KSDE CONNECTION
REGINA PESZAT, Ph.D.
World Languages Education
Program Consultant
Curriculum Standards and Assessment
(785) 296-1891
Kansas State Department of Education
Landon State Office Bldg.
900 SW Jackson Street Suite 653
Topeka, KS 66615
September 11, 2019
Dear World Language Teachers,
According to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), 60% of teachers teach within 20 miles of where they went to high school. With a shortage of teachers in critical areas like math, science, and world languages, it is important that we encourage students to become teachers in all of our districts, urban and rural.
Lisa Ritter, the current president of ACTFL, says we also need to recruit and retain “a language teacher workforce that better reflects the demographics of our students.” (The Language Educator, Aug./Sep. 2019, pg. 7). The Education Summit in Kansas City on April 4 will also be addressing this issue.
If you have a World Language Club or a teacher prep program or both at your school, or are thinking of starting one, you will find the materials that ACTFL has created very useful for getting students interested in exploring the career of teaching. The Educator Rising 2.0 Initiative can be found on the ACTFL website: https://www.actfl.org/assessment-professional-development/educators-rising
ACTFL has provided everything for busy teachers to just grab and go. The modules are designed to be flexible for time and location. For each of the 10 Modules there is a facilitator’s guide, a PowerPoint, videos and other ancillary materials.
If you or your school is using this or another “grow your own” program to inspire students to become world language teachers, I would love to hear about it.
Regina Peszat, Ph.D.
World Languages Education Program Consultant
Curriculum Standards and Assessment
(785) 296-1891
Kansas State Department of Education
Landon State Office Bldg.
900 SW Jackson St., Suite 653
Topeka, KS 66612
UPCOMING EVENTS
September 13-15
Deutsches Wochenende 2019
Topeka, Kansas
October 5
Cultivating a Positive Classroom Climate with Bushido (Way of the Warrior) Held in conjunction with the Greater Kansas City Japan Festival at JCCC
http://kcta.ku.edu/teaching-east-asia-seminar
October 7
CI Demonstration Workshop with Mike Peto
https://mygenerationofpolyglots.com/product/kansas-city-mo-workshop-november-2/
October 19
World Language Fair
University of Kansas
New!!!
For teachers and students.
You can find a good overview of the event on the OLRC website at http://olrc.ku.edu/wlf. In addition to faculty from KU, we will have presenters from KSU, Pitt State, JCCC and Fort Hays State!
November 1-2
KSWLA Annual Conference
Keynote: Leslie Grahn (WSU)
https://www.kswla.org/conferences
November 22-24
ACTFL 2019
Washington, DC
https://www.actfl.org/convention-expo
December 6
Spanish Immersion Day
For students (WSU)
TBA
March 12-14
CSCTFL 2020
Minneapolis
https://csctfl.wildapricot.org/
March TBA
AATF Immersion Day
Contact Annie Gilliland algilliland2@gmail.com
April 3
4th Annual Spanish Language Competition
For students (WSU)
TBA
April 4
Education Summit 2020
The National WWI Museum and Memorial, 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Kansas City, MO
For more information contact Diane Bosilevac: dbosilevac@gmail.com
April – May
Seal of Biliteracy Awards
July 14-17
IFLT 2020
Los Angeles