County teachers of world languages are standouts at state language conference

A dozen Prince William County Schools’ world language teachers including several from our area were presenters and participants at this year’s Foreign Language Association of Virginia conference. Two county Spanish teachers were rated the best presenters.

The 12 teachers, along with Gainesville Middle School Principal Catherine Porter-Lucas, shared best practices and research-based strategies with 800 world language teachers and supervisors across the state.

“All our presenters demonstrated Divisionwide consistency in effectively teaching language and meeting state standards,” said Carol Bass, PWCS supervisor of World Languages, who also attended the conference.

PWCS offers 10 languages in high school including American Sign Language. The School Board just approved adding Korean and a fourth year or Arabic for the 2015-16 school year.

PWCS co-presenters were Inmar Romero, Spanish teacher and Department Chair of Gar Field High School and Gimara Richards, Spanish teacher at Stonewall High School who received the “Best of FLAVA 2014” Award for the most outstanding session of the conference among 200+ presenters.

The criteria were based on participant evaluations and alignment with national standards. For their superior presentation, they received scholarships to attend the Southern Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages to be held in March in Atlanta.

Workshops and presenters from PWCS included:

“From Bored to Engaged: Teaching in a New Age,” presented by Catherine Porter- Lucas, Principal of Gainesville Middle School, Elizabeth Williams, Spanish Teacher and Department Chair of Battlefield High School, and Mallory Trowbridge, Spanish Teacher, Battlefield High school;

“Great APPS for All language Learners,” Kholoud Mayees, Arabic Teacher, Hylton High School;

“Exploring the Rich Historical Heritage of the Storytelling and Music of Senegal,” Francesca Chery, French Teacher, Fred M. Lynn Middle School;

“Integrating Google Drive in the Chinese Classrooms,” Yuqing Yao, Chinese Teacher at Buckland Mills Elementary School;

“Academic Vocabulary and English Language Learners: The Importance of Tier Two Words Across Curricula,” Sarah Eqab, ESOL Teacher, Stonewall Jackson High School;

“Take Your Phones Out! Integrating Mobile Devices in the Language Classroom,” Claudia Deferre, Italian Teacher at Hylton High School and Jennifer Guido, Norfolk Schools, formerly with PWCS; and

“Descriptive Feedback: A Way to Support Student Learning,” Inmar Romero, Spanish Teacher and Department Chair, Gar-Field High School and Gimara Richards, Spanish Teacher, Stonewall Jackson High School.

Three county high school teachers participated in a three-day training session on building proficiency for oral interviews: Kathy Issa, French, Hylton; Matthew Forrester, French, Forest Park; and Victoria Sampedro, Spanish teacher and Department Chair, Woodbridge.

Carol Butler, German teacher at Woodbridge High School, as a leader in the American Association of Teachers of German, also participated throughout the conference.