Superintendent Chris Reykdal met with Spain’s Education Advisor to the Pacific Northwest, Sr. Javier Montero Pozo, on Thursday, February 20. Sr. Montero shared information about the Kingdom of Spain’s guest teacher program in WA state which currently has 8 teachers assigned in our elementary and secondary schools. Sr. Montero also spoke about Spain’s professional development workshops, which are open to Spanish teachers in WA state. Additionally, Spain sponsors an annual literary and drawing contest for Spanish language students plus educational opportunities in Spain for U.S. teacher Master’s Degree programs. OSPI extended a Friendship Agreement to Spain at this meeting. There was an informational interchange among all parties and a photograph to commemorate the visit.
In addition to Supt. Reykdal and Sr. Montero, in attendance were Dr. Kathe Taylor, Ass’t. Supt. of Learning and Teaching, Michaela Miller, Deputy Supt., Angela Davila, World Languages Program Supervisor, and Hannah Hynes-Petty, Administrative Ass’t. for World Languages. Click on the link for the OSPI Twitter post about the meeting: Twitter: OSPI Meeting with Kingdom of Spain
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 Pictured from left to right: Angela Davila, World Languages Program Supervisor; Javier Montero, Education Adviser for the Education Office of the Kingdom of Spain; Chris Reykdal, Superintendent; Kathe Taylor, Assistant Superintendent of Learning and Teaching.
The annual Heritage Speaker’s Symposium was held at the University of Washington (UW) on Saturday, February 22. Opening remarks were given by Dr. Paul Aoki and Dr. Russell Hugo of the UW Language Learning Center. OSPI was represented by Patty Finnegan, Bilingual Programs, and Angela Davila, World Language Programs. Patty spoke about Dual Language Immersion and Superintendent Reykdal’s vision of expanding dual language education in order to graduate all students bilingual and biliterate. Angela spoke about how all students, including an increasing number of heritage speaking students, are well-served by earning world language competency credits and the Washington State Seal of Biliteracy. Michele Aoki reviewed highlights of five years of StarTalk programs that benefit heritage speakers. The keynote speaker was Dr. Anke al-Bataineh, Chair, MA Program in Language Education, WGU. Dr. al-Bataineh provided interactive strategies on how to involve students in learning another language through comprehensible input.
Other interesting topics on the day’s agenda included:
- Empowering Heritage Language Communities with the Global Seal of Biliteracy (Linda Egnatz, Global Seal of Biliteracy and Angela Hasheva, President of the Bulgarian School)
- Speak Your Language Campaign (Nimco Bulale, One America)
- UW StarTalk Teachers & Students Panel Discussion (Dr. Svetlana Abramova and numerous other teachers and students)
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 Pictured left to right: Donna Lansberry, Washington Association for Language Teaching (WAFLT), Advocacy and Assessment Team, Angela Hasheva (pictured from the back), President of the Bulgarian Community School, Patty Finnegan, Bilingual Education, OSPI, and Angela Davila, World Languages Program Supervisor, OSPI.
I. WAFLT Spring Regional Conference
Register today for the April 18 Spring Regional Conference at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, WA. The theme is “Lead with Languages: Reflections on ACTFL in WA D.C.” Click on the following link to register: https://www.waflt.net/conferences
You are also encouraged to submit a session proposal. Your participation is valued!
II. Spring Immersion for French Teachers: March 7 in Los Angeles at USC.
Dedicated to Dual Languages Advocates! Click to download the flyer.
III. Bureau of Education and Research (BER): New, Comprehensive Strategies for Increasing Comprehensible Input in Your WORLD LANGUAGE Classroom (grades 6-12)
- April 30 in Seattle (Bellevue)
- April 29 in Spokane Valley.
Click here for registration and more information.
IV. Summer Institute for French Teachers: June 27- July 2 2020 in Montreal, Quebec (Canada).
Click to download the flyer.
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Proposed Federal Bills for Dual Language Immersion Programs, FUTURE Act to Renew Tribal College Funding, and more including advocacy information on the proposed BEST Act (H.R. 3119).
SAVE THE DATE! Saturday, October 10, 2020 the 7th Annual Community-Based Heritage Language Schools Conference will convene at American University in WA D.C.
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Signers needed to examine Proficiency Guidelines
ACTFL invites an examination of its Proficiency Guidelines through the lens of signed languages. ACTFL seeks self-nominations for volunteer participation in a working group that will annotate the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines to address language parameters associated with signed languages. The purpose of the annotations is to spotlight the complexity of assessing sign language proficiency and to enhance the applicability of the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines to signed languages. The working group will work virtually during the month of March making written annotations within a shared online document. The group may also participate in one to three Zoom video-conferencing meetings to discuss any issues/trends and to come to group consensus about the annotations. Learn more about this opportunity.
ACTFL matches teachers for mentor program
Develop your leadership skills, give back to the profession, and get head in 2020. Applications for the 2020-2021 mentoring program are now open for both mentees and mentors. Pairs are matched based on language, level, location and skills as best possible in both traditional and distance learning. Pairs are provided supplementary materials from ACTFL including "The Keys to the Classroom." Learn more and submit your application by June 30.
Nominate a multilingual professional
As evidenced in ACTFL's recent Making Languages Our Business report, language skills are in urgent and rising demand among US employers. But how do we present a vision of that reality? The Lead with Languages campaign is currently building a diverse archive of testimonials by multilingual professionals to illustrate these findings with real-life examples and inspire our students to explore all of the professional opportunities languages make available to them. Consider nominating the multilingual professionals in your network for possible inclusion in our "Professional Profiles" series. All languages, fields and levels of career experience are welcome -- from healthcare and engineering to customer service and beyond. Just email leadwithlanguages@actfl.org including their name, email address, language and role/industry and they may be featured next.
Part Time Testing Positions Open
ACTFL is seeking language professionals interested in becoming certified OPI Testers for the ILR Testing Program. Testers conduct paid telephonic proficiency assessments part-time, working as paid consultants through the ACTFL testing partner Language Testing International (LTI). If you speak one of the following languages, have an interest in language assessments, and have a few hours of telephone availability during week days, we invite you to apply: Afrikaans, Amharic, Arabic-Levantine, Arabic-Moroccan, Baluchi, Burmese, Cebuano, Chavacano, Chechen, Ewe, Ga, German, Georgian, Gujarati, Hausa, Hiligaynon, Hmong, Hungarian, Kashmiri, Kazakh, Krio, Lao, Lithuanian, Luganda, Mandigo-Bambara, Mongolian, Mossi, Persian-Farsi, Portuguese-Brazilian, Punjabi, Slovak, Tagalog, Tamil, Thai, Tigrinya, Turkmen and Urdu. Learn how to become a tester.
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Upcoming Planet Word Museum Celebrates Language—and Is Slated to Be Talk of the Town: WA D.C. Museum Opens Doors May 31
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- ASCD Express: A Cultural Lens Leads to More Effective Teaching: Culturally Responsive Schools
- Edutopia: Boost Target Language Vocabulary Acquisition: Activities to Boost Vocabulary Acquisition in World Language Classes
- Edutopia: Have struggling students in your world language classes? Here are. Five Ways to Support Struggling Students in World Language Classes
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