January1, 2018

Dear Andrea, Audra, Christine, Lynda, Martha, Melanie, Sheila,

It has been a great gig. These past six years, seeing how each of you has been responding to the needs of your members has been, in turn, for me a great education and a great pleasure. This, of course, also includes the work and dedication of some of your predecessors: Katie Madigan in Greater K.C., Justin Charles in WI, Lydia Belatèche and Joëlle Vitiello in MN, Anna Amelung in St. Louis, Kristine Sieren and Elizabeth Zwanziger in IA, and Katy Dueppen in Downstate IL.

NEW BEGINNINGS
So as the New Year arrives, it's the perfect opportunity to say good-by and to give a very warm welcome to Sheila Conrad, whom you all know as the President of the AATF of Iowa, and now the next Regional Representative of Region VI beginning a 3 year term. It's also a time to give a big thank you to Audra Merfeld-Langston, the President of the AATF of Greater St Louis for her willingness to also be a candidate for that position.


TEACHER SHORTAGE & RECRUITMENT
At the Iowa and Illinois WL state conferences this past Fall, Sheila and I and Martha and I gave

presentations on how to enlist the efforts of high school and college teachers to address the French teacher shortage. It is something of an uphill battle to convince some that the shortage exists and others that encouraging students to become French teachers is yet another professional duty.

In Wisconsin, outgoing president of the local chapter Andrea Behn and incoming president Ellen Onsrud created and gave a presentation on how to prepare for and what it is like to be a French teacher at an advocacy day at the University of WI-Madison's French House. In that same vein, a Spanish and a German teacher presented a session  at the WAFLT conference in Appleton, WI for high school students who were interested in becoming world language teachers. Andrea and Ellen's presentation and this outreach to high school students can be great templates for AATF chapters all over the country. Here is an intro to the High School Guest Program as presented at the WAFLT conference this past Fall:
http://www.waflt.org/conferences-events/waflt-conference-2017/high-school-guest-program-future-colleagues/

The Chicago/N IL chapter is thinking about incorporating into one of their programs the Académie de Français workshop that the Greater Kansas City chapter regularly organizes to encourage high school students to become French teachers and that was featured last year in the National Bulletin.

Happily, communicating news of job openings is a task that chapter presidents in Region VI have embraced in email messages and on their facebook pages.


FRENCH CONSULATE/SERVICE CULTUREL
In collaboration with the Service Culturel of the French Consulate in Chicago, the AATF of MN, under the leadership of President, Christine Lac, facilitated a workshop for members on pedagogy this past Fall with Dominique Licops of Northwestern University. Chicago/N IL chapter members acted as consultants and judges for a student competition in collaboration with the consulate on their "A la carte" promotion of French gastronomy last October.


CONVENTION IN ST LOUIS
At the 2017 national convention, our Region VI Greater St Louis Chapter members organized excursions during and following the convention with Suzanne Hendrickson and Anne Craver, longtime GSL chapter members, leading those efforts. Steps away from our hotel was the courthouse where the infamous Dredd Scott decision was adjudicated, while nearby the famous Arch that marks the gateway to the West sparkled in the sunlight and glowed in the evening illuminations. The post-convention excursion to the Creole Corridor including Ste Geneviève revealed the French roots in both Missouri and Illinois with the last stop at the Holy Family Church in Cahokia, the longest continuously active church in North America, founded in 1699 by French Jesuits and whose architecture has its roots in 17th century Normandy. With a church museum featuring artifacts sent from France and a parish docent whose family dates back to that 1699 church, visiting this site would be a great student field trip. A side-note that amazed the teachers from the Chicago area was that the first non-indigenous resident of Chicago, Jean-Baptiste Point de Sable was married in this church to the daughter of the chief of a local Native American tribe.


ANNONCES
Take out your phones and mark your calendars for a January 20 AATF webinar on Martinique to be co-presented by Jayne Abrate and our own Region VI Audra Merfeld-Langston, President of the AATF of Greater St Louis.

In late July, immediate Past President of the Chicago/N IL Chapter, Robin Jacobi, was decorated as a Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques. Look for AATF of WI's Justine Frieman Charles, earlier named Chevalier, to formally receive this honor in March.



