Beth Hanlon, OFLA President-Elect
Spanish Teacher, Oberlin High School

After a great “core strengthening” at the 2017 OFLA conference, the 2016-2017 school year will soon be behind us! I would like to take the opportunity to give you details of the upcoming OFLA year.

Changes in the OFLA Board

The OFLA Board’s May meeting was the last for board members that have supported the organization in so many ways for many years. We are very appreciative for their service to OFLA and know that they will continue to work with the world language teachers of Ohio in other capabilities.

Teri Wiechart, a past president, served this year as the Scholarship Chair. Teri played a crucial part in building of the conference’s EventMobi and conference registration in addition to her position as Scholarship Chair. Teri has a wealth of OFLA knowledge and is definitely our go-to person for advice and guidance.

Martha Halemba, also a past president, has been serving as the OFLA Professional Development Chair. Martha led us through the onset of the Student Growth Measures (SLO) and the Integration Performance Assessment (IPA) implementation as well as working to award Ohio’s students the Seal of Biliteracy. Martha will continue to work with world language teachers on the Board of Directors for the Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

Cheryl Johnson served as our Editor for Electronic Media. She is always behind the scenes for OFLA in order to monitor our various online presence as well as to be our conference photographer. Cheryl always knows what to do to fix any tech glitch and is an amazing resource for the organization.

Lesley Chapman finished her term this year as the Beginning Teachers’ Chair. She is very proactive in keeping Ohio’s newest world language teachers connected and informed through the listserv and the Beginning Teachers’ Facebook page. We are very fortunate to have Lesley joining the OFLA presidential track this coming year as the Executive Vice-President.

Many new faces that will be joining the OFLA board for the 2017-2018 school year! Holly Haputa, Spanish teacher at Avon Lake High School, is joining the board as the Professional Development Chair; Dina Marsala, French Teacher at Learwood Middle School (Avon Lake) as the Editor for Electronic Media; Shasha Gibbs, Chinese teacher at Medina High School, as the Technology Integration Chair; Dr. Barbara Sposet, Baldwin Wallace University, as the Teacher Education and Licensure Chair; Denise Broda, Spanish teacher at Wooster High School, as the Scholarship chair; and Nicole Hanlon, French teacher at Buckeye Valley Local High School, as the Beginning Teacher Chair.

The Annual Conference

The 2018 conference will be held in the welcoming city of Cleveland at the Cleveland Marriott Downtown at Key