Beth Hanlon, OFLA President-Elect

After working with the OFLA Nominations Committee, it is time to present the members that will be running for OFLA Board positions during the upcoming election! Please take the time to read about each the eligible professional members and to cast your vote for the leadership of the organization.

During this election cycle, as with each year’s election, a new member of the presidential track is elected to a four year term to serve as Executive Vice-President, President-Elect, President, and Immediate Past President. This four year term gives the person time to learn the function of the board and time to develop projects and ideas for the membership. In addition to the election of a new Executive Vice-President, the Professional Development Chair and Editor for Electronic Media are also being elected on a three year rotation. These positions will begin the 2017-2018 school year.

The OFLA Board also voted to accept a slate of Committee Chairs for a one year term, 2017-2018. These candidates are elected as a slate and are listed below the biographies and vision statements of the executive position candidates.

Voting is planned for the end of February.  Please watch your email for details.

Presidential Track 2017-2021

Lesley Chapman

Bio

Lesley Chapman is currently a French Teacher and Department Supervisor of the Global Language Department of Sycamore High School in Cincinnati. She received her Bachelor of Science in Education from Bowling Green State University, majoring in both French and Spanish. During her university years, she spent one academic year studying in Tours, France, and a second academic year studying in Madrid, Spain. She received her Master’s in French Literature from the University of Paris, Sorbonne, and a second Master’s degree in French from the University of Cincinnati. She started her teaching career in 1993, teaching French and Spanish at Wyoming High School in Cincinnati. In addition, she spent 10 years as an adjunct at the University of Cincinnati, and she has been teaching French at Sycamore High School since 2010. She has worked as a RESA mentor for language educators, and is currently Supervisor of the Global Language department at Sycamore. She joined the OFLA Board in 2014 as the Beginning Teacher Committee Chair, where she enjoys welcoming new world language teachers to the profession. In this role, she implemented and maintains the OFLA Beginning Language Teacher Facebook group page, which reaches approximately 200 Ohio teachers every day.

Vision Statement

I believe that all students, regardless of background, are capable of gaining proficiency in a second language. I am a huge advocate of proficiency-based language learning, and I would like to see teachers all over Ohio benefit from OFLA’s work in this area. It is my goal to reach out to districts and teachers who are not yet involved in OFLA, and to advocate for world language programs throughout the state of Ohio, some of which are languishing amid budget cuts. I am extremely proud to be a member of the OFLA Board, as I have come to realize the importance the work of OFLA has throughout the country. It is my goal to create an even stronger organization, offering opportunities for growth to beginning and veteran teachers alike.

Julie Frye

Bio

In 1979 I earned my B.S in French from Wittenberg University. I began my French teaching career (much later!) in 2001. At that time, I had returned to school (Mount Union University) to obtain my teaching certification and was hired as a long-term substitute teacher in the school district my children were attending. I was taking classes in the evenings, sharing my teaching day between middle and high school classes, travelling with a cart between buildings, was expected to teach a Spanish exploratory class to 8th graders, and had my first scheduled observation on 9/11/2001; yes, that 9/11. My mantra for that year was, “If I can do this, I can do anything!” At the end of that school year, I was hired as the French teacher at Western Reserve HS in Berlin Center, OH, where I spent 3 years. I moved to central Ohio in 2005 and in 2008 was hired as the French teacher at Lexington HS in Lexington, OH. I was a member of the OFLA Tech Team 2011-2015 and it is my pleasure and privilege to serve as your OFLA Membership Chair since 2013.

Vision Statement

My personal vision statement is “to inspire, mold and motivate” and my personal mission statement is “I use my energy, enthusiasm and sense of adventure to explore new opportunities, improving my world and the world at large.” It is my belief that these personal statements translate very easily into the vision and mission of OFLA and the leaders of the organization. As a candidate for Executive Vice-President, I bring these attributes and guiding principles to the OFLA Executive Board, and thus to our members throughout the state of Ohio, to our associates in the Central States region and to the world language teaching profession as a whole.

Professional Development Chair 2017-2020

Holly Haputa

Bio

Holly Haputa is currently a Spanish teacher at Avon Lake High School in Lorain County. She earned a B.A. in Speech Communications with a minor in Spanish from Miami University in 1991, K-12 Spanish Certification from Cleveland State University in 1993, and a M.A. in Education Administration in 2000. She taught one year at Cleveland’s Thomas Jefferson Intermediate School Computech Center where she developed a sixth grade FLEX program and 7th and 8th grade Spanish curriculum based on communication skills. She spent 6 years at Brooklyn High School teaching middle school FLEX and Spanish I-IV and is now in her eighteenth year at Avon Lake High School where she served as World Language Department Chair, Mentor Teacher, and Spanish Club Co-Advisor. She organized and chaperoned ten overseas summer student tours of Spain, France, Italy, and England. Holly has supervised two student teachers and four practicum students. She worked as a Praxis 3 evaluator and reader for five years, and co-founded the Facebook group Foreign Language T.R.I.B.E. to unite and share resources with world language educators around the country. She is a member of both the Lorain County World Language Teachers Professional Network and OFLA and will be co-presenting at the 2017 conference.

