Iowa World Language Association Meeting of the Advisory Council and Executive Board Thursday, October 11, 2012 Des Moines Downtown Marriott / Cedar Rapids Room

Call to Order / Welcome – Call to order at 7:23 PM.

Attendees: Erik Ladner, Tracy Dinesen, Wade Petersen, Karla Jensen, Kat Akers, Carly Triplett, Jason Noble, Susan Sandholm-Petersen, Christine McCormick, Candace Sherwood, Sachiko Murphy, Stacy Amling, Kim Huegerich, Kate Falvey, Amanda DeGroote, Juan Trujillo, Bea Houston, Vance Byrd, Grace Valdez

Approval of Minutes of last meeting – May 5, 2012 meeting minutes. Tracy Dinesen moved to approve the minutes, Karla Jensen seconded. Minutes approved.

Treasurer’s Report – Bank of America is savings account that has been collecting interest. Main account is Veridian account. $15,145 dollars in checks need to be deposited from Bea. $15, 867.30 is to be deposited from PayPal. We’re glad to be in solid financial footing and continue to give back to members and continue to be somewhat conservative in planning for the future. Breakdown of when payments came in for online registration. Over half of pre-registered attendees chose to register and pay online. Special thanks to Stacy and Bea in getting PayPal set up. We were incorporated on Sept. 19th of 1992 as the Iowa Foreign Language Association. IWLA debit card has been working well to have. 990-N postcard was filed to attest that we did not make more than $50,000 last year. We increased our liability policy. Stacy will follow up on the name change process. Bea Houston moved to approve the report, Kim Huegrich seconded. Report approved.

Conference Committee Reports: Registration - Bea Houston – 157 registered online and 154 through the mail. Online registration was a lifesaver. There are 3 more checks that need to be taken. Registration is just over 300 at this time. Typically have 40-50 walk-ins each year. We should be just about equal to registrations at this time last year.

Exhibitor Liaison - Christine McCormick and Amanda DeGroote – 20 exhibitors. They tried to get some new ones. Colleges, textbook companies, technology companies are here. Christine tried to get more sort of fun exhibitors, and wasn’t as successful as she wanted to be, like Work of our Hands, etc. If there are retired teachers who want to sell things, could have a booth for them. The board could determine to allow it. The cost of a booth is $185. Could previous members or teachers get a discount. A group of teachers could choose to get together and purchase a booth. Wartburg is a new exhibitor this year, as is Professional Educators of Iowa. EF Tours is back as well. Chris has contacted the Foreign Candy Company and they haven’t been able to attend, the Learning Post, Teacher’s Discovery, Scholastic, Film Aerobix doesn’t travel anymore. Prices have been revised from past years, but have offered the possibility of advertising on the website, but the pricing structure has changed. Future boards may want to talk again about the pricing structure. 8 ads were purchased, 5 offering prizes. Several groups hosting exhibit breaks and hospitality.

Local Chair - Candace Sherwood – Be sure to thank the exhibitors. Will be having hospitality room again with candy, mints, and chocolate. Candace tried to get downtown restaurants to give discounts, Centro offered a 10% discount. Must show badge from conference. Encourage people to fill out ballots for Best of Iowa and conference All-Stars. The system for determining Best of Iowa is still not very well done. Spanish teachers are still more likely to get Best of Iowa. Some people vote for friends and colleagues. May need to look at the system and see if there is a more objective way to give the award. Those who present on Saturday are at a disadvantage or if you’re at the last presentation slot on Friday or Saturday, you don’t tend to get Best of Iowa either. It seems like current system is almost worse than the old plan. Maybe it should be made clear that “this is the best of our conference and should represent us at Central States.” Maybe should make a rule that you can only win once every 5 years in order to get some new blood. Once you get Educator of the Year, you can’t win again, maybe it should be the same with Best of Iowa. Could set a rotation on the subject/language of Best of Iowa each year. Could help to keep the organization growing and changing.

