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CONTENTS:
I. Board Meeting
II. Clamor submissions
III. Day of the Dead ideas
IV. Election for Eastern Vice President
V. PBS BROADCAST
VI. Update from Jay
VII. Teleconference on technology and language
teaching
I. BOARD MEETING: The board met on Saturday,
September 9th , at Oriana's house. Here are some of
the highlights that may be of interest to you:
-A reminder that the WAFLT/COFLT meeting is October
13-14 in Portland, Oregon. Paloma will be hosting an
idea share, so bring your ideas! Also, we will have a
table in the exhibitor's area, so please bring any
items for our "sale" along with you to the conference
to help earn money for our chapter. There are still
tickets available for the presentation of "La Vida es
Sueño"- they are a bargain at $13.00, which includes
dinner. (Contact Ray Verzasconi at
rverzasconi@uswest.net) Don't forget the AATSP
luncheon on Saturday at the conference - there will be
live entertainment this year!
-Look for a film event coming up this November.
Details to follow . . .
-If you haven't paid your dues yet, there is still
time! Please remember that payment of the national
AATSP dues does not include the membership fee for the
local chapter. These local dues help to cover our
expenses for two issues of CLAMOR, two newsletters,
and our cultural events. Please see our homepage for
more information and to access the membership form.
(http://www.users.uswest.net/~eledu/aatsp/main.html)
II. CLAMOR articles: If you have any ideas or
articles for the next edition of our newsletter
CLAMOR, please send them to Inés Miranda
(mirandia@plu.edu) or Paloma Martínez-Carbajo
(martinaa@plu.edu). The deadline for submissions is
November 1.
III. DAY OF THE DEAD IDEAS: One of our members, Nona
Brady, suggested that we address an upcoming cultural
event in our BOLEs, so that we can share teaching
ideas in a timely fashion. Nona's question to our
members this month: "What has been the most effective
way of presenting the Day of the Dead?" Please send
any ideas to me (Bridget at yadenlbe@plu.edu) and I
will summarize them and share them in the next BOLE.
Thanks for the suggestion, Nona!
IV. ELECTION FOR EASTERN VICE-PRESIDENT: As
announced in the September, 2000 AATSP newsletter sent
out by Carol Froelich, we have two great candidates
for Eastern Vice President - Ricardo Chama and Twila
Wood. Please vote! Remember that ballots are due by
September 30, 2000. Please contact President Steve
Green, 30119 Gamble Place NE, Kingston, WA 98346.
V. UPCOMING TV BROADCAST
KCTS Channel 9 Seattle is showing the program La
Ciudad on Friday, September 29 at 10 pm.
VI. UPDATE FROM JAY: As many of you know, Jay is
studying in Spain this year. In spite of a few rough
moments, he is having a good time and asked that I
share one of his electronic postcards with you.
In the Alcázar of Segovia,the great Castle of the
Kingdom of Castille built by the Moors and then
rebuilt by generations of Spanish Catholics, I ran
into Spanish teacher Suzanne Louden of Shorewood High
School (who will be teaching on exchange in the
southern city of Murcia) and her boyfriend, Rusty
Hibbert, a Shorewood counselor. What a surprise. They
had hoped to run into me in Madrid, but there we were
in Segovia with friends from my Middlebury program in
one of Spain´s oldest and most famous sights.
What is so wonderful about Segovia as opposed to
Madrid is that Madrid is largely a Golden Age
(Renaissance) city, whereas the oldest and largest
still functioning Roman aqueduct in the world is there
as you drive up to the city: It is amazing, as you
stand and look up at that marvel of human engineering,
to think that this was accomplished by human slave
labor...and without any mechanization.
As we wound up the old streets of Segovia, we came to
its Plaza Mayor, a scenic spot with cafes which abuts
the Cathedral. The great Spanish hero of independence
against the French, Juan Bravo, is from Segovia, and
Segovians pride themselves on their history, bravery,
cleanliness, and dignity. With good reason.
As we entered the Cathedral, we found, to our delight,
a wedding in progress, which meant we couldn´t explore
but from a distance the very front of the cathedral.
This sat well with me, because instead, we were
treated to a dignified sermon which took stock of some
of the Catholic history of the last great Gothic
Cathedral ever constructed in Europe.
The immensity of a European Cathedral the size of
Segovia´s amazes me over and over, no matter in what
country, no matter in what style. Catholic identity is
forever linked with the Cathedrals of Segovia,
Santiago, Paris, Chartres, Rome, Munich, Florence...it
is two thousand years of history staring you right in
the face. The cathedral priest also remarked upon how
many others had been wed there, including the mother
and grandmother and great-grandmother of the bride,
and how Spaniards took pride in living among their
monuments rather than treating them merely as museum
pieces.
The one comic touch in the Cathedral was, as you
entered the cloisters, a purple skirt around the waist
of Jesus. In inquired as to why, and was informed that
this was, in fact, one of two anatomically correct
Jesuses on the cross in all Spanish cathedrals, and
that no one wanted to scandalize the abuelitas.
