Anette recently saw the culmination of her extensive research on the role of the Hessians in the American Revolution. She was able to locate a copy of the play The Hessian Officer in America and translated the German language play into English. She secured grant funding from th Maine Humanities Council and, with help from several friends, located eager actors willing to work through the summer on a production of the play. The cast made its first presentation in Castine on September 10. Their next performance was in Hauck Auditorium on September 16, followed by performances at Leonard's Mills Living History Museum's “Life in the American Revolution” on September 17 and 18.

Carolyn reported that she participated in several webinars conducted by the Language Acquisition Resources Center, based in San Diego. (LARC.sdsu.edu) In particular, Carolyn mentioned an interactive presentation on using social media in the language classroom. These webinars offer participants the opportunity to gain practical experience and earn recertification credit.

Janice reported on her summer professional experiences, which included a material gathering trip to Buenos Aires and an immersion program through the AATG sponsored Deutsche Woche, the theme of which was the use of games in the language classroom.

Paula's summer trip was to the city of Levis, on the south shore of the St. Lawence River, facing Quebec City. This visit gave her a very different perspective on this “European” city in Canada.

Fred announced that the FLAME President's message and fall Newsletter would be in the mail the following week. Included with both mailings are registration materials for the 2012 FLAME Conference on March 8 and 9. Because of problems with inaccurate numbers for the Holiday Inn, FLAME will NOT accept on-site registrations for the conference. The deadline for registration is February 15.

Fred also spoke of a visit to the Holocaust Center, in Augusta. The museum is located near the Civic Center, and provides a thought-provoking display of Holocaust exhibitions.

Leslee reported that her Spanish program at Bucksport was reduced to half-time. When one of the teachers at Bucksport High School left for another position, Leslee took on a half-time schedule there.

Anette announced that the annual Culture Fest at the University of Maine is scheduled for the last weekend in October. This is a good opportunity to learn about different world culture and to sample foods from those countries.

Topics the group wanted to investigate further throughout this school year include:

Carolyn offered to facilitate a LARC webinar on assessment on Thursday, October 27. She will handle registration for the group and Fred will arrange for laptop computers and viewing media. The webinar is scheduled for 3:30 to 4:40 pm. Participants should plan to arrive at 3:00, to give time for set up. Fred has arranged for the group to meet in one of the language classrooms. He and Paula will post directions to that location.

Please pass along this information to other language instructors who might be interested in participating. Please send a message if you plan to attend so we have an idea of how many to plan for.

New item in the Bangor area the week of October 10 – NexxLinx, the call center in Orono, plans to add 200 jobs in the next few months. The call center provides customer support and technical service to a number of industries from cable providers to video-gaming companies. They are especially interested in employees with language capabilities beyond English. Your students might find this an incentive to continue with language study.

Penobscot World Languages Collaborative

Notes from meeting of October 27, 2011

The follow World Languages instructors met on Thursday, October 27 at Brewer High School:

Anita Tassel - French - Bangor Montessori School

Janessa Trebouet - French – Brewer High School

Fred Ravan - Spanish – Brewer High School

Leslee Fiveland – Spanish – Bucksport Middle and High Schools

Jae Hubbard – French – Orono High School

Carolyn Horth – French and Spanish – Center Drive School, Orrington

Janice Clain – French and Spanish – Hermon High School

The group viewed and participated in a Webinar aired by the Language Acquisition Resources Center (LARC) of San Diego State University. The Webinar featured a discussion and presentation by Dr. Carl Falsgraf of the Center for Applied Second Language Studies (CASLS) on the topic of formative assessments. Viewers who registered had the opportunity to ask questions and to complete several surveys. The power point that Dr. Falsgraf created is available on the LARC web site. Carolyn Horth registered the group for the Webinar, and participants could receive recertification credits. There is no cost for joining the session.

The next meeting of the Penobscot Collaborative will take advantage of another of the LARC Webinars, this one on the topic of “Assessing Writing.” The session is scheduled for Thursday, December 8 at 3:30 pm. The World Languages department at Brewer High School will again host the session. To have time to set up and log in, organizers suggest that attendees arrive at about 3:00.

For further information contact Janice Clain (clainj@hermon.net), Fred Ravan (fravan@breweredu.org) or Carolyn Horth (chorth@cdsedu.org).