Program Chairs - Keeka Baedke and Kate Falvey – There is a full program, DMACC is doing their dual credit presentation once on Friday and Saturday. There is one error that will have to be corrected by an announcement. There are 2 projectors and 2 speakers for use (can be plugged into a computer), and there are some that others have brought. There will be a help desk that will be staffed all day on Friday. Paul Sandrock will be giving one presentation on Friday, and one on Saturday. One of the software companies bought multiple ads. Lot of technology in the program and 6 different presenters in the poster session. People will be able to download the program to an Android, iPhone, or Windows phone. Title of presentation and name of presenter are included. Bea has an extra phone charger and iPod charger. Presenters have been working with Kate as far as technology needed. The At a Glance is correct, no mistakes there. But 2B, 3B, and 4A need to shuffle in the full program. Poster session is a result of people suggesting we try it. This is the first year, some will love it and some will complain. Keep ears open for comments and get ideas on how to do it better. Wonder if there were more people who were able to come because of presenting at the poster session. Helps more people to participate. Some are doing the poster session as their second presentation. Everyone who wanted to got a slot to present. 4-6 presentations overall to be estimated as presenting sessions. Good combination of secondary and post-secondary. Got a fair number of student registrations in advance this year. May be connected to the TOP Award as well. May have been nominated or have friends nominated. One hole in the program, cancellation on Tuesday.

Reports of Advisory Council Members: AATF President - Elizabeth Zwanziger (report) – The American Association of Teachers of French Iowa Chapter has experienced a trying year. With the closure of the University of Northern Iowa French Master’s, Major, and Minor programs, we have lost one of the pillar programs in our state, as well as our colleague and co-president Dr. Anne Lair to the University of Utah. Despite this hardship, we maintain a state membership of forty-five people. Our goal this year is to seek out members who aspire to leadership positions in our chapter, and to try to replace in other venues the former events at UNI that supported French and other languages, such as the Concours Oral and the Tête-à Tête mentoring conference. If we want these traditions to continue, French teachers need to stand up and support themselves and their students. It may also be interesting from a recruiting standpoint if a post-secondary institution would get involved in the Concours Oral. Among our success stories in 2012 was a high level of participation across the state for the National French Exam (also known as Le Concours). We had 860 student participants, with one student placing at the national level. Thank you to exam administrator Sheila Conrad for her tireless work in counting, sorting, and sending out the nearly nine hundred exams for all of our students. Three members presented at the national AATF convention in Chicago in July: Anne Lair, Linda Quinn Allen, and Elizabeth Zwanziger. Several other members of the Iowa AATF were in attendance, making it a good showing for our state.

AATG President - Vance Byrd - Very successful meeting in the spring hosted by the University of Iowa, including those in the Master’s program. Many students had parents come out for the awards for the exams. In April, Grinnell College will host the meeting. AATG meets twice a year. Purpose of meeting is for networking and encouraging German in the state. Also, like French, looking for leadership within the organization. Have a new colleague at Cornell College, from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, women’s movements in Germany. New tenure track colleague at Grinnell College. One retirement, and one replacement. On the high school level, added a German program in southwest Iowa who is teaching partially ICN. Winterset, Nodaway Valley, Earlham. Teacher was at Waukee for a bit. 10 year anniversary celebrated this year at Waukee of their exchange with their program in Dordtman. There was a big ceremony in Waukee and the German Consul came, principal affirmed the role of foreign languages, and made lots of connections.

AATSP President - Jason Noble – met on Sept. 8th and talked about IWLA, Mary Harris is looking to bring her principal to the conference. Talked about the national chapter of AATSP, have been having trouble trying to get funds. AATSPIA.org is their website, maintaining it and trying to expand. Very successful immersion weekend program at Simpson. Would like to do something similar though not in competition, as a Café Latino. Some are going on around the state. Talked about having a Grandview sponsored Café Latino for graduate credit on February 8-9. Coralie plans to bring fliers. Would like to talk to Tracy as far as what to do and not do. Padrinos/madrinas for new teachers. Jason has been e-mailing college professors that might have pre-service teachers that may need mentoring. In many districts, these teachers may be all alone with no one else in the department and be in need of a support system. They can get set up via a link on the website. Jason hasn’t gotten responses yet, but want to keep the option open. Just need to work out how to get in contact. Could send the info to Wade to do the e-mail blast. Would like to grow it. AMICI has something similar that they would like to pattern off of. Could put something at the Help Desk. Plan to pass some contact cards out for all Spanish-teaching colleagues. There was a successful get together last year at Dos Rios, planning to do it again this year.