Proceeding further down, we came upon Segovia´s
majestic Alcázar-- Alcazar for Danny and my other
friends without the capacity to read accent marks-- an
enormous castle with a moat and a throne room, and all
the good trappings of a castle. It´s what you want to
imagine when you read medieval literature. It has, as
earlier mentioned, Moorish, Spanish, French and
Germanic influences...we climbed the 140-step
staircase and had the incredible view of Castille once
the vertigo wore off.
The throne room is where Isabel and Ferdinand sat
when giving audiences...though she probably granted
her audience to Columbus in Granada, where they are
buried. This woman was known as La Católica, and she
initiated much of the horrors of the Inquisition,
expelled the Jews, and finished The Reconquest, which
amounted to removing any Moorish
(non-Christian)sovereignty anywhere in Spain. 1492 was
not such a great year.
In the throne room, it reads "Monta tanto, tanto
monta" above the throne. This roughly suggests the
equality of Ferdinand, King of Aragon, and Isabel,
Queen of Castille. "As he mounts, so mounts she." No,
this is no dirty joke, I´m told.
Even Isabel´s accession to the throne of Castille was
bloody. Her brother was likely gay, and there is no
question that her niece, next in line to the throne,
was most likely the son of Isabel´s sister-in-law´s
favorite, Luis Beltrán. Isabel referred to her as "La
Beltraneja" and challenged her niece as Queen of
Castille. Well, we all know what happened...Juana la
Beltraneja was married to the King of Portugal. Had
that side been successful, Castille and Portugal would
have united instead of Castille and Aragon...and we
might all be learning Portuguese in high school.
Finally, after saying farewell to Suzanne and Rusty,
we headed for La Granja de San Ildefonso, the enormous
summer palace and rustic gardens of Spanish royalty.
There I decided to walk alone for a while, wanting
some quiet time. The geometric gardens and surrounding
woods are large enough to contain a town. The bugs
reminded me of the rut of flies on Lookout Mountain in
Cle Elum, WA or the thickness of mosquitoes in Rumney,
NH. I don´t think I got Lyme Disease, but I´m itchy!
The solace of the woods reminded me of my beloved
home, Seattle, WA, and the lush greenery I miss so
sorely in Madrid...the other day, I went to the Royal
Botanical Gardens just to sit among the Pacific
Northwest Evergreens. I closed my eyes, and for just a
moment, it smelled and tasted like the Cascade
Mountain range in my home state. Roll on, Columbia.
Love,
Jay
VII. TELECONFERENCE ON TECHNOLOGY AND FOREIGN
LANGUAGE TEACHING: Below is a description of an
interesting teleconference for next month. Even if
you can't participate, you could record the event or
get a copy of the event after it takes place.
Announcing the 6th Annual McGraw-Hill Satellite
Teleconference: The Internet and Foreign/Second
Language Instruction October 25, 2000
How can one successfully integrate the Internet in the
foreign/second language classroom? What are the
benefits to instructors and learners? What are the
limitations? What Internet capabilities are best
suited for traditional classroom integration? For
Distance Learning programs? By using an interactive
satellite teleconference forum and incorporating
classroom footage, our panel of respected scholars and
instructors will address these issues along with
questions sent in by viewers via telephone, fax, and
e-mail.
The Sixth Annual McGraw-Hill Satellite Teleconference
on Topics in Second Language Acquisition: The
Internet and Foreign/Second Language Instruction -
Wednesday, October 25, 2000. 3 - 5 PM (Eastern Time),
2 - 4 PM (Central Time),1 - 3 PM (Mountain Time),12 -
2 PM (Pacific Time).
Moderator: Gerard L. Ervin, Associate Professor
Emeritus of Russian, Ohio State University
Panel: Dan Bayer, Executive Director of the USC
Language Center, University of Southern California;
Michael Bush, Associate Professor of French and
Instructional Psychology and Technology, Brigham Young
University; Dorothy Chun, Associate Professor of
German, University of California at Santa Barbara;
Robert Fischer, Associate Professor of French,
Southwest Texas State and Executive Director of
CALICO; Barbara Lafford, Associate Professor of
Spanish and Linguistics, Arizona State University;
Diane Musumeci, Associate Professor of Italian and
SLATE, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; M.
Victoria González Pagani, SOE Lecturer in Spanish,
University of California at Santa Cruz.
=====
Steven Green, President, steveg@cksd.wednet.edu
Kerry Chama, Eastern V.P., cheetah101@earthlink.net
Paloma Borreguero, NW V.P., paloma@u.washington.edu
Oriana Cadman, SW V.P., ocadman@kalama.com
Jay Adams-Feuer, Secretary, jay@alumni.middlebury.edu
Alexandra Porter, Treasurer, dporter@universityprep.org
WATSP web page: http://www.users.uswest.net/~eledu/aatsp