The Digital Polyglot

A publication of the Inland Empire World Language Association since 1985

May, 2016

Editor - Bethany Thompson
Asst. Editor - Trini Rios

In this Issue:

IEFLA's Spring Workshop a Huge Success
Did you miss Saturday's workshop?
Cinco de Mayo Ideas
Mother's Day and Father's Day
Starring EUrope! - EU Film Festival
IEFLA is now on Twitter!
27th Annual Summer Seminar at UC Santa Barbara
Honors Reception a Huge Success
Tech Corner - Google Save
YouTube Clip of the Month
Spanish in a Day - Video Contest
#authres
Mapping Indigenous LA Project
Languages in the News

IEFLA's Spring Workshop a Huge Success

Over 50 teachers attended "Give It Your Best Shot!" The evaluations are coming in, and they are getting very high ratings. Although Kara and Megan were just returning from four days of training in Shanghai, China, they were vibrant and alert and did a masterful job. The teachers really appreciated seeing specific examples where organizing a unit on culture adds so much meaning to the unit. The segment on proficiency showed exactly what proficiency is and how to measure it.

Our deep appreciation to Kara and Megan for coming all the way to California after a week in China and one day at home (Denver and Louisville). We were lucky to get them.

Did you miss the workshop on Saturday? 

Want more from Megan and Kara from Creative Learning Class?  Check out their Cinco de Mayo activities and blog post http://www.creativelanguageclass.com/authres/culture/mexico/celebrate-the-cinco/ . 

Cinco de Mayo Ideas

Looking for an inforgraphic to talk about Cinco de Mayo?  Look no further than mundofox.com <http://mundofox.com>

A short Cinco de Mayo <http://www.mundomax.com/noticias/el-cinco-de-mayo-14964>  video for students in English.

Mother's Day and Father's Day

Looking for quick and simple ideas to celebrate Mother's or Father's Day with your students?  Check out IEFLA's Pinterest board <https://www.pinterest.com/IEFLA/mothersfathers-day/> .  

Starring EUrope!

May 12, 2016-- May 19, 2016
The EU Film Festival provides an opportunity for international cinema enthusiasts in Los Angeles to celebrate and discover contemporary films from across the European Union.

Spotlighting festival award winners from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland and Spain, the short and feature films here embody the rich heritage and diversity of cinema from Europe. With talent from the films invited to speak at screenings and an opening-night reception, this is an ideal way for expats and Los Angeles residents alike to experience these European delicacies.

May 12- May 19, 2016 |
Egyptian Theatre. 6712 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028
Aero Theatre, 1328 Montana Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90403
http://www.americancinemathequecalendar.com/content/starring-europe-new-films-from-the-eu-0

IEFLA is now on Twitter!  Follow us @iefla_tweets!

27th Annual CLTA / CWLP Summer Seminar at Santa Barbara
July 15 - 20, 2016
University of California, Santa Barbara

The theme this year is: Common Core and World Language Education: Enhancing Global Competence and Academic Performance
Register online NOW!

The 2016 Seminar Program Strand offerings are:

A: Academic Language, Literacy, and Culture for Heritage Speakers of Spanish: Aligning Heritage Speakers Course Content with Advanced Placement® Curricula Themes
B: Designing Instruction, Learning, and the “Beyond” with Technology Tools
C: French as a World Language for Global Competence
D: Integrated Performance Assessment: Real-World Assessments for Real-World Global Competence and Performance
E: Project-Based Language-Learning (PBLL): Engaging Students in Productive Inquiry to Achieve Global Competence
F: STARTALK Leadership Development for Teachers of Critical Languages and Cultures
G: Teaching Italian to 21st Century Learners: Lesson Design that Inspires Global Competence
H: Teaching Japanese to Build and Enhance Global Competence

Furthermore, I hope that you also will share the information with your colleagues and encourage them to attend as well.

Should you have any questions or need more information regarding this year's seminar, please do not hesitate to contact us at: worldlanguagesummerseminar@gmail.com

Honors Reception - 500 in Attendance

Forty teachers from the Inland Empire honored 200 students at the 17 Annual Honors Reception. There were a total of 500 people in attendance. Highlights of the evening were Grupo Folklórico Ilusión​, Directed by Janette Peña, welcome by Terry Ballman, Dean of the College of Arts and Letters, and a Skype conference call with a Chinese civil engineer working in Hanoi, but the most important was honoring each of the outstanding students with a certificate and photo ops.

Tech Corner 

Google Save is a Google wonder that allows you to save websites and images in one place.  Download the new Save to Google extension.   One-click save: Click the star to save webpages for later viewing. Easily navigate your saves via an intuitive visual UI.    One spot for webpages and Images: Your saved webpages and saved images from Google Image Search will live together at google.com/save.  Find a great website or picture you want for later?  Try Google Save!

YouTube Clip of the Month

Señor Jordan has an entire channel of videos to help students learn Spanish.

La Biografia de Martin Rico from the Museo del Prado. Claude Rico Robert, granddaughter of the artist, shares his biography... in French!

Spanish in a Day Video Contest

CNN Article on a man who wanted to cross the ocean in an inflatable bubble and resources to go with it from
Spanish in a Day Video Contest

Do you have students who are creative with video?

http://www.concedecine.com/ is having a Spanish video contest.  Entries are due May 31. 

#authres

Les legumes bio et les saisons – Use this Carrefour “calendrier” to practice seasons and vegetables.

The best haircuts from the Les Bleus.  Which one is your favorite.

Curated list of #authres for Spanish class from Authentic Resources for Spanish Class.  (Possibly the best name ever for this type of website!)

The “Because Game”- Have a few minutes left in class?  Use this no-prep simple activity to get students talking.

Activities, Activities, Activities

Memory Card Game- Take the game Memory to a new level and get your students to use complete sentences.

“How To Create A Well Built Foundation For New Units: Get Your Tools Lined Up!” Read the #langchat summary of the April 11 discussion: “Structuring & Designing New Units in the World Language Classroom,” available at Calico Spanish.

Weekend Chat Speed Dating - An interpersonal activity for getting students talking to each other about what they did over the weekend, with a handout provided! 

Español Abierto is a website that offers free videos, lessons and activities for Spanish class.

Two quick no-prep filler activities that you can do from students from Teach them English.

Spanish Poem and exercises to go with it from Spanish Playground.

Mapping Indigenous LA Project

The Mapping Indigenous LA Project is a story mapping project that makes visible the Indigenous history of LA, from pre-contact times through the many diasporas and re-locations that have resulted in a rich collection of overlapping indigenous communities that are often invisible not only to non-indigenous people but also to each other.  Here is an example of a storymap - different locations on the map link to multimedia components explaining the significance of that place to the Latin American indigenous diaspora.  Explore the website at https://mila.ss.ucla.edu/.  Here is a recent news article about the project and website.

Languages in the News

“Push on to get recognition for students who master foreign languages”

“STEM is missing an important subject”

“Identify any language at a glace”