AMICI President - Madeleine Henry (report) – AMICI is regrouping and hopes to have something more structured to report in the spring. Madeleine Henry, professor of classical studies at Iowa State, is the new secretary-treasurer. University of Iowa will begin hosting our website. We will have a formal meeting at the Classical Association of the Midwest and South (hosted by UIowa in April 2013). Madeleine would like to find out how many precollege schools offer Latin and/or classical humanities. If you know of any please contact her. Dan Stoa, a U of Iowa grad, teaches at Valley. Bethany Mathes, an ISU grad, teaches Latin at Peoria Christian School in Pella. ISU is offering study abroad in Greece this summer; contact Margaret Mook [email protected] if interested. AMICI will meet at IWLA during the AAT time slot on Saturday morning and we hope to have a good turnout.

JLCTIA (Japanese) Representative - Sachiko Murphy – 3 teachers participated in a conference for networking in regard to education in Japan. It was at Drake on September 10-11th. Last year, they met twice on Skype, including college/university teachers, U of Iowa hired one tenure track professor. This year, they will meet via Skype and meetings for Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and Eastern Iowa. Want to include elements of AP Japanese at other levels. Have very good sister cities and sister states relations, lots of people coming in the summer, but only coming in Des Moines. Teachers in Eastern Iowa, encouraging them to send people their way so they can include. Want to build on existing relationships. ACTFL Representative - Carly Triplet – Hasn’t gone to conference yet, November 16-18 in Philadelphia. Many languages, one united voice. K. David Harrison is keynote speaker, works with endangered languages. Chinese 112 sessions, Italian 62, German 62, Spanish 46, Japanese 41, French 31, Arabic 18, Korean Portuguese, Latin Russian have small numbers. Still are 400 sessions left that don’t say what language they will be.

FLES Representative - Shanon Shreffler – no report

Middle School Representative - Susan Sandholm-Petersen – tried many ways to gather middle school teachers for a means to communicate, but hasn’t been overly successful. Susan is most successful going around the conference and talking to people, gives them stickers for their badges, suggests sessions that may be most helpful for middle school teachers. West Des Moines program was lost this year, hopefully temporarily. On a personal note, Susan has renewed her NBCT certification. Have to complete a profile of professional growth, had certified in 2002, allowed to begin recertification in 8th or 9th year. If you don’t pass your 8th year, have an additional year. Congratulations, Susan! She suggests that you take a look at professional accomplishments you’ve made, film yourself, critique yourself, 4 different areas of interest, professional interest. Focus on students and their learning. NBCT is a wonderful process, though not to be taken lightly. Making professional connections is very important; Susan always includes how valuable IWLA has been for her. State has reinstated some financial incentives for being NBCT. Spanish still exists but only adolescent to young adults, not for elementary level.

Central States Representative - Kat Akers – Reported majority of her items in spring. Excited to present, looking at curriculum and mapping, hoping for good turnout. Still feels like she’s developing her curriculum, but if we can get some sort of commonality, Linguafolio or something similar, could be beneficial for the state.

Community College Representative - Bea Houston – Nothing to report. Private College Representative - Coralie Turner – no report

Public University Representative - Terri Gebel (report) – University of Iowa news - We will be hosting a Tete-a-Tete at the University of Iowa on Saturday, March 2, from 9 am -12 pm. At this point, we imagine that the a general focus on FL education, as a counterpart to the Tete-a-Tete that will be hosted at Iowa State, also in the spring, where the focus will be more on elementary WL education. All WL teachers are welcome! For more information, contact pamela- [email protected] . Next summer, the University of Iowa will be offering a workshop to help prepare students for the AP exams in Japanese and Chinese. There will also be a workshop offered to help the teachers through the Belin-Blank Center. We encourage everyone to stop by our booth at IWLA for more information, or to contact Russ Ganim, the lead on the project, at [email protected] . There has been a World Language Articulation Committee created at the University of Iowa, designed to help facilitate secondary-post-secondary collaboration in world language education, with a slight focus on Eastern Iowa. There are university and K-12 personnel on the committee. If anyone is interested in joining or would like more information, again contact [email protected] . This is more informational about Iowa teacher education – the members of the IWLA board may or may not know this – but I think they should. All preservice teachers seeking licensure in an Iowa institution are required to take and pass TWO Praxis II exams above a certain cut score- for WL teachers, this means one a more general test, one a Praxis on their WL. This isn’t for admission, but for getting the license. This has been implemented extremely recently by Jason Glass, and it takes effect this spring for all students. Does the IWLA need or want to take an official position on this? Iowa State - Mentioned earlier, they will have a spring Tete-a-Tete. They usually have a table and/or people available with info, so don’t have more to add. UNI - No new info at this point. They no longer offer the programs for teachers in Spain and Mexico. Not sure if that will change. Terri will be resigning from her position due to her retirement. Many thanks to IWLA, feels blessed by such incredible colleagues.

