Bonjour mes collègues!
Very soon it will be October, a month that includes World Language conferences in llinois, Iowa, Kansas, and Minnesota! The IL presidents, Lynda Lopez and Martha Behlow, will be teaming up to give a presentation at the ICTFL conference, Oct 16-17 that, I too, plan to attend. Iowa President Kristine Sieren is getting ready for the upcoming IWLA conference in Des Moines and her chapter's annual meeting that will include unveiling the new National French Contest and holding elections of officers. If it's not a common practice already, an AATF table can be requested in the exhibitors area or near the registration. Chicago/N IL has a tri-fold display board and Wisconsin purchased not too long ago a professionally designed display that rolls up and fits into a carrying case. Feel free to contact the AATF National Office, aatf@frenchteachers.org, to request a supply of a variety of brochures to hand out at your state conference, FREE of charge. The French Consulate is also happy to provide materials to hand out at our state conferences and they too are free of charge. Laurence Geannopulos, laurence.geannopulos@diplomatie.gouv.fr, will be very happy to send them directly to you at your home or care of you at the conference hotel.
On a personal note, his past month my husband and I and our younger son Piet spent a wonderful ten days in France that included four days in Paris and a five day cruise on the Seine to Honfleur. Thank you Anna Amelung, AATF of St Louis Chapter President, for your many tips and suggestions that added so much to both our anticipation as well as our time in France. The Musée Carnavalet and the Musée Jacquemart-André were, for me, wonderful discoveries. An Airb&b apartment in the Marais, another new experience, made us feel at home. A 6:30 pm reservation for dinner in the "58 Eiffel Tower" resto meant that we didn't need to wait in line to go up and had an amazingly fine dinner. But the best part was seeing the city by day as we went up and then by night after dinner, all in the same visit. Une coupe de champagne at the summit is now a nice way to "top off" the evening. Walking on a transparent section of the flooring at the first level is a little unnerving at first but added to the drama of being so high above the ground!
Wanted to pass on to you all a sample of a recent message that AATF of WI president, Andrea Behn sent to the Wisconsin membership. Martha Behlow, chapter president of the Chicago/N IL chapter has been sending out this type of message on a weekly basis beginning last school year to keep up with the various announcements that she was receiving and to help the members feel supported by their professional organization.
Bonjour à toutes et tous!
I hope everyone has had a bonne rentrée! I’m slowly getting organized for the year and I’m sure we are all in the same boat.
Martha Behlow, the AATF-Chicago/Northern Illinois President asked me to extend an invitation to their event, Cultivons le français: Une langue pour la vie. This event will be October 3 at Elmhurst College in Elmhurst, Illinois. I have attached the information for this event below.
Looking for something Frenchie? Don’t forget about the Alliance Française de Milwaukee! They have some terrific offerings for francophiles and this year they are partnering with the Milwaukee Film Festival. Check out their website!
WAFLT registration is open! Register early and get those hotel rooms reserved! This year AATF-WI will be offering many opportunities for you to network and learn from others, beginning with the AATF Idea Share. Come to this session at WAFLT with a lesson, activity, or idea and be prepared to share it with others in less than a minute. You can share it with AATF-WI electronically and we will make it available to everyone in the state!
I will be presenting on the AATF Exemplary French Program Award. This is a great way to show off your program and promote French, as well as a way to document what you have done and see where it can grow (data!). It’s not difficult and I’ll show you how to organize everything you need.
AATF-WI Trivia Night will be held Friday night. More information about times and locations will follow (it’s not on the WAFLT site).
Of course, this leads me to the AATF-WI Annual Business Meeting. Our meeting will be from 11-noon on Saturday. Join us! We will present awards and go over announcements. Most notably, we will be voting for a new President-Elect. If you are interested, please send me an email along with a statement about what you’d like to do as President. I think our exec board is phenomenal, so please consider it!
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| Andrea Behn, Toni Theisen, Brian Wopat |
I’d like to thank everyone who made the Toni Theisen workshop a success. She is wonderful, isn’t she? I appreciated the feedback and we have ideas for making the next one better. For those of you who were not able to join us, there is information out there that we will link to our new AATF-WI website once we get it going. (We are working on updating it!)
Here’s a reminder that the Grand Concours can be taken electronically this year, in case you missed the announcement. I don’t have any other information right now, but I’m sure Jennie and I will get that to you when we know. Also remember that the information for the Concours Oral will be up around the beginning of November. If you haven’t done either of these events in the past and are curious about getting started, please contact me. Additionally, I know of at least one school who is starting la Société Honoraire de Français this year. I can help out with this too!
Sorry for the lengthy message! We have a lot of things coming up. Please don’t hesitate to contact me, even if it’s to say bonjour or share an announcement that may benefit the group. At the same time, don’t forget about our French in Wisconsin group on Facebook for sharing information.
