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The Digital Polyglot
A publication of the Inland Empire World Language Association since 1985
March, 2017
Editor - Bethany Thompson
Asst. Editor - Trini Rios |
In this issue:
- CLTA/CWLP SUmmer Seminar at UC Santa Barbara
- IEFLA/CASLA Honors Reception 2017
- Acto Latino Theater Group Presents
- Summer Language Institute - France/Mexico
- National Foreign Language Week
- Tried and True
- Ideas, Ideas, Ideas
- ACTFL OPI Training
- Need a Brain Break?
- Apply for Teachers Crossing Borders Educator Trips
- Languages in the News
- Tech Corner
- YouTube Clip of the Month
- Spanish Corner
- French Corner
- German Corner
- Job Openings
- ACTFL Position Paper
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CLTA/CWLP Summer Seminar at
UC Santa Barbara
Summer Seminar 2017 in Santa Barbara is just around the corner, July 14-19! For more information visit the Summer Seminar Webpage.
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18th Annual Inland Empire Language Association
Honors Reception
Nominate your students online.
Outstanding World Language Student Honors Reception
Nomination deadline March 23, 2017
On Wednesday, May 3, 2017, IEFLA and the Cal State San Bernardino Center for the Advancement of Second Language Acquisition will be sponsoring an Honors Reception to recognize outstanding foreign language students. The reception will be at 5:00 p.m. at California State University San Bernardino.
Inland Empire world language teachers are invited to submit the names of students of any level whose world language achievement they would like recognized at the Honors Reception. No more than five students may be nominated per teacher.
Nominate your students online.
Deadline for nominations is March 23, 2017, or as soon as the 40 teacher limit is reached. |

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Acto Latino presents
El soldado razo
play by Luis Valdez
El cruce de sueños
immigration experiences of
Acto Latino Students
Friday, March 10, 2017, 7:30 pm
Santos Manuel Theater
Cal State San Bernardino
Admission $5, presented in Spanish with English supertitles |
Summer Language Institute in Angers, France, and Cuernavaca, Mexico
Offered by Southern Oregon University, this program enables you to earn in Master's degree while immersing yourself in the culture of France or Mexico while working as a practicing teacher. Session 1: June 25-July 14, 2017. Session 2: July 16-August 4, 2017. Application Deadline is March 3, 2017. Only 4 weeks left to apply. For information and application. |
National Foreign Language Week
March 5-11, National Foreign Language Week,. The theme for 2017 is “Find the Missing Piece. Learn a Language.” Learn more about the background of National Foreign Language Week and get ideas and resources from Massachusetts FLA, ICTFL, and FL Teach. |
Tried and True
In 2017 we’re going to showcase one tried and true activity each month. You know, that one activity that always works. That one activity you know will get student’s talking. Some you may know, some you may have used and forgotten about and some may be completely new to you!
This month: Tic Tac Toe Take a typical Tic Tac Toe grid and fill it with pictures, questions, or sentence starters. Students play Tic Tac Toe by saying a sentence, answering a question or finishing the sentence. Create two or three different Tic Tac Toe grids so that students can play more than once. |
Ideas, Ideas, Ideas
Here are some activities and ideas to get students talking about something from the Fiesty Language Teacher.
Looking for ideas to scaffold #authres activities? Here are a few via Discovering CI (via Nicole Naditz.)
Thinking of teaching a novel in class? Here are some more resources (via CASLS)
Allison of the Mis Clases Locas blog shares very helpful suggestions for teaching novels in language classes. In addition to a step-by-step set of suggestions, she lists some places where teachers can find novels.
Read the post.
In a related post, Spanish teacher Cynthia Hitz describes activities that students can do before reading a novel, to get ready: http://palmyraspanish1.blogspot.com/2017/02/preparing-to-read-novel-ideas-for-el.html
Here is an Open Mind template for talking about characters in your novel.
Looking for Bingo Cards? If you make custom Bingo cards for classroom activities, you may like this suggestion for doing so using Google Sheets templates.
Meanwhile, if your students like to make flashcards, here are three ways for them to do so online: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2017/02/three-ways-for-students-to-create.html#.WK3ushDHu80 (via CASLS) |
Follow IEFLA on Pinterest @iefla Twitter: @iefla_tweets
Check out CLTA on Twitter @cltatweets |
ACTFL OPI Training at San Diego State University
June 6-9,
OPI Summer Institute. This workshop introduces the ACTFL rating scale, the structure of the OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview) and techniques of administering and rating the OPI. Participants observe and conduct live practice interviews across all proficiency levels. Learn more about the workshops and the languages offered. |
Spanish teacher and blogger Annabelle Allen has posted seven times so far with suggestions for brain breaks, short active things that classes can do to help maintain focus on content. Here are the posts so far:
Part 1: https://lamaestralocablog.wordpress.com/2016/08/06/brain-breaks-part-1-music-makes-me-move/
Part 2: https://lamaestralocablog.wordpress.com/2016/08/16/brain-breaks-part-2-rock-paper-scissors/
Part 3: https://lamaestralocablog.wordpress.com/2016/09/09/brain-breaks-part-3-be-the-pretzels-of-the-teaching-world/
Part 4: https://lamaestralocablog.wordpress.com/2016/11/08/brain-breaks-part-4-hand-jives/
Part 5: https://lamaestralocablog.wordpress.com/2017/01/05/brain-breaks-part-5-brain-bursts/
Part 6: https://lamaestralocablog.wordpress.com/2017/02/09/brain-breaks-part-6-selfies-and-manniquen-challenges/
Part 7: https://lamaestralocablog.wordpress.com/2017/02/18/brain-breaks-part-7-partes-del-cuerpo/ |
Apply for Teachers Crossing Borders Educator Trips
ACTFL and Education First’s Teachers Crossing Borders programs focus on strengthening your language proficiency and cultural competence, and inspire you to foster your students’ curiosity to explore the world through language.
