|
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Su carrera como escultor impresionista llegó
a su apogeo con una serie de
presentaciones en las grandes salas de exhibición
de los países bajos a
principios de los 80, pero de ahí su fama
empezó a decrecer, hasta que se
quedó casi en el olvido.
Pavor: nm. fear, terror
Hay, pues, toda clase de siglas: desde las que
suscitan admiración, como IDE
(Iniciativa de Defensa Estratégica), hasta
las que infunden pavor, como SIDA
(Síndrome de Inmunodeficiencia Adquirida).
Marina Orellana. Buenas y malas palabras.
Universitaria, 1998, pág 102.
Pavor: nm. fear, terror
Hay, pues, toda clase de siglas: desde las que
suscitan admiración, como IDE
(Iniciativa de Defensa Estratégica), hasta
las que infunden pavor, como SIDA
(Síndrome de Inmunodeficiencia Adquirida).
Marina Orellana. Buenas y malas palabras.
Universitaria, 1998, pág 102.
Ensenada: nf. cove, inlet
El velero pirata hizo escala en una ensenada oculta
entre la espesura de los
manglares, pero los galeones españoles
encontraron su escondite en un par de
horas, y la batalla se reanudó.
Cinta transportadora: nf. Conveyer
belt
Por lo que a la Tierra concierne, su interior
cuenta con un sistema de cinta
transportadora asociado a la tectónica
de placas, cuyo continuo reciclado de gases ha ejercido una fuerza estabilizadora
sobre el clima de la Tierra.
Mark A. Bullock y David H Grinspoon. "Cambio
climático global en Venus".
Investigación y ciencia, mayo 1999, pág
16.
IV. WANNA MAKE SOME EXTRA DOUGH TEACHING
FLES BEFORE AND/OR AFTER SCHOOL?
The A.C.E World Language Program is looking
for Spanish, French and
German language teachers for its before and after
school Children Program. These are very part time positions. The
classes meet twice a week and are held
in many schools throughout the Puget Sound. At
this time we are particularly
in need for the Seattle- Eastside- Woodinville
area.
We are looking at fluent speakers, who have experience
working with children. Certification is not needed. We will
train. Salary starts at $16.00 up to $25.00 depending
on experience. If you know of anyone who would be interested
please have them call us or e-mail at the address
below.
Thank you!
Madeleine Pohl
Executive Director
A.C.E North Seattle Center
10303 Meridian Ave N.
Seattle WA 98133
http://www.cultural.org
Phone 206 985-1011 CELL 206 419 -6956
e-mail: pohl@cultural.org
V. EAST OF THE MOUNTAINS (not by David
Guterson) IDEA SHARE
We have finally organized enough to say that
the East
side Idea Share will be on Sat. Jan 29, 2000
from 11am
to 2pm. Bring a wonderful idea and your
favorite
non-Mexican Luso-Hispanic potluck dish.
Meet in
Coulee Dam at Erik's house 2 Civic Way.
Write or call
for directions, but it's easy to find.
(509) 633-3022
VI. LITERATURE CORNER
Oriana writes: Para el bolectronico proximo:
El escritor chileno Jorge Edwards gano el premio
Cervantes. Recibira la
distincion en Abril del 2000, de manos del Rey
de Espana, en el dia en
que se conmemora la muerte del autor de Don Quijote.
(From LA TERCERA, Dec. 16, 1999)
VI. CORRECTION ON WAFLT
Twila Wood writes: "Thank you for encouraging
AATSP members to join WAFLT. Please highlight next week that
WAFLT membership is now automatically combined
with PNCFL membership and costs just $35 NOT $45."
VI. INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN'S FESTIVAL
VII. FOREIGN LANGUAGE ASSISTANCE PROGRAM
(FLAP) GRANTS, JNCL-NCLIS -- IMPORTANT,
PLEASE READ!(submitted by Ray Verzasconi, Former
Executive Director, Pacific Northwest Council for Languages)
A preliminary report on the meeting of the JNCL-NCLIS
Board of Directors
meeting in Washington DC, 7-8 January.
FLAP GRANTS
The U.S. Dept. of Education will award roughly
$2 million more in Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP)
grants this year. The $2 million
is in addition to the $6 million already awarded. About 2/3rds
of the funds will go to
LEAs, one third to SEAs. Details will be
available January 18; the submission deadline is March 10. As in
the past,
focus will be on FL in the elementary schools,
although high school programs can be considered especially if there is
a
link to K-8.
After Jan. 18, details can be obtained by accessing
the JNCL-NCLIS Web page: www.languagepolicy.org
Application forms will be available on-line only.
