lundi 28 septembre 2009

Limeades for Learning

This weekend, I indulged a guily pleasure of mine... Sonic. Not to worry: some good came of it! Had I not gone, I wouldn't have learned about a great program going on right now called Limeades for Learning that allows you to vote on your favorite funding proposals by teachers all over the nation. I went to the website and search for French and came across one. Needless to say, that's who got my vote! I hope they get yours, too! Next time you go to Sonic, get any drink, peel off the voting code, go to the website, and vote for the project of your choice (it's a joint venture between Sonic and DonorsChoose.Org). Hurry though... the program ends October 1.

www.limeadesforlearning.com

Vote For Learning

Hey, Check out the classroom project I just voted for at LimeadesForLearning.com.During September, when you head to Sonic for any drink*, you can vote online for your favorite classroom project that needs funding. Then Sonic will donate more than half a million dollars to the projects that receive the most votes. I hope you vote for this project too.

mardi 15 septembre 2009

Post-meeting follow-up

Dear fellow French teachers,

Thanks to all of you who attended this most recent fall meeting of the Houston Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of French. I am sure you will agree that it was filled to the brim with useful and entertaining information. Remember that you can access the links mentioned all in one place at http://www.delicious.com/georgesd/fall2009aatf. I’d call it ‘one-stop shopping’… except it’s all free!

The other AATF-Houston officers and I are most pleased to announce to you all our new Houston Director for the National French Contest (NFC) / Grand concours, Mr. Jeffrey P. Roberts. Jeff is currently serving as the International Baccalaureate Coordinator at the Westchester Academy for International Studies. I have had the pleasure of knowing Jeff for a few years now, as he is also an Adjunct Instructor of French here with me at Lone Star College-CyFair. Please join me in giving Jeff a warm welcome! You can reach Jeff by email at Jeffrey.Roberts@SpringBranchISD.com. Dates and other info for (early March) exam pick-up, administering, & return and the eventual ceremony (toward the end of the school year around early May) are, indeed, forthcoming (yes, we are keeping that new tradition going of examens sur place!): please be patient while Jeff adjusts to his new duties, and you will hear all you need to know from him soon!

Likewise, please join me in expressing sincere thanks to the wonderful Ann Clogan from Strake Jesuit who did an absolutely knock-out job this past year with the grand concours. We’re at record levels of participation and placement, and this is in no small part thanks to the practices Ann implemented so very handily. While Ann has stepped down as the contest director, she’s still a chapter member and hasn’t left Strake Jesuit, of course. I am sure we can expect many more great things from her as a stellar teacher, a supporter and exponent of success in French teaching and learning, an AATF-Houston family member, and someone I have proudly come to call a friend. Chapeau, Ann!

If you have general questions about the NFC (elementary, middle-school and high school levels), please visit the website at the national office online at http://www.frenchteachers.org/concours/index.htm. In the meantime, to assure your students’ eligibility for participation in the contest, please be sure to have your AATF membership up-to-date and your chapter affiliation done so as well. As of last year, all teachers who participate in the Houston area must be current AATF members who have affiliated to the Houston chapter.

Membership issues can be addressed online with links to the varied (online, mail, etc.) options at the chapter website, http://aatfhouston.blogpsot.com. You may also want to visit the chapter site now and subscribe via RSS (see link in upper right of the site) to get updates on all sorts of topics (meetings, events, teaching tips, general links, French/francophone goings-on about town, etc.) right in your email inbox.

Take a moment now to forward this message to all of your French teaching colleagues in the Houston area so that they, too, can enter their students in the grand concours. You are our only real recruiting tool! Houston has a rich and esteemed tradition of active participation and high placement in national and local results in this contest and many more, and it is up to all of us to keep this winning spirit going.

Speaking of other opportunities to showcase the winning accomplishments of your students, I also encourage you to participate as best and as much as you can in National French Week (November 4-10). More at http://frenchteachers.org/nfw/Default.htm. There are essay & poster contests going on whose entry deadlines are approaching in October (some of you may recall last year’s great winners from our own Claire Frazier and Paula Friedman’s classes). Again, let’s all do our part to keep that winning Houston tradition going!

Bonne continuation à tous et à toutes !

Bien cordialement,
Georges Detiveaux, AATF-Houston President

dimanche 13 septembre 2009

Site 'delicious' du meeting du 12 septembre

Tous les fichiers PPT & d'autres documents & liens du meeting du chapitre sont disponibles en cliquant sur l'adresse ci-dessous. NB: Certains signets de la liste sont des dossiers *.zip qui contiennent plus d'un fichier!

www.delicious.com/georgesd/fall2009aatf

vendredi 4 septembre 2009

Fall meeting

Reminder: The fall meeting of the Houston Chapter will take place on Saturday, September 12 at the Alliance française de Houston (www.afdehou.org), beginning at 2pm. The Alliance is located at 427 Lovett, Houston, TX 77006 in the Montrose area, just southeast of the intersection of Westheimer and Montrose. Please help us get the word out: bring a colleague, tell a friend, forward to other French faculty members at your school. We encourage all stakeholders in French education to attend, whether they are members or not! We've lined up two important guest speakers for the meeting... one is our wonderful regional rep to the national office, Dr. Jacki Thomas, and another is our own fabulous Attachée culturelle adjointe from the French Consulate, Marie Maurannes! Please come and join us for an informative meeting!

Qui sommes-nous?

We are the Houston Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF-Houston). The American Association of Teachers of French (AATF) was founded in 1927 and is the largest national association of French teachers in the world with nearly 10,000 members. Our members are French teachers at all levels and include approximately 3/4 secondary teachers and 1/4 post-secondary. We also have a growing number of French teachers in immersion settings and in the elementary grades. As a professional association, we seek to address the concerns of our members which include: promoting the study of languages in general and French in particular; facilitating the implementation of national and state standards in the classroom; improving the training of French teachers by encouraging minimum levels of language and cultural proficiency, and exposure to the French-speaking world through study abroad opportunities; creating opportunities and finding resources for practicing teachers to update their skills and improve their teaching; and, finally, encouraging the use of new technologies in the teaching of French and actively developing materials to support this use. Our regional representative to the national office is Dr. Jacqueline Thomas of Texas A&M University at Kingsville.

Officers of AATF-Houston

Roya Razavipour MCARTHUR, President
rrazavipour@gmail.com



Dore Sulistyo, Vice President
GUNDORE@sbcglobal.net



Johan P. Vergult, Grand Concours Director
Johan.Vergult@springbranchisd.com



Kathy KOCH, Secretary



Gerri MANLOVE, Treasurer
gembus@earthlink.net



Claude BOUTIN, Destination France Program Administrator
cgboutin@yahoo.com


Marci Pampe, Webmaster
mpampe@sbcglobal.net




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