Wearing trademark bowtie (2004) 

District Assessments

It seems I've been working on my district assessments forever. In reality, it's only been about five years, but my expertise in the language language does not always jive with the expereince of assessment professionals in the district. For example, my assessment office desires "discrete" standards, and rejects the blend of the 5 C's. Any of your insights would be most welcome.

New Language Teachers: The First Week

Schools opened for my school district today. In the next week, I will briefly visit my 15 new language teachers. What are you presently doing with your new teachers?

I already had an all-day in-service with my language teachers about ten days ago. Here was my agenda for that-day:

I. Introductions:

II. First Day Preparation: “District Overview”

III. BEST NEW Teachers Meetings

IV. Standards/Best Practices: Video

V. NILA/CSC/ACTFL/AATSP/AATF/AATG

VI. CAL Booklets: Language Issues/Terminology

VII. Marzano: Non-linguistic Approaches

VIII. Lunch on your own: 11 a.m-12:30 p.m.

IX. District Overview: Motivation; Struggling students; Professional Development

VI. Marzano Strategies


Thoughout the year, we will meet monthly to discuss a variety of topics. For instance, in mid-September, I will meet with them as a group to discuss classroom mangagement issues.

Professional Development Readings

Just got off the phone with David Jahner, NADSFL President, and he was musing about this question.

What sort of language supervisory materials do you often use with teachers? Por moi, I use the following: "ACTFL Performance Guidelines," "NADSFL Characteristics of Effective Foreign Language Teaching," "Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century," "IN-VISION materials, "Languages and Children: Making the Match," "Teacher's Handbook: Contextualized Language Instruction," "Nebraska Framework for FL Learning," "FL Articulation," and "Understanding by Design."

I'd be interested in learning what others are using....