LEAs and SEAs that applied in 1999, but did not
receive a grant, are encouraged to consider rewriting their proposals
based on reviewer comments and resubmitting them.
Although competition is tough, the more proposals received, the
stronger the case can be made next year to increase
FLAP funding.
Simply as a matter of information: the
Administration's request for FY2000 was $6 million, which is what the House
approved. The Senate, however, was sufficiently
impressed with the large number of applications last year, and
approved $10 million. The compromise bill
came in at $8 million. $6 million, of course, covers the grants awarded
in
1999 (they are three-year grants). Senator
Thad Cochran (R-Miss), one of our strongest supporters in the Senate, has
already indicated that he will try to increase
funding for FLAP to at least $20 million.
REAUTHORIZATION OF ESEA
The JNCL-NCLIS staff believes reauthorization
of the Elementary & Secondary School Act will be one of the first
items on the agenda when Congress reconvenes
later this month, and may be completed before April. Please visit
the
JNCL-NCLIS WEB site periodically for updates.
You'll also find a summary of bills introduced in the 106th Congress
relevant to ESEA. NCLIS' focus will be
on the House -- one bill which passed the House (and since referred to
Senate) would eliminate FLAP.
Another would divert more discretionary funds
to block grants directly to LEAs, letting LEAs do with the money what
they want. Great if your superintendent
and school board strongly support languages; otherwise, even Title II,
III, and
X funds (some end up supporting foreign languages)
could end up going entirely to math, science or even athletics.
Even if your Congressperson does not support
FLs, you need to make your voice heard at the appropriate time. Why
visiting the JNCL-NCLIS Web site periodically
is important. If you live in a "swing district," it's all the more
important
to let him/her know why you believe federal funding
for FLs is important. And to convince a few colleagues to do so as
well.
Education is and will remain a priority issue
in November's elections. You may have noticed that the Republicans
in
Congress ended up appropriating more monies for
education than Clinton requested, and our proclaiming themselves to
be the "Education" party...that, even though,
from 1980 until 1997, the top priority of Republican leaders was to
eliminate the Dept. of Education and all federal
funding for education. The difference between the two parties is
no
longer so much about how much to spend, but how
to spend it. Even then, there is a real split between House
Republicans and Senate Republicans. The
House, for example, zero funded Goals 2000. The Senate voted for
$494
million; the
compromise bill gave Clinton what he had requested,
$491 million. More funds for competitive grants (Democrats)
versus more funds for block grants to LEAs (Republicans).
Both parties are building in more assessments of grant
recipients, but so far, nothing for block grants
to LEAs.
Why is federal funding important to the language
profession?
In 1980, the total federal outlay for FLs and
international studies was under $200 million, and all of it was earmarked
for
higher education. Today, the amount is
over $2 billion and most of it is earmarked for K-12. Yes, except
for Title VI
of ESEA (bilingual ed and FLAP), most of the
funds are either block grants to SEAs or in a myriad of competitive grant
programs. Still, that doesn't really tell
the full story. In the 1997-99 biennium, for example, Oregon public
schools
received about $1.2 billion in block grants from
the federal government (that doesn't
include a number of competitive grants to LEAs).
There is no way of knowing how much of the $1.2 billion actually
supported languages but, in Oregon, some of it
certainly did (Title II and Goals 2000 funds, in particular, have been
used by some school districts to support professional
development for language teachers). But even if you live in a state
where language teachers do not benefit directly,
consider what would happen if the federal government provided zero
funds. Which programs would districts most
likely cut? If they haven't already, art?, music?, languages?
Not English,
math or science; not compensatory education (which
is a federal mandate). So even if you aren't benefitting directly,
you are indirectly.
Those of us who were around in the 1960s remember
what happened when Congress established the NDEA and
began pouring millions into foreign languages
and international studies. It was the incentive (the "seed money")
for states
to follow suit. Most of you are not old
enough to remember that, in Oregon and Washington, K-8 programs
proliferated. California was one of a dozen
or so states that mandated foreign languages K-12 for all students.
But
when Congress eliminated NDEA funding in the
late 1960s, almost every program crashed. Some 60% of the nation's
colleges and universities eliminated both their
entrance and exit requirements. When Congress no longer saw languages
and international studies as important, local
school boards saw no reason to support programs with local funds.
So the other question we often hear, "What are
the professional associations doing for me?" -- in the past 20 years,
some 60 professional associations (state, regional,
national, representing both languages & international studies) have
likely spent more than $6 million maintaining
a lobbying force in Washington DC (and that's not counting what individuals
have shelled out of their own pockets).