The deadline to apply for the following programs is March 15.
Havana: Art, Education, and Daily Life, July 1-7, 2017
Language Immersion in Panama, June 26-July 3, 2017
Language Immersion in France, June 26-July 5, 2017
You must be an ACTFL member to apply. |
Languages in the News
Languages in the News “The most multilingual people in history.” |

IEFLA’s now on Twitter! Follow us @iefla_tweets!! |
Tech Corner
Puppet Pals is an iOS app that allows students to create movies and animations with sound. Students can create their own virtual worlds and narrate the stories in the TL. Download Puppet Pals from the iTunes store. |
YouTube Clip of the Month
Le Loup qui voulait changer de couleur
Spanish YouTubers – These kids are YouTubing on a variety of topics accessible to students. |
Spanish Corner
Free Spanish books on Issuu – Did you know that you can get free Spanish language books from Issuu? This blog post from Spanish Playground includes some idea for how to use those free books.
Curious about what Mexican films are available on Netflix? Well no more! Here’s a list. Binge this weekend on some new (and old) films.
Acto Latino presents “El soldado razo, el cruce de los sueños” March 10 at 7:30 at the SMSU Theatre at Cal State San Bernardino. $5 Admission and includes English supertitles.
Tía Tula Spanish School in Salamanca, in collaboration with the Government of Spain (Junta de Castilla y León), organizes a Scholarship Program of one week during summer 2017 for Spanish teachers in the US at high school, college or university level, with Spanish teacher training/ refresher course, accommodation, cultural activities, and travel insurance included. They will be granted on a first-signed, first-served basis. It is a very complete program with an optional Spanish Culture and Conversation Course.
Usually, teachers are awarded with professional development credits towards license renewal with this program by their school district. Since it depends on district regulations, we highly recommend consulting the school district.
In the past two summers, teachers had an amazing time in Salamanca meeting other Spanish teachers, finding new methodology and resources for class, and visiting Spain and Europe during holidays!
For further information and applications, please visit: http://www.tiatula.com/scholarships-for-teachers/index.php |
French Corner
Why you should learn French – Article from Language Magazine.
Les Intraduisibles – ideas and concepts that just aren’t translatable
Le fil du bilingue (@Fil_bil) tweeted at 0:54 AM on Thu, Mar 02, 2017:
Vous parlez ou apprenez le français ? Participez au concours photo international #etenplusjeparlefrancais https://t.co/edozupm4ZL https://t.co/fDVn1PqkNi
(https://twitter.com/Fil_bil/status/837224696336826369?s=03)
Get the official Twitter app at https://twitter.com/download?s=13 |
German Corner
Here is an English-language article about German culture in the United States, including some history, German language, architecture, food, special events, and names of towns and cities: http://blogs.transparent.com/german/german-culture-in-the-usa/ (via CASLS)
“Gruezi” and Other Swiss German Expressions
Here is an article about Swiss German, especially as spoken in Fribourg: http://www.gamesforlanguage.com/blog/post/2017-02-gruezi-and-other-swiss-german-expressions (via CASLS)
German Essay Contest
The purpose of the essay contest is to familiarize students with today’s Germany. In addition, the contest offers students and their teachers an opportunity to discuss traditional and modern German culture, language and society.
There will be three grade groupings for the contest: Grades 3-5, Grades 6-8, and Grades 9-12. Winners will receive prizes and certificates; their essays will appear on this website (www.Germany.info), as well as the German Information Center USA’s newsletters.
Students must write about one of the following topics:
500th Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation
2017 German Elections
All entries must be submitted electronically by April 15, 2017.
For detailed information and contest rules go to http://www.germany.info/Vertretung/usa/en/04__W__t__G/05/DZAufsatzwettbewerb-CompleteRules.html |
Job Openings
Looking for a job? Go to http://www.la-stars.net/jobs/ |
ACTFL Position Paper on Coding and World Languages
ACTFL has released two position papers on coding and world languages. Read the statements here.
https://www.actfl.org/news/press-releases/actfl-releases-position-statements-world-languages-and-computer-coding |
Follow IEFLA on Pinterest @iefla Twitter: @iefla_tweets
Check out CLTA on Twitter @cltatweets |
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. |