Welcome to our new information hub!
My name is Valerie Shull-a long time Spanish teacher in Chicago and member of ICTFL and NNELL. My background is working in a Montessori environment teaching language for children ages six to fourteen-so FLES teachers are near and dear to my heart. As a contributor to the FLES blog, I will post information that is important for IL FLES teachers and help to connect our community. I hope you will sign up to follow and contribute comments! Below is an introduction from our NNELL representative and Immediate Past President of ICTFL, Kathleen Priceman. Welcome!
Hello and welcome! I am Kathleen Priceman the NNELL State Representative for Illinois. I have been a language teacher for decades and am as enthusiastic as ever about creating more opportunities for young children to begin their lifelong journey of learning about life through multiple language experiences. For the past 16 years I have been a Spanish Immersion teacher in Oak Park.
I am the Immediate Past President of ICTFL and the current chair of the FLES committee of that organization. I am also a member of AATSP and ACTFL. I am most excited to be the Illinois NNELL representative as I see this as a tremendous opportunity to open a new line of communication between the most ardent supporters of early language learning for children PARENTS, GRANDPARENTS, AND LANGUAGE TEACHERS, SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS and BUSINESS LEADERS.
Most elementary language teachers work in relative isolation and are constantly fighting to maintain funding for their programs. Elementary school administrators are concerned with diminishing resources and ever expanding demands to meet new standards and mandated regulations. One can hardly blame them for not being able to find the time or funding to provide instructional programs which are not mandated. We all know that early language programs have been proven through research to be integral to the cognitive development of youngsters. But how do we share that information with the people who are in the position to implement programs that put that research into action? Too often wonderful elementary programs are discontinued or never started in the first place. Many excellent programs exist and should be duplicated, but are not.
I have witnessed in my own community the rapid rise of preschool world language programs. In fact there are few if any preschool programs in my town that do not offer some type of early language exposure for their students. We have at least two immersion pre- school programs and countless bilingual or immersion in-home day care options.
Most of the parents of these youngsters would like to see a continuation of the rich language learning environment into the elementary school. We are very fortunate to have a Spanish FLES program, and one small immersion program. But for many residents these programs are insufficient. In other communities, there are no language opportunities in the local elementary schools, even though the children have had pre-school world language experience.
When I explain to people my position as an immersion teacher, parents of young children usually comment that they wish that their children or grandchildren could benefit from early language learning. They then tell me that unfortunately there are no programs in their community. I am very excited to report that I can now show those parents and grandparents a way for them to advocate for early language programs.
Imagine if all the teachers, parents and supporters of early language learning joined NNELL, and then used the wealth of advocacy information to inform school boards, school administrators of the advantages that early language acquisition provides for youngsters!
If one parent in every preschool in Illinois joined NNELL and set up a coffee meet and greet to share the website……. What might happen?
Let’s get started and see where we go!
