August
28, 2003
Dear State Foreign Language Leader,
At our last SWCOLT Board meeting, held August 15 in Albuquerque,
the Board of Directors was called upon by ACTFL’s New Visions in Action Project
to initiate the Foreign Language Teacher of the Year selection process. The following statement taken from the
Teacher Recruitment and Retention task force of the NVA website defines the purpose of this initiative:
· National Foreign Language Teacher of the Year: The proposal to establish a national award for Foreign Language Teacher of the Year is intended to elevate the status of our profession at the state, regional, and national levels by creating opportunities for recognizing the most accomplished members of our profession. First and foremost, this proposal is designed to involve all of our state, regional, and national organizations in promoting our profession. Second, it is intended to create as many media opportunities as possible to increase the visibility of the importance of learning languages and cultures to the general public.
We
of the Southwest Conference of Language Teachers look upon this prospect to
develop and pilot the Teacher of the Year selection process as an exciting new
opportunity to focus local, state, regional and national attention on the
formidable accomplishments of the foreign language teaching profession. As we understand it, the ultimate goal of
the Teacher of the Year project is to have in place 50 state, six regional and
one national foreign language Teacher of the Year who will serve as
spokespersons for our profession in conjunction with the Year of Languages to
be inaugurated at the ACTFL conference in November, 2004. SWCOLT is charged with putting this program
into action, serving as a pilot for the nation to develop and refine selection
procedures at the state and regional levels.
Taking
into account the criteria outlined by the Teacher Recruitment and Retention
Task Force of the New Visions in Action Initiative, we devised a selection
criteria, time line, and responsibilities guidelines. The state / regional / national Foreign Language Teacher of the
Year would be a K-12 foreign language teacher with strengths in classroom
competencies, meaningful professional
involvement and spokesperson qualities.
The attached documents reflect your regional association’s plan of
action on the Teacher of the Year project.
You, as one of our eight state member organizations, are free to develop
your own criteria to select your state’s Teacher of the Year. An important component of your participation
in this pilot project is to evaluate and comment on the selection process.
As
you can tell by the attached timeline, the time to act is now! We would like you to select your state’s
Foreign Language Teacher of the Year by January 1, 2004. This candidate will enter in competition
with the other SWCOLT state candidates for selection as regional Foreign
Language Teacher of the Year at the SWCOLT conference in Albuquerque in March,
2004. This process will involve an
eight state selection panel review of the candidates’ nomination portfolios
during January and February, and an oral interview by the panel on Thursday
evening, March 25, prior to the SWCOLT conference. Our region’s winner will be announced at the SWCOLT Awards Luncheon
on Friday, March 26.
Undoubtedly,
there are many questions and concerns regarding the Teacher of the Year
initiative. We hope to clarify these
issues as they arise. One item your
state might wish to address is a stipend to your Teacher of the Year candidate
to attend the SWCOLT conference in Albuquerque. Our board will be looking at a stipend for our regional winner to
attend ACTFL in Chicago.
Again,
this is a tremendous opportunity for the foreign language profession to move
towards meaningful national recognition of our efforts to teach language and
culture to America’s youth. We trust
that you will join us in this exciting endeavor to help us promote our
profession. Please contact me by email
at cottenz@intermind.net
to register for our Teacher of the Year project. I look forward to hearing from you!
Sincerely,
Linda
Cotton
SWCOLT
Awards Chair
7250
Doe Avenue
Las
Vegas, NV 89117
702-256-2503
