National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center (http://www.educ.iastate.edu/nflrc/)

Alumni Connection Newsletter - April, 2004 - Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Document Source: /http://www.educ.iastate.edu/nflrc/newnflrc/news/200404/

Advocacy

Welcome to the April electronic newsletter of the National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center!

This month we move from the New Visions Task Forces and turn to the issue of advocacy. Today, more than ever, foreign language teachers need to be advocates for K-16 second language learning. From classroom enrollment to educational policy, the educator can be a voice for foreign language education. In this month's newsletter we will highlight resources to help you be a strong advocate in your district, state, and nation.

In May and June we will examine the remaining two New Vision Task Forces: Curriculum, Instruction, Articulation, and Assessment and Research.

Cindy Kendall, Newsletter Editor
Marcia Rosenbusch, Director, National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center

National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center's 2004 Summer Institutes

The April 30, 2004 application deadline is quickly approaching! Return to the NFLRC at Iowa State University this summer and enjoy the collegiality of the NFLRC while participating in exciting and practical professional development! The application and request for scholarship for the 2004 institutes (Language, Culture, and Content Connections: Mexico and the Zapotec Culture and Rethinking the PK-12 FL Curriculum: Intrinsically Interesting, Cognitively Engaging, Culturally Connected, and Articulated) [1] are now available.

Advocacy in Washington, D.C.

Joint National Committee for Languages (JNCL) and the National Council for Languages and International Studies (NCLIS) [2] are the foreign language teacher's voice in the capital. Find out what is happening on Capitol Hill and how you can impact educational policy. Want to learn how to be an effective advocate at the grass roots level? Click on the Advocacy 101 link for online resource on how to conduct Advocacy Workshops and Letter Writing Campaigns.

Advocacy in the State Organizations

Many state foreign language organizations have an advocacy committee. The Massachusetts Foreign Language Association [3] has an award-winning advocacy video. The California Language Teachers Association [4] has helpful tips to publicize events, interesting talking points, and ways to contact legislators. The New York State Association of Foreign Language Teachers [5] has an extensive advocacy section on their website. The Ohio Foreign Language Association (OFLA) [6] hires a conference manager to organize the annual conference, thereby freeing OFLA members to pursue advocacy and other issues important to the profession and providing new opportunities for OFLA volunteers.

Advocacy at the District and Classroom Level

How do you promote your classroom and second language program? Putting your name and program activities in public forums will create awareness of who you are and what you and your students are doing. Give your community something positive to talk about regarding foreign language education! Here are some ideas:

Focus on Research

In order to be an effective advocate, we must know where to locate research findings. The Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) [7] has consolidated the multiple resource clearinghouses into one center. Use the ERIC Database to find research on topics of interest to you and your colleagues.

Advocacy with Educator-Created Websites

Promoting your foreign language program with a website may be one of the best ways to share what you and your students are doing in the classroom!

NFLRC alumna Bev Larson [8] maintains a listing of foreign language educator's websites [9], organized by languages. The websites featured here are teachers who participate in the Foreign Language Teaching Forum (FLTEACH). [10]

The National Association of District Supervisors of Foreign Languages (NADSFL) [11] has a listing of district supervisors by state [12], so you may explore how districts from across the country are sharing information.

Dr. Robert D. Peckham promotes foreign language learning through his webpage Why Study a Foreign Language in Tennessee [13]. Dr. Peckham (also known as Tennessee Bob) highlights several sites in this essay that promote foreign language learning.

Staying on Top with Technology

Interested in using technology for teaching and learning? Peruse Sue LeBeau's Free Tools for Teachers [14], a collection of useful sites with tools and services that are free or low cost to educators. There are links to tools for building webpages, online activity generators, document storage, email, and other sites teachers may find useful to increase their own and student productivity.

Quotes to Ponder

Advocate (verb): To aid the cause of by approving or favoring: back, champion, endorse, get behind, plump for, recommend, side with, stand behind, stand by, support, uphold. Idioms: align oneself with, go to bat for, take the part of.
- Roget’s II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition.  1995.

Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtitle; natural philosophy, deep; morals, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.
- Francis Bacon, Essays--Of Studies

Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well.
- Josh Billings (pseudonym of Henry Wheeler Shaw)

The actual fact is that in this day Opportunity not only knocks at your door but is playing an anvil chorus on every man's door, and then lays for the owner around the corner with a club. The world is in sore need of men who can do things. Indeed, cases can easily be recalled by every one where Opportunity actually smashed in the door and collared her candidate and dragged him forth to success. These cases are exceptional, usually you have to meet Opportunity half-way. But the only place where you can get away from Opportunity is to lie down and die. Opportunity does not trouble dead men, or dead ones who flatter themselves that they are alive.
- Elbert Hubbard, in "The Philistine"

Give me a lever long enough,
And a prop strong enough,
I can single handed move the world.
- Archimedes

Memories of Iowa

The Iowa State University Alumni Association formed the Alliance for ISU [15], "a nonpartisan coalition of alumni, parents, students and other ISU friends who value higher education and want to keep Iowa State University strong." Their website contains information on the importance of legislative contacts and strategies for making one's voice heard with politicians and the media.

Links in this document

[1] 2004 Summer Institutes - http://www.educ.iastate.edu/nflrc/inst/2004/homepage.html

[2] Joint National Committee for Languages (JNCL) and the National Council for Languages and International Studies (NCLIS) - http://www.languagepolicy.org

[3] Massachusetts Foreign Language Association - http://mafla.org/

[4] California Language Teachers Association - http://clta.net/advocacy/advocacy.html

[5] New York State Association of Foreign Language Teachers - http://www.nysaflt.org/advocacy.htm

[6] Ohio Foreign Language Association (OFLA) - http://www.ofla-online.org

[7] Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) - http://eric.ed.gov/

[8] Resources for French Students and Teachers/Larson - http://www.geocities.com/Paris/LeftBank/9806/

[9] FLTEACHers' webpages - http://www.geocities.com/Paris/LeftBank/9806/flteacherspgs.html

[10] Foreign Language Teaching Forum (FLTEACH) - http://www.cortland.edu/flteach

[11] National Association of District Supervisors of Foreign Languages (NADSFL) - http://ivc.uidaho.edu/NADSFL/index.html

[12] National Association of District Supervisors of Foreign Languages by state - http://ivc.uidaho.edu/NADSFL/states.html

[13] Why Study a FL - http://www.utm.edu/departments/french/why.html

[14] Free Tools for Teachers - http://www.suelebeau.com/freetools.htm

[15] ISU Alumni Association - Alliance for ISU - http://www.allianceforisu.org/about/

This Newsletter was prepared with funding from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education under Title VI grant #P229A020023. The publication of products and website URLs in this newsletter is provided for informational purposes only and does not imply an endorsement by the National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center, Iowa State University, or the positions or policies of the U. S. Department of Education.

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Content: Do you have suggestions for content? Information to share with fellow alumni? Send your ideas to Cindy Kendall at ckendall@msu.edu.