Illinois Visions in Action, a standing committee of the Illinois Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, recently announced an initiative to promote professional development among the foreign language teachers in that state. The committee will sponsor three sessions at ICTFL's fall meeting, to be held in October in Springfield, IL. The sessions will focus on training experienced teachers to serve as mentors, linking mentors and interested teachers, and familiarizing teachers with opportunities for professional advancement, including national board certification.

Illinois Visions in Action began meeting last year to consider what steps it might take to further the cause of foreign language education, in response to the charge of the national Visions in Action movement to work at the local and state levels to effect change in the profession. Committee discussions centered on the number of teachers who leave the language teaching profession, the factors that lead teachers to seek other careers, and how these difficulties might be surmounted, issues that were raised at the national New Visions in Foreign Language Learning meeting of 2000. The committee focused particularly on two frequent causes of teacher defections: the feelings of professional isolation many teachers experience, and the lack of opportunities for professional advancement from which they suffer. It is the committee's hope that their initiative will promote the stability and growth of the foreign language teaching profession in Illinois.

Facilitating the sessions will be committee members Virginia Gramer (Hinsdale Public Schools, Hinsdale), Takuo Kinoshita (Parkland College, Champaign) , Waunita Kinoshita (Urbana High School, Urbana), Michael Morris (Northern Illinois University, DeKalb), Margot Steinhart (Barrington High School, Barrington), Earl Thompson (Elmhurst College, Elmhurst), and Leann Wilcoxen (St. Bede Academy, Peru), with special assistance from John Stark of the Illinois Math and Science Academy in Aurora for the national board certification presentation. For more information on the Illinois Visions in Action initiative, contact Michael Morris, Northern Illinois University, Illinois Visions in Action chair, at mmorris1@niu.edu.