The IEFLA Polyglot - February, 2014

poly

The Digital Polyglot

A publication of the Inland Empire World Language Association since 1985

February, 2014

Editor - Bethany Thompson
Asst. Editor - Trini Rios

IN THIS ISSUE:

  • IEFLA Winter Workshop
  • CLTA Conference
  • IEFLA Mini-Grants
  • Low Desert Share-A-Thon
  • Tech Corner – Padlet
  • IEFLA’s World Language Binder
  • YouTube Clip – McDonald’s Ad in Spanish
  • French Cultural Newsletter
  • Dear Poly
  • Spanish Documentary Online
  • Olympic Games
  • The Four C’s of Common Core
  • Homework Load

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

heart

IEFLA Winter Workshop
California State University, San Bernardino
College of Education, Room CE-116
Saturday, February 22, 2014
8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Registration Deadline - Friday, February 14, 2014

Planning a World Language Thematic Unit in the Common Core Era
with
Svetlana Lazarova, California Outstanding World Language Teacher 2010

Register online with credit card at http://iefla.weebly.com/.

Download and mail registration with a check. http://www.iefla.org/commoncore.pdf/

bridge

CLTA Conference Registration Booklet Now Online

Register before February 28 to avoid a late fee.

San Diego March 13-16, 2013

Download the CLTA Registration Booklet and go to website to register online. http://www.clta.net/conference/

On Thursday and Friday, there are 25 workshops to choose from including Common Core training.

On Saturday and Sunday, there are 93 Interest sessions to choose from including Common Core.

IEFLA Mini-Grants

The IEFLA Mini-Grant Committee wants to thank all of the participants of this year mini-grant.  We had ten of participants and only three mini-grants.

The recipients of this year mini-grant are: Elle Strickland, Courtney Ziani, and Irma Yepiz. Each will receive $200 to use to promote world language instruction in their classrooms.

The committe wishes to thank you for your commitment in enhancing instruction for students learning a foreign language. We hope you will remain engaged with IEFLA and please apply again next year.

Keep up the great work you all do in your classrooms.

Low Desert Share-A-Thon

Teaching Strategies and Student Activities for Comprehensible Input 

Monday, February 24th from 5pm to 7pm at Xavier College Preparatory High School in Palm Desert, CA

Let us share how we engage our students in effective communication in the target language!

For additional information go to http://www.iefla.org/.

Workshop is free, but you must register online.  To register go to http://iefla.weebly.com.

We look forward to seeing you in February!

For more information, please contact Artel Garcia at agarcia@xavierprep.org or Adrian Torres at atorres@xavierprep.org.

tech

Tech Corner 


Each month we will explore a different aspect of technology that can help you in your classroom.  This month: Padlet.com  Padlet is a free app that allows you to build a virtual wall on which your students can post.  You can customize your wall background, privacy settings and moderation settings.  Check out this innovative activity from Mlledecker.blogspot.com.  Students don’t need an account to post.  Try it yourself by posting on “Why I joined IEFLA” wall.

 

 

IEFLA’s World Language Binder

IEFLA’s World Language Binder – for general information that applies to all language teachers including tabs for all of the links to websites featured in the Tech Corner, Common Core, participation and much, much more! 

Check out the new tab of Valentine’s Activities!

 

youtube

YouTube Clip of the Month

McDonald’s Ad in Spanish

 

French Cultural Newsletter

Do you subscribe to the French cultural newsletter?  Get the latest information on events in Southern California by signing up at the French Culture Newsletter page.

Poly

 

Dear Poly
Each month Poly responds to your questions.  Do you have a question for Poly?  Submit your question by filling in the form here.


Dear Poly,

HELP!! HELP!! HELP!! HELP!! My principal keeps telling us that we ALL must be addressing the Common Core Standards, but the standards are just for Math and English Language Arts! What is he talking about? What are we supposed to be doing?

Confused on Colton!



Dear Confused,

I think there are a lot of teachers who are feeling the same way you are. But never fear. IEFLA will be holding a workshop on Saturday, February 22, 2014, that will help you make sense of the Common Core State Standards and their relationship to world language instruction. Don't miss this great workshop. Go to http://www.iefla.org/ for details and registration. (Registration deadline is February 14.)

In addition, there will be pre-conference workshops and conference interest sessions available for you right down in San Diego and the beautiful Town and Country Resort in Hotel Circle. Download the CLTA Registration Booklet and go to website to register online. http://www.clta.net/conference/

Poly


Do you have a question for Poly?  Submit your question by filling in the form here.

Check out CLTA on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/CLTA.net and on Twitter @cltatweets

 

Spanish Documentaries Online

Somos Documentales from http://www.rtve.es tons of Spanish documentaries online.  Search by category or keyword.

Olympic Games

FranceBleu.fr has a great series of infographics for each sport with vocabulary and illustrations.

The Four C’s of Common Core

ESchoolnews.com has broken down how the four C’s (communication, creativity, collaboration and critical thinking) work in Common Core.  Read the article here.

Homework Load

In this short month here are some tips and ideas for streamlining your homework and grading tasks. 

Don’t “collect” homework unless it’s something creative (personal questions, composition, etc.)  Quickly check off students’ homework and have them correct it in class.  If you’re finding that students aren’t correcting their homework in class try a “homework pop quiz.”  Ask students to take out a blank sheet of paper and their notebook.  Ask them to “copy” certain exercises from their homework.  If they’ve corrected their answers they should theoretically have 100% on the pop quiz.  (From Beth Damascus via FLTeach)  Another great idea is to have students only be able to use their homework as part of their quiz.

Record students’ homework grades in a centralized location – on a calendar or paper in their notebooks and collect once a month.  You can walk around and see everyone’s homework daily, but only have one grade to enter into the computer.

Give a free homework coupon (or bathroom pass) for anyone students who do all of their homework in one grading period.

Try a homework “Choose your own” where students choose their own homework for the night.  This “Tarea Semanales” is a great starting point for ideas or “The Real World” Homework idea from The Creative Language Class. 

Shannon in Ottawa has a nifty chart for what we assign for homework, why and some alternatives.  (Examples for Math, but easily transferable to language!)

What to do with students who don’t complete their homework?  Have them call home and explain to their parents that you are concerned about their grade. 

The Polyglot is a publication of the Inland Empire Foreign Language Association. For questions or comments, contact Bethany Thompson, editor, bethany_thompson@avusd.org or Trini Rios, trios327@gmail.com. Would you like to help with the Polyglot? Contact Bethany Thompson, editor, at bethany_thompson@avusd.org.