The Cardinal

A World Language Teacher’s Favorite AI Tools

Megan Brady, OFLA President Elect 
Spanish Teacher, Northwest High School

Have you explored AI in your classroom? While it seems like most of the teachers in my school are a bit apprehensive, I have decided to take a peek and see how it can help make my life easier, and I am thrilled to see the results! By the time this article is published, OFLA will have had its AI training, and I’m sure I will be joined by several of you as an intrigued teacher once we discover the capabilities AI currently has and how we can harness this to our advantage.

A current favorite is CLAUDE.AI. I have used Claude to come up with speaking and writing prompt ideas, generate ideas for a syllabus, write a recommendation letter, create a reading activity comparing 2 versions of La Llorona (complete with comprehension and comparison questions!), and more. While I do end up tweaking some of the things it generates, I’m very pleased with the results and it definitely helps get my creative juices flowing after a long day. 

Deborah Varga, OFLA Executive Vice-President 
Spanish Teacher, Canton City Schools

Recently, I binge-watched the Danish drama “Sygeplejeskolen (The New Nurses)” on Hoopla Digital. I have always been drawn to historical medical dramas, and I loved how I immediately understood many words and expressions.  I could infer quite a bit through the comprehensible input that the subtitles and the context of the show’s various stories provided. Since English is a Germanic (West Germanic) and Danish is a North Germanic language, many expressions sound very similar.  The experience I had while viewing the drama, inspired me to delve into learning Danish as a way to revisit novice language learning again.  I  chose to revisit this idea that I had heard discussed in a past professional development some time ago. For world language teachers to truly understand how to approach proficiency-based instruction in their classrooms, one should try learning a new language! 

Provided by OFLA Professional Development Committee

Lisa Howie, OFLA Executive Treasurer
Spanish Teacher, Smithville High School

Have you taken advantage of the new Language Cafés being offered by the Professional Development Committee? I have, and it has been a very fun experience.

On the fourth Monday of each month, teachers gather together from the comfort of their homes to practice either the language they teach, another language that they are learning, or as native speakers to help those of us learning. Since I am the only Spanish teacher in my district as well as the only Spanish speaker in my building, I was very excited to try this out and get in some practice with people who are farther along on this journey than I am.

Cheryl Johnson, OFLA Parliamentarian and Bylaws
Retired Instructional Technologist for the Department of Modern Languages, Denison University

What is ANVILL?
ANVILL is an Open Educational Resource full of tools for building rich interactive lessons and activities in which you can incorporate authentic materials. These tools are extremely useful for providing students with practice outside of the classroom and were designed and developed specifically for language educators by the Yamada Language Center and CASLS at the University of Oregon. In fact ANVILL stands for A National Virtual Language Lab.

Join us for the annual OFLA Conference: CONNECT, COLLABORATE AND COMMUNICATE! 

Maria Herman, OFLA Membership Chair
German Teacher, Maumee City Schools

It’s already February and that means just one thing for world language teachers: the annual OFLA conference is right around the corner!  It’s finally back!  This will be the first year since the pandemic that OFLA has hosted a “regular” spring gathering (last year it was the Central States Conference, and in 2022 & 2023 we hosted a Summer Splash).  This is going to be a great chance to get together and share amazing ideas and strategies for teaching! This year’s conference will take place at Otterbein University from March 7-9. Join us to connect, collaborate and communicate!

I remember attending OFLA conferences in my first few years of teaching.  I had no idea how helpful they would be!  When you attend an OFLA conference, you can choose from so many wonderful sessions where you can learn about anything from teaching techniques, how to better engage your students, or how to incorporate technology.  This year, there will be sessions ranging from AI usage, how to switch your classroom to CI, how to “flip” your lessons, how to get your intermediate level students to speak more, and even a session for tasting French wines!

Beth Hanlon, OFLA Executive Recorder and Editor of The Cardinal
Spanish Teacher, Oberlin High School

As teachers, we all know that certain times of the school year can be harder than others.  Luckily, there are ways to spice things up and redirect students’ energy!  Here are some of the big activities I use in my classes during the year.   

As the “Dark, Evil Vortex of Late September, October, and November” (or DEVOLSON) sets in, it’s time for Señor Ashby’s Locotubre!  Locotubre began during the 2020-2021 school year as a Locura de Marzo spinoff in order to give teachers and students a little “pick me up” during pandemic teaching.  The popularity of this music competition has kept it around since!  Locotubre always has a theme.  For example, the 2023 Locotubre used different genres of Hispanic music.  This was a great way to bring culture into the classroom via a friendly competition using Hispanic music!

Nicola Work, OFLA Editor for Electronic Media 
Associate Professor of French, University of Dayton

A few years ago, I participated in an Escape Room activity during a language teaching conference. I had never played an escape room and had no idea what was happening during the activity, but I was intrigued. Participating in this activity could be a fun way to get students out of their seats and become actively involved in the learning process. They would practice the target language while refining their problem-solving, teamwork, and leadership skills. I was hooked!

What is an Escape Room? An escape room is a group activity where a team of players is locked in a room and must solve a series of mental and physical challenges to discover how to escape from the room. Since we cannot lock students into our classroom, an escape game is a good alternative for teachers. An escape game is a group activity where a team of students tries to break into a locked box by solving a series of mental puzzles and physical challenges.  If all locks are unlocked and the box opens, the students win.