FLAP returns our investment in one year. Without the efforts of our
staff in
DC, and of hundreds of teachers who have responded
to requests to contact legislators, foreign languages would not
have been included in Goals 2000 (funded at $491
million this year), in Title II (Eisenhower Professional Development),
Title III (Technology for Education), Star Schools,
and several dozen other programs. Yes, we still have a long ways
to
go -- but much of the work must be done at the
state level, and NCLIS simply isn't that wealthy. States that do
not
allow block grant funds to be used for FLs (e.g.,
Washington) because FLs are not in the core are ignoring the spirit or
intent, if not the letter, of the law as Congress
wrote it. And the U.S. Dept. of Education was not granted any "police"
powers over block grants. Indeed, even
many supportive Republicans and Democrats express reluctance to increase
funding for FLAP because, they point out, FLs
are already included in the big ESEA titles. And they're not hearing
from
their constituents that the SEAs are not including
them. A reality of lobbying. J. David Edwards can do little
to influence
any legislator if the legislator's constituents
don't make their voices heard. We have to do the "educating," so
Dave can
put the pressure on. Of course, that means
we have to be educated. "We" being a dozen or two individuals in
each
Congressional district.
Trying to reinvent the wheel
Much of the meeting was spent rehashing what
we've been rehashing for 20 years: how do we do a better job of
promoting the need for language studies?
Once again we looked at, with envy, what the Art Council is doing:
high
powered TV public service announcements (on MTV);
glossy brochures that go out to every school district in the nation
almost monthly. Unfortunately, we simply
do not have the funding. The JNCL-NCLIS staff simply does not have
the
time to take on new tasks. And a number
of member associations are balking at the new assessments, and two (of
the
six) major contributors have suffered major financial
losses the past two years and are having to cut their assessment.
And
none of the member associations are themselves
willing or able to take on new tasks. It's the same old story:
most of
our associations depend heavily on volunteers.
The fine and performing arts have an advantage: lots of foundations are
willing to support them with money. But
we keep trying.
Please forward this long message to your members
... colleagues.
VIII. ENHANCING INSTRUCTION IN YOUR FOREIGN
LANGUAGE CLASSROOM: INCREASING
EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION THROUGH INTERACTIVE LEARNER-CENTERED
ACTIVITIES: A
SEMINAR BY BARBARA SNYDER
Spokane: March 27, 2000
Bellevue: March 28, 2000
I have seen Barbara in action and can recommend
this seminar to you: it will be fast-paced, thought-provoking, and
chock full of activities you can bring to your
classroom the very next day. Barbara is a recipient of the American
Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
(ACTFL) Florence Steiner Award for Leadership in Foreign Language
Education at the Secondary Level.
The cost of the seminar, which is sponsored by
the Bureau of Education and Research (BER), is $159, and they will
accept a School District Purchase Order.
You can receive Washington state clock hours or graduate level university
credit.
You can register at http://www.ber.org or call
1-800-735-3503.
IX. INTERNATIONA CHILDREN'S FESTIVAL: CHILEAN
EVENT
"Journey to the Center of the Earth."
"Descend into the Sneffel of Yocul, which is
kissed by the shadow of Scartaris in the last days of June, bold traveler,
and you will reach the center of the earth, as
I have done." --Arne Saknussem
Once Professor Lindenbrock and his prodigal nephew
Axel transcribe this message from an old parchment, they
embark on one of the most remarkable voyages
in the annals of literature, This classic adventures by Jules Verne,
the
father of science fiction, is lovingly adapted
here by a leading Chilean theater company. Using a giant steam locomotive
as their versatile setting, the two peformers
employ their remarkable skills as actors, puppeteers, clowns, and storytellers
to take the audience on a fantastical journey,
part high adventure, part high jinx,
90 minutes, Ages 12 and up. Ticket price
$6.00, ($3.00 subsidized...and this is based on the percentage of students
at
your district who qualify for free school lunches).
Journey is presented in Spanish, and a full script
in Spanish will be part of the teachers' guide for the production.
At the
performance, the festival will provide a live,
basic translation into English, so that non-Spanish speakers or those with
rudimentary skills, can follow the plot and enjoy
this exceptionally inventive demonstration of theatrical artistry.
Dates of Festival: May 15-20
Shows:
Tuesday May 16 at 9:30
Wednesday May 17 at 11:30
Thursday May 18 at 9:30
Friday May 19 at 9:30
Reservations Line: (206) 684-7336
Note: for your colleagues, there is a Japanese
Puppet Theater Show, a German Figuren Theater Tübingen production,
a
show from Mali (in French), and there are also
select productions in Tacoma. You can make online queries at
kidsfest@seattleinternational.org.
Hasta la próxima semana,
Jay