Linguafolio Representative - Patricia Calkins (no report)

Other Reports: IWLA Archivist & Historian - Juan Trujillo – Will be taking photos again. Power Point turned out pretty good for tomorrow’s lunch and there will be music on CD from a group from Puerto Rico. Juan needs to find out how many didn’t want their pictures taken. Not an option on the online registration. Juan needs to find out the location for the projector. Should be the same as where it is during opening session.

Grants - Grace Valdez – 2 applications and one was approved. The rubric is a lifesaver and helped to award appropriately, helped the process to be less subjective. $500 request to set up a new program at their high school teaching methods for Spanish to high school students, and will go to elementary schools to teach. Money is for materials. Many kids should be impacted. Grace is willing to be more involved if there is more that she needs to do.

Awards - Tracy Dinesen – 10 nominated, 4 chose to apply and 1 dropped out of the running. 1 nominee for educator of the year that completed file on time. Are giving distinguished service award this year. Rubric worked very well. Advocacy - Karla Jensen – put together this summer an advocacy team, which helps to keep people from getting overwhelmed. 3 team members right now are working on advocacy. Everyone took home some duties, working on contacting businesses to get more support, updating the advocacy part of the website, also working on contacting local and national legislators, Congress people. Team approach has worked really well. Karla had surgery this year, so activity has been limited. She is stepping down as of the conference and is asking someone else to step up. Team plans to continue, but need new advocacy chair. Setting up a meeting with Jason Glass soon, Exec Board will be involved. Going over their progress for putting a person in place for world languages at the state level.

Old Business:

New logo for IWLA and new motto, upgraded website. With a solid balance, Wade’s concept has been about marketing our organization and making sure everyone knows who we are and that we are the hub to connect all the WL teachers in Iowa. Wade hasn’t been afraid to spend money this year, all of it tied in to marketing. Want to make sure teachers think of us. Could set up a Café Press site in order to order items people want with the logo on it. At Central States delegates’ assembly, Kat talked to ACTFL president. Missouri reps talked a lot about the free membership idea, were baffled by the idea. Central States rep next year and Executive Board member should go that knows more about our organization and efforts. There is a plan in place to have an exec board member. Thanks to Wade for the free membership idea. What is the status to becoming the IWLA. Susan can give history as far as where it was left. The process shouldn’t be that difficult or require significant legal assistance. Stacy and Carrie have contacted an attorney colleague as to what the process is.

New Business:

Discuss finding replacement of resigning/retiring members of the Advisory Council. Terri Gebel, Pam Wesely has been recommended to serve. If people wish anyone else to be appointed, send the information to Tracy. Patricia Calkins stepping down as Linguafolio. Need another contact for that. Karla stepping down as advocacy chair, may discuss during executive board. President can appoint to fill the term and then elect next year.

Reminders:  Help collect voting ballots at the end of the general session and help collect lunch tickets at the door for the luncheon when folks are coming in – end of general session tomorrow morning. Drop name badges at main table when they leave.  Post-conference meeting time and location - 11:30-12:20 in Waterloo Room, for executive board and program committee.  December 1st - Goal for wrapping up 2012 conference (all conference reports, registration money and checks to Stacy, reimbursements, etc.)  Like combination of meeting with meal? Yes. Online registration helped a lot with Bea’s process.

Adjourn Tracy Dinesen motion to adjourn. Stacy Amling seconded. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 8:57PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Carrie Morris IWLA Secretary