Michele forwarded a letter from the editor of “The Language Educator” to me. She asked if anyone on the blog might want to “volunteer” to contribute to the article. As you can see in her request, she is looking for teachers like us, since we represent what is coming down the pike for this century. Here is what Michele said to me first, and then below it is the request from the journal’s editor:
Ben:
I need ideas. Could you forward the letter below to Robert, possibly post it, and suggest whether there’s anyone else who would like to talk about this [with these people]?
Michele Whaley
West Anchorage High School
Below is the letter that Michele refers to. I forwarded it to Robert – our heavy hitter with the big fists. Brigitte could also do it, because she’s not very busy organizing the New York thing, right Brigitte? Chill would be an excellent choice. Or Laurie. Or most any of us.
I ain’t doing it because we start the Beniko Mason study here on Tuesday after Tim Tebow fries up some hamburger meat out of those big bad New England Patties on Saturday.
If you read the letter below from that editor, you get the sense that, each day, we become more and more well-placed in our profession, since we have, thanks to Robert, been talking actively about the three modes of communication for eight months now, thinking about what that crucial ACTFL document really means for all WL language educators in our country these days, whether they like it or not. Here is the letter from editor Sandy Cutshall:
Dear Betsy:
I’m currently working on an article for The Language Educator focusing on the National Standards — particularly a focus on Communication and on the best way for teachers to help their students develop communicative competence using the three modes of communication.
I am looking for a teacher to interview who may have changed their teaching methods after discovering the importance of a standards-based approach and particularly, someone who may have learned specifically how to incorporate interpersonal, interpretative, and presentational modes to help their students and can speak to why doing it this way is so critical to successful language acquisition. Marty thought you might be able to suggest someone for me to speak with. Please let me know right away if you can think of someone.
Thanks so much,
Sandy
Sandy Cutshall, Editor
The Language Educator
scutshall@actfl.org<mailto:scutshall@actfl.org>
www.actfl.org<http://www.actfl.org>
[note: if anybody ends up working with Sandy, please keep the rest of us informed. It could help Chris out, certainly, in Ohio, with that bozo guy in Columbus.]