MIWLA Connect has taken off, and I have to give a lot of credit to one person, Emily Serafa-Manschot. What did Emily do? Well, Emily invited many of her world language friends in her address book to join the community, she has started blogging, and suddenly the community is gaining feet. Why is this impressive? Because Emily probably wouldn’t call herself a techie! I’m pretty excited – we have educators from around the country and world joining us.
Professional Learning Communities for world language teachers can play a major role in supporting the teacher in the classroom. Unlike the math, science, social studies or language arts teachers, many world language teachers are the only teacher of their content area in the building. Of course, in larger schools this is not the case, but many American schools are small, so a teacher may find himself or herself as the only teacher of Spanish, French, German, Chinese, etc. in the building.
FLTEACH is probably the oldest online community for world language teachers. It is a listserv based out of SUNY-Cortland. It is still a vibrant, email-based community where teachers can share information, support each other, and discuss their profession.
Web 2.0 communities are now providing new places for teachers to meet, discuss, and share resources. The Michigan World Language Association has started a Ning, called MIWLA Connect, which is open to anyone interested in world languages (no need to be a member of the MIWLA). We hope this Ning provides an online meeting space for world language educators, as well as a place to share resources. Members can add document or media attachments for others to access, post photos and videos, create small groups, etc.
Are you interested in world languages? Then join us on our Ning!
