleasure
of his acquaintance, please say hello and get to know him at Summer
Seminar 2019.
Join CLTA at https://clta.net
https://www.zazzle.com/clta+giftshttps://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe_8mnt0sckP4hTgnWNIhXHuj40w9faYcPBfxGyUep3UvvRNQ/viewform
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https://clta.net/summer-seminar/
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The World Languages Framework
The World Languages Framework Writing Team is asking for input
to develop a bank of instructional strategies, lesson “snapshots”,
and lesson “vignettes” in order to provide rich guidance to the
teachers of California as they implement the new World Languages
Standards. The examples that we collect in this effort will be used
as determined by the writers to fulfill
the needs of the Framework.
We are looking to collect samples from different age-levels
(elementary, middle, high school), a wide variety of languages
(including ASL), and multiple Modes of Communication (Interpretive,
Interpersonal, and Presentational) and Proficiency
Ranges/Phases (Novice-Superior).
The three links below will take you, if you choose to
participate, to a set of Google Docs (you will be required to make
a
copy) to record your ideas. We welcome multiple submissions from
everyone!
Once you are finished, you use the link below to access the
Submission Form to copy the “Share” link (set to “Can Edit”) and
paste it in the Form. That will automatically create a bank of
examples that the Writing Team will be able to access as
needed to flesh out the samples and examples of best practices
that are needed for an effective Framework.
Submission Form (one per file)
Instructional Strategies
Lesson Snapshots
Vignettes
Interested in Teaching Languages and Cultures? Please Apply for
this Exciting Opportunity
(College Sophomores and Juniors are encouraged to apply)
The California Language Teachers’ Association and
The California World Language Project Present
Summer Student Workshop on Language Teaching for Prospective
World Language and Cultural Teachers
In conjunction with the 30th Annual Summer Seminar for Language
Teachers July 19 – July 24, 2019
University of California, Santa Barbara Application Deadline –
May 15,
We are pleased to announce that the California Language
Teachers’ Association (CLTA) and the California World Language
Project are again co-sponsoring the Student Workshop at the Summer
Seminar this coming summer. The 30th Annual Summer Seminar and
Student Workshop will take place at the University of California,
Santa Barbara from July 19-24, 2019 and will offer a program
especially designed to introduce
language majors and minors to world language education as a
viable career option.
The Student Workshop will focus on exploring teaching world
languages in the context of teaching languages and cultures in our
increasingly diverse society and global economy. This will involve
examining teaching strategies and lesson design, and interacting
with language professionals who will share their experiences,
philosophies and knowledge with prospective language teachers.
Participants also will explore different pathways to becoming
certified teachers of world languages and cultures and the support
mechanisms that exist to help them navigate the application
processes, entrance
exams and related credentialing programs’ tuition costs.
CLTA and CWLP have collaborated in leveraging funding to cover
the Summer Seminar’s program costs, so registration, lodging and
meals will be
covered for all student participants (transportation not
included).
Need more reasons to apply for this exciting opportunity?
Read student comments HERE Student Strand Brochure and
Application
PowerPoint Presentation HERE Nominator’s Packet for Student
Strand
https://goo.gl/forms/gqn07EVdn0kSR3Pf1https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hqItGevZMWmsKEPMjE_u5mVaKAgcu0sbfjjPfojnoEo/copyhttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1IC45SHw4D-HTCEnNHEkC0323YktT-_DLJvfyG3og-S8/copyhttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1SW2Z44UMsKvgfjYbQOvHbzf2dAaM4t6yaMKYoFNa9GU/copyhttps://clta.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Summer-Workshop-on-Language-Teaching-Students-Participants.pdfhttps://clta.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Student-brochure-2019-1.pdfhttps://clta.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Student-Strand-with-comments-update.pdfhttps://clta.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/nominatorsfinal-packet-2019-1.pdf
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Contact Us
CLTA California Language Teachers’ Association
Tanya Zaccone, Executive Director Email: exec-
[email protected]
Visit us on the web at www.clta.net
View CLTA Events at https://clta.net/events/
CLTA IS LOOKING FOR TWO CHAIRS FOR THE 2020 CONFERENCE TEAM
For the 2020 Conference, the new Awards Chair will shadow the
current Awards Chair, Alexis Frink and be part of the committee
that choses both the award and grant winners. For the 2021
Conference, the new Awards Chair will become part of the Conference
Team headed by the Confer-ence Coordinator. As a part of the
Conference Team, CLTA will pay for the Awards Chair’s travel,
registration and hotel room for Friday-Saturday
Conference.
For the 2020 Conference, the new Exhibits Chair will meet with
the out-going chair, Carol Sparks, to learn about how to do the job
and contact the regular CLTA exhibitors. In addition, the new
Exhibits Chair will work with Carol to encourage CLTA vendors to
buy a booth for the joint SWCOLT/CLTA Conference. For the 2021
Conference, the new Exhibits Chair will become part of the
Conference Team headed by the Conference Coordi-nator. As a part of
the Conference Team, CLTA will pay for the Exhibits Chair’s travel,
registration and hotel room for Wednesday-Saturday Pre-
Conference Workshops and regular Conference.
If you are interested in applying for either of these positions,
please send a resume, a list of events that you have worked on in
your affiliate or in another organization as well as a personal
statement explaining why you are qualified for this position to me
at [email protected]
See the list of duties HERE.
Conference Wraps con’t.
Something new and exciting is our new work with the ASL
community. We spend a couple of hours discussing pathways forward
to bring this important language into the CLTA family. Thanks to
Jody Klopp, Executive Director of SWCOLT and others who attended
the meeting, we have a road map for next year's collaborative
conference in Anaheim for the ASL
teaching community.
I only echo the words of the many attendees who said to me about
this conference - I learned so much, this was great fun, I think
this is the best conference in years, my workshop, my
session was outstanding, and I can't wait for next year!
Speaking of next year, well, let's just say some of us sang a
Mickey Mouse song adaptation and we viewed a beautiful FLA-OC video
inviting to Disneyland next year. I know we are all getting ready
for that in celebration of our CLTA 50th
anniversary, in conjunction with SWCOLT.
http://clta.net/mailto:[email protected]://clta.net/awards-chair-duties/