Vision Statement

World Language education is an exciting field. Our focus moves students toward proficiency, the ability to function in a second language. OFLA has proved that collaboration is key for teachers. We are all at varying degrees of implementation and understanding and we are our own greatest resources. My goals for the position are to increase the number and types of opportunities to share ideas throughout the year to support teachers wherever they may be on the spectrum of proficiency implementation. Our membership is full of talent, and social media is a convenient and effective platform to share–short videos of how to implement engaging strategies, technology tips, ready-to-go activities, and ideas from teachers around the world. With the support of the board and our membership, encouraging regional network development by counties/areas and creating a common Google drive folder of resources contributed from the membership round out my vision for the position. It would be an honor to serve OFLA and have the opportunity to give back to all of you who have been my inspiration throughout my career.

Kerry Parker

Bio

Kerry Parker is currently the French teacher at Edison High School in Milan, Ohio. She earned her Bachelor’s in French from the College of Wooster in 1996 and completed her Master’s in History at Cleveland State University in 2000. Her graduate work in French is from Kent State and Bowling Green State Universities. Kerry has participated in summer grants through the Turkish Cultural Foundation, the Cleveland Council of World Affairs and the French Consulate in Chicago. She began her career with a Fulbright teaching assistantship, teaching middle school English at Collège Paul Langevin in Pas-de-Calais, France. Kerry returned to Ohio to teach the 6th grade FLEX program at Margaret Spellacy Middle School in Cleveland. After two years with CPS, she accepted a position to build the French program, grades 8-12, for Keystone Local Schools and taught there for sixteen years. She has been in Milan since 2015. Kerry has worked for the last decade to develop quality courses in the evolving college partnership plans through BGSU, Lorain County Community College and Kenyon College. She continues to volunteer with Pre-K and elementary school children through various community organizations and is employed summers and weekends as an independent contractor with Communicate Institute Professional Development, teaching graduate credit courses around the state of Ohio.

Vision Statement

I am honored to run for the position of Professional Development Chair for our association. I wholeheartedly believe that proficiency in a second language is a critical skill for learners in the increasingly interconnected world of the 21st century. This in mind, our organization must continue to develop opportunities for teachers to build active language learners who can demonstrate proficiency across the skill areas. I would lead the committee to strive to stay at the national forefront in teaching for proficient language acquisition and to engage our members in workshops with hands-on tools and real-world applications for their classrooms. My vision for the position of Professional Development Chair is to connect educators with opportunities for their students to interact with and in the target language through experiences in their communities and regions. And, in the pursuit of creating 21st century learners and leaders, it is my goal to provide teachers with the resources and information to equip students with opportunities to further their language study and pursue career options with language proficiency.

Editor for Electronic Media 2017-2020

Dina Marsala

Bio

Dina Marsala is currently a French teacher at Learwood Middle School in Lorain County. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in French from Ohio University in 1995 and a Master’s in French from the University of Northern Iowa’s program based in Angers, France in 2003. She began her career teaching Exploratory French through French 4 for two years in the Black River Local Schools in Medina County. Dina has been with the Avon Lake City School District for the last 19 years. She has worked at both the middle school and high school levels and has taught all levels of French 1-6. Dina has also worked within the elementary schools to promote French. In addition to presenting at the OFLA Conference, Dina has offered professional development within her district. She has been a RESA assessor, Disney Teacher of the Year nominee, and was selected to participate in a Fulbright exchange. She has advised many different student groups, led several student trips abroad and served on many different committees within her school district. Dina is the co-founder of the Foreign Language T.R.I.B.E., a Professional Learning Community on Facebook.

Vision Statement

I am honored to be running for the Editor of Electronic Media position on the OFLA Executive Board. I would like to continue to advocate for World Languages on behalf of my Ohio colleagues and administrators. We have had some exciting wonderful changes to World Language education in the past couple of years like revising our standards, moving toward a proficiency model, and of course, the passage of the Seal of Biliteracy. Working together and collaborating is key to our success. As the Editor of Electronic Publications I will work with the other members of the Executive Board to keep our membership informed of OFLA’s activities. OFLA has had an active part in my development as a language teacher, so I would now like to give back to the organization. It would be an honor to serve the OFLA membership as your Editor of Electronic Publications.

Committee Chairs: Elected for one year term, 2017-2018 (Elected as a slate)

Beginning Teachers Committee Chair: Nicole Hanlon

Early Language Learning Chair: Samantha Bremner

Secondary Language Learning: Lisa Sobb

Scholarship: Denise Broda

Teacher Education and Licensure: Dr. Barbara Sposet

Technology Integration Committee Chair: Shasha Gibbs

Watch your email and the OFLA listserv for the upcoming voting dates!