Merci mille fois pour tous que vous faites!
Andrea
Andrea Behn, French Teacher, French Club/SHF Advisor, Parker High School-Janesville, WI
(608) 743-5745 abehn@janesville.k12.wi.us http://teacherbehn.weebly.com
AATF-Wisconsin Co-President, WAFLT Executive Board member, National Board Candidate
The AATF of Minnesota is planning their annual dinner at which they will be honoring their 2015Teacher of the Year. This year their dinner will feature Lebanese cuisine!
This past Tuesday, Sept 22 at noon a "Cérémonie des Palmes Académiques" took place in St Paul where AATF Chapter President Joëlle Vitiello, "Reflets du Nord" AATF Chapter newsletter editor, Françoise Denis, and Alliance Française de Minneapolis Director, Christina Selander Bouzouina, were decorated with the Academic Palms by Vincent Floreani, Consul General of France. Looking forward to getting some photos.
We are thrilled to announce that a Region VI professor at Iowa State and a member of the AATF will be receiving the ACTFL Papalia Award for excellence in the preparation of World Langages student teachers, Linda Quinn-Allen. She will receive this prestigious award at the ACTFL conference in San Diego. Be sure to congratulate her if you will be attending the conference.
A very positive exchange of information that is only possible because we are all connected by the AATF came about just recently when a professor at Elmhurst College near Chicago working with chapter president Martha Behlow on the October program, was discussing the need to interest more college French students in becoming teachers. We know that there is an increasing worry about having a shortage of French teachers due to some colleges having dropped the French major. So I mentioned that the AATF of Greater Kansas City has a tradition of organizing an event including lunch at a local French restaurant for high school and college teachers who invite some of their students to hear about the advantages of a career teaching French. The panel of teachers who address the students usually includes a teacher new-to-the-profession, a seasoned teacher, and a retiree. The information that Greater Kansas City president, Katie Madigan, and chapter member and former national president Ann Sunderland, offered about this event was very well received and could be the spark that will ignite a similar event in the Chicago chapter. I hope that you agree that this kind of synergy is the AATF at its best!
Bonjour,
Toute l’équipe du Centre linguistique du Collège de Jonquière se joint à moi pour vous souhaiter une excellente rentrée 2015. C’est aussi le bon moment de songer à un séjour linguistique pour vos élèves. Pourquoi ne pas le faire au Québec!
Étudier le français au Québec n’a jamais été si accessible
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Des avantages intéressants pour les groupes
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centling@cjonquiere.qc.ca
Most of you have, no doubt, received a message from Denis Quénelle, the Attaché Culturel Adjoint for our region with an announcement of a workshop that teachers or organizations can host. He describes it as "un atelier de six heures intitulé « Réaliser une Webradio sur le thème du climat » ... qui a pour objectif de fournir aux enseignants les compétences nécessaires pour produire avec leurs élèves de courts reportages audio sur le thème du changement climatique." These workshops will be scheduled for from the 14th to the 25th of November. While the planning time frame is short, feel free to share this with your members. Andrea and Kristine, I didn't see your names among the "destinataires," so I let Denis know to add you to his list of AATF presidents. So now we can expect that you will be getting his messages. I wonder if a college or university in one of your chapters might find that this kind of event aligns with their departmental goals and would have some funds to welcome this French "formateur."
The AATF of Greater St Louis has, no doubt, already held their member program on Ionesco and will soon sponsor a performance for students by the the dramatic company "Caravague" of La leçon on October 25. As always, the rest of us would love some photos of these events and any reaction from the teachers or students. This chapter has a long tradition of this kind of literary offering first for teachers and then a dramatic staging of a French "oeuvre" for students.
The Chicago/N IL October 3 chapter program mentioned in Andrea's message above will focus on the need for middle and high school teachers to be aware of how advantageous it will be for their students to study French in college and to encourage them to continue. They will look at some of the rationales that Alain-Philippe Durand presented at our 2013 national convention in Rhode Island and more recently during a Webinar sponsored by the Service Culturel last spring and respond to their fear that French will not lead to a job. Focusing on the 21st skills that studying French will offer them as well as study abroad, internships, and service learning, whether their future job involves French or not, will be part of the discussion as well as role plays so that teachers can practice explaining how French will enhance their lives and their careers.
This chapter's Social Media Committee has embarked on a plan to send out brief messages on Facebook promoting AATF membership.
They plan to then expand this type of message to other themes and topics. Here's a sample with a message and another with a testimonial. This is based on the power of social media and also on the value of personal connections and the positive influence we teachers have on each other!
That's all from here. Please send short messages of what you and your members are doing and, of course, photos! Soon it will be time to submit (Nov 1st) a report from our Region VI when your activities can be shared with French teachers nationwide!
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Eileen
eileenwalvoord@gmail.com
