President's Letter February 2015

Dear Fellow NHAWLT members,

Now that we’ve finished semester 1, had a few snow days, and experienced a white winter, I’d like to give you an update on happenings with NHAWLT.  First, I’d like to thank Ursula Askins-Huber for her tireless dedication as NHAWLT president over the last two years.  Under her leadership, we had our first conference with walk-in workshops, added a social media presence to nhawlt.org, supported Ed 306.48 (including requiring a certified or HQT teacher in each high school in the state, inclusive of online charter schools), and shared Common Core alignment on our website (ACTFL’s "Crossroads" aligns the ACTFL National Standards for World Languages with the ELA Common Core).   Visit nhawlt.org anytime to access relevant information, check our calendar of events and follow us on Twitter or Facebook. Is your 2015 calendar filling up? Don’t forget to add our conference, November 13-14 at Mill Falls in Meredith, a beautiful fall conference site.

February brings cool weather and cool contests.  It’s time to start thinking about participating in our annual poster competition.  We have both a digital and paper option for grades K-12 and love to see the creativity of NH world language students.  While we have always listed the criteria, this year we’ll also be posting the rubrics the judges will use for you and your students.  With technology increasingly relevant to 21^st century learning, please encourage your students to share their tech skills this year, or share their artistic talent on paper.  Look for the e-mail blast soon.

We occasionally have board positions open and are inviting teachers who express interest to a NHAWLT Executive Board Meeting to see if this is for you.  Please consider joining the board sometime in the future.  We are a collaborative group with different talents and languages represented.  We would love to meet new teachers interested in the board.

The NHAWLT Certificate of Excellence award is given in the spring: we’ll remind you to have student names to us by May. Many teachers select a junior for this recognition and students may list this achievement with college applications.  Speaking of student excellence, consider nominating a NH Teacher of Excellence. Nomination forms are at nhawlt.org. Excellent teachers are also excellent conference presenters, so think about sharing some of your expertise with your colleagues throughout the state, or asking a colleague if he or she would like to present.  Conference proposals are due by June.

Lastly, please remember that NHAWLT is here to support you, our world language teachers throughout the state. We are ready to listen to your thoughts on world language education in NH, and can be contacted at nhawlt.org. We also have a helpful hints section for you to check out. If you’d like to add helpful hints or events to our calendar, please send them along and we’ll share many with the NHAWLT community. Enjoy the winter, the powdery snow, and the spring semester.

Fondly,

Celeste M. Feren, President of NHAWLT

FLAME 2015

Check out the announcement for the upcoming FLAME conference.

2015 NHAWLT Poster Contest

2015 NHAWLT Poster Contest

Theme: #worldlanguages

TRADITIONAL (PAPER) POSTER RULES: Each poster must have the following:

1. All posters must say: #worldlanguages
2. Original work of a current world language student whose teacher is currently a NHAWLT member.
3. No group entries.
4. Posters must measure 18” by 24.”
5. Lightweight poster material should be used (100# & 80# weight that can be rolled); NO 3-D images.
6. LIMIT: 5 (five) entries per school.
7. Illustrations must be used in addition to words.
8. No copyrighted figures are to be used. Avoid Spongebob, Snoopy, the Simpsons, etc.
9. Teachers submit the entry form below with entries & put requested info on the back of each poster.
10. Posters must be postmarked by March 27th.
11. All posters become the property of NHAWLT. Winning posters will be displayed at the NH Dept. of Education.
12. Award-winning posters may be claimed at the Hospitality Desk at the close of the Fall Conference.

DIGITAL POSTER RULES: Each poster must have the following:

1. All posters must say: #worldlanguages
2. Original work of a current world language student whose teacher is currently a NHAWLT member.
3. No group entries.
4. Digital posters may be created in a wide array of formats and platforms.  A couple options are PDF, Prezi (www.prezi.com), Glogster (www.glogster.com).
5. It is the responsibility of the teacher to troubleshoot any technology issues that may arise. 
6. LIMIT: 5 (five) entries per school.
7. Multi-media must be used in addition to words.
8. There is a maximum total of one minute of audio/video allowed per submission.
9. No copyrighted figures are to be used. Avoid Spongebob, Snoopy, the Simpsons, etc.
10. With the exception of preset graphics, text boxes, and frames, any multi-media (drawings, animations, photos, audio, or video) used on the poster must be the original work of the student. The student is responsible for work submitted and NHAWLT holds no liability for copyright infringement.
11. Teachers must submit an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with links to the FIVE top digital entries from their school. The e-mail should also include the requested poster identification information (see below) for each student’s poster.
12. Digital submissions must be received by March 28th.
13. Winning posters will be displayed on the NHAWLT website and showcased at the annual conference.

JUDGING CRITERIA for both contests:

Please look at our NHAWLT Poster Rubric for more detailed information.

• (digital) Audio-Visual impact, over-all appealing effect
• (traditional) Visual impact, over-all appealing effect
• Theme relevance
• Neatness
• Originality
• Accuracy

PRIZES: Top winners (paper) in each of the 4 following categories will be awarded $50.00:

• Elementary School (grades K-3)
• Elementary/Middle School (grades 4-6)
• Middle/Junior High School (grades 7-8)
• Senior High School (grades 9-12)

Top winner in the digital category (all ages) will also be awarded $50.00

POSTER IDENTIFICATION: each entry must include the following information on the back of the poster itself:

Student name: _____________ Grade: ______ Language: _____________ Level:_______

School: ____________________________________________________________________

School Address: _____________________________________________________________

School Telephone: ( ) ________________________ Teacher’s Name: ________________

Please submit this form with your (paper) posters (5 maximum) and mail (rolled) to:

Newmarket High School

Attention: Carole Smart

213 South Main Street

Newmarket, NH 03857

_________________________________________________ School Name & Street Address

______________________________________________________________City & zip code

School Telephone Number: ( ) ___________________________________

Student Name: Grade: Teacher:

1._________________________________________________________________________

2._________________________________________________________________________

3._________________________________________________________________________

4._________________________________________________________________________

5._________________________________________________________________________