STUDENT EVENTS
What a pleasure it is to see that events such as the Concours Oral in Minnesota (dating back to1973, with 30 schools and a whopping 1223 students in 2017), Wisconsin (40 schools, 350 participants, including 6 regional prior competitions), and Illinois (7th year, 12 schools and appproximately 100 students) continue to offer French students the opportunity to use and develop their linguistic strengths through poetry, literary and theatrical excerpts, original texts, and music.

A video to publicize the Concours Oral in Wisconsin is on the home page of the AATF of WI website: http://www.aatfwi.org/ and an 2016 exceptional performance in Illinois can be found at  https://sites.google.com/site/ilconcoursoral/media-photos.

The Chicago/N IL chapter added a Meme Competition to their National French Week line-up of contests this year and the AATF of Wisconsin decided to follow suit. Here is a link to the Wisconsin "Un Moment dans la vie d'un(e) élève de français" Meme winners on the AATF of Wisconsin website. http://www.aatfwi.org/

The AATF of Chicago/N IL will hold it's 10th Student Immersion Day in March for almost 100 students. http://aatfjourneeintensive.edublogs.org/immersion-2010/. Authentic entertainment is part of the day:


WORKSHOPS & PROGRAMS
Region VI chapters know how to offer professional development and also how to have a good time. Greater St Louis had a Fall Workshop on using Chansons in the classroom for their members and Chicago/N IL's Fall program centered on Martinique including a presentation on Skype by a travel contact in Fort de France.

STATE WL CONFERENCES
Region VI chapters were active at the state level. Audra and Vie-President Jennifer Tadsen presented a session on the AATF at the FLAM conference. Lynda Lopez presented "Exerçons nos méninges en poésie" and Martha presented a session #Low Prep #High Engagement at ICTFL this past Fall. Two AATF of MN members, Annie Muske and Patricia Mougel of the AATF of MN presented on songs and authentic texts/tasks respectively last October at MCTFL. At WAFLT, the AATF of WI presented an Idea Share and Networking meeting as well as an AATF Business Meeting where several lucky teachers walked away with bottles of French wine at Tombola time. Breakout EDU boxes were the focus of one session offered by Andrea and at another the topic was creating contextual lessons through film.

JUST FOR US

The Greater Kansas City chapter has just celebrated the holiday season with a gift exchange and the Greater St Louis members will very soon be receiving a slice of galette hoping to become the king or queen. Chicago/N IL tasted wines and cheeses to celebrate National French Week.


RECOGNITION
Iowa inaugurated their Teacher of the Year award at the October IWLA conference and Chicago/N IL is getting ready to do the same at the ICTFL conference in their state in the Fall of 2018. Great opportunities to lift the level of visibility for French teachers within our WL profession.

CHANGES TO CONSTITUTIONS
Both Wisconsin and Iowa are working on making some changes to their constitutions to reflect new
practices.

To find some great chapter resources and especially your constitution, look on the AATF homepage under "Resources" on the extreme right. In the pull-down menu, you'll see "For chapter officers" to access many documents that are password protected. Your i.d. is the number of your chapter and the name of your chapter, e.g., "17iowa" and your password is "AATF" in caps followed by again the number of your chapter, e.g., "AATF17." This is where you will find your constitution under "chapter operations." Have a question about insurance, responsibilities of the officers, chapter order forms, and lots more? You'll find answers here. Another way to access the Chapter page: htp://chapters.frenchteachers.org.

Comparing your constitution to those of other chapters can prove interesting. Chapter numbers can be found below and also on the second page of the Membership form on the AATF webpage at:  http://frenchteachers.org/hq/forms/membapp.pdf:

13 Chicago/N IL                                 14 Downstate Illinois
17 Iowa                                               26 Minnesota
28 Greater Kansas City                      29 Greater St Louis
68 Wisconsin


My greatest pleasure has been bringing you all together so that you can see what others are doing. It is when we "rub elbows" with our colleagues at AATF events, through print media such as the National Bulletin or through emails or electronic messages such as this blog posting, that we learn and grow and become for each other sources of information, respect and support.


Et bien, merci et au revoir, mes collègues! Bonne chance et bonne continuation!

Amicalement,                                                                   
Eileen

P.S. Pour l'avenir et la survie de l'AATF, je compte sur vous!