Language Lounge Wayside Publishing

Rachel Benson joins Language Lounge host, Michelle Olah to discuss her journey from classroom teacher to district language coordinator, supporting teachers during online teaching. Rachel made the decision to return to the classroom for the 23-24 school year and shares her unique perspective on life in the modern day classroom and resuming her role as a teacher leader in the upcoming school year.



Bio

Rachel began her teacher career as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Missouri-Columbia before teaching in a Berlin high school on a Fulbright Fellowship. Over the last 14 years, she has split her time teaching high school and middle school German as well as serving as the World Language Coordinator and Chinese Immersion Coordinator for the Blue Valley School district in Overland Park, Kansas. Rachel has returned to the classroom full time and is currently teaching middle school German. In addition, she is wrapping up her final year on the executive board of the Kansas World Language Association. Having spent some years in a leadership role, Rachel decided last year to work toward an administrator license, but for now, she is enjoying the humbling experience of being back in the classroom.



Producer's Notes

Visit the Language Lounge on Twitter - https://twitter.com/langloungepod



Connect with Michelle - https://twitter.com/michelleolah



Have a comment or question? Leave a voicemail at (207) 888-9819 or email podcast@waysidepublishing.com



Produced by Wayside Publishing - https://waysidepublishing.com



Mentions

Leslie Graham https://www.grahnforlang.com/

If advocacy is building excitement, then Amy Rill is an advocate non-pareil. Listen as she and host, Michelle Olah, discuss the little and big ways to advocate for your program, whether it's in your classroom, your school, or your community. Listen and get some ideas for ways to build excitement and get that energy about learning languages out of your classroom and into the world.



Bio

Amy Rill spent 23 years as a German and Spanish teacher. She is enthusiastic about having fun while learning a language, immersing in the culture through music and art, and focusing on communication in authentic ways. As an Instructional Technologist with Wayside Publishing, Amy shares her love of enhancing learning language with technology and discovering innovative strategies for using technology in today's classroom.



Producer's Notes

Visit the Language Lounge on Twitter - https://twitter.com/langloungepod



Connect with Michelle - https://twitter.com/michelleolah



Have a comment or question? Leave a voicemail at (207) 888-9819 or email podcast@waysidepublishing.com



Produced by Wayside Publishing - https://waysidepublishing.com



Amy's Social Media

https://www.instagram.com/amyrillwayside/

https://x.com/amyrillwayside/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-rill/



Mentions

JNCL- Joint National Committee for Languages https://www.languagepolicy.org/

Does your curriculum bring you joy? Does it spark joy in your students? If your answer is no, then it might be time to think about SPARKing some joy in your classes. Amanda Minnillo has some great practical advice for creating a Safe, Purposeful, Attention getting, Reflective, environment to Keep student engagement high.



Bio

Dr. Amanda Hajji Minnillo is the President-Elect of SCOLT and a Professional Learning Specialist consulting with districts across the country to support their language program needs. Before working at Avant Assessment, Amanda served as the K-12 World Language and Dual Language Immersion Teacher Support Specialist and instructional coach in Lexington, South Carolina where she started her career as a high school French teacher. Considering herself a language fun-doer, Amanda presents at state-, regional-, national-, and international conferences with a heart for topics involving the joy of language and cultivating language proficiency in the modes of communication.  The daughter of a Lebanese immigrant and South Carolina native, her research surrounds building leaders’ and districts’ cross-cultural capacity to support teachers new to the country and leveraging multicultural teachers' expertise for district growth. 



https://x.com/amandaminnillo



Producer's Notes

Visit the Language Lounge on Twitter - https://twitter.com/langloungepod



Connect with Michelle - https://twitter.com/michelleolah



Have a comment or question? Leave a voicemail at (207) 888-9819 or email podcast@waysidepublishing.com



Produced by Wayside Publishing - https://waysidepublishing.com

The ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines have been revised. How are they same? How are they different? Language Lounge host, Michelle Olah and Dr. Meg Malone, Director of Assessment and Research at ACTFL discuss the changes.



Bio

Margaret E. (Meg) Malone (Ph.D., Georgetown University) is Director of Assessment and Research at ACTFL. She has published extensively on language assessment, standards and language assessment literacy. Her current research focuses on language assessment literacy, language program evaluation, oral proficiency assessment, the influences of the Seal of Biliteracy on language teaching and learning, and the development of short-cut measures of proficiency.



Producer's Notes

Visit the Language Lounge on Twitter - https://twitter.com/langloungepod



Connect with Michelle - https://twitter.com/michelleolah



Have a comment or question? Leave a voicemail at (207) 888-9819 or email podcast@waysidepublishing.com



Produced by Wayside Publishing - https://waysidepublishing.com



Watch this episode on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/wayside



Social Media https://twitter.com/mmaloactfl



Mentions

Timothy Boals https://wida.wisc.edu/about/teams/staff/timothy-boals

ACTFL OPI https://www.actfl.org/assessments/postsecondary-assessments/opi

Interagency Language Roundtable https://www.govtilr.org/

APPLE https://www.actfl.org/assessments/k-12-assessments/aappl

NCSSFL https://ncssfl.org/

ACTFL https://www.actfl.org/

Classroom management. It's tough. Enter Jon Cowart. He's an expert in classroom management and can help you develop the skill set that you need to succeed no matter your teaching style. It's not magic, it's a skill and you can develop and hone it so that your classes run the way you always wished they could.



Bio

Jon taught high school and middle school Spanish for 10 years in Memphis, TN, before stepping into leadership roles. He has been a high school AP, Director of Multilingual Learners, and most recently is a full time education consultant. He is passionate marrying the world of acquisition-driven instruction to strong K-12 practices.



Producer's Notes

Visit the Language Lounge on Twitter - https://twitter.com/langloungepod



Connect with Michelle - https://twitter.com/michelleolah



Have a comment or question? Leave a voicemail at (207) 888-9819 or email podcast@waysidepublishing.com



Produced by Wayside Publishing - https://waysidepublishing.com



Social Media - joncowartteaching.com



Mentions

Stephen Krashen @skrashen

BVP, Bill Van Patten https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_VanPatten

James Asher https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_physical_response

ACTFL, American Association of Teachers of Foreign Languages https://www.actfl.org/

Dead Poet Society https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097165/

Bryce Hedstrom https://www.brycehedstrom.com/

Jon Cowart web site https://joncowartteaching.com/Jon

What Students Saw https://joncowartteaching.com/2023/01/07/what-the-students-saw/

Have you ever thought about presenting at a conference but just don't know how to get started? It's conference proposal submission season and your state and regional organizations want to hear from you. No really, they do. Guest Albert Fernandez and host Michelle Olah discuss everything you need to know about presenting from soup to nuts. Listen, get inspired and get cracking on YOUR presentation.



Bio

Albert is an elementary and middle school Spanish teacher in Orlando, FL.



Producer's Notes

Visit the Language Lounge on Twitter - https://twitter.com/langloungepod



Connect with Michelle - https://twitter.com/michelleolah



Have a comment or question? Leave a voicemail at (207) 888-9819 or email podcast@waysidepublishing.com



Produced by Wayside Publishing - https://waysidepublishing.com



Social Media

@mr_fernie on Twitter



Mentions

SCOLT https://www.scolt.org/

ACTFL https://www.actfl.org/

FFLA https://www.ffla.us/

TPRS https://www.tprsbooks.com/what-is-tprs/

Thomas Sauer https://nflc.umd.edu/people/thomas-sauer

Greta Lundgaard https://www.linkedin.com/in/greta-lundgaard-tx/

Paul Sandrock https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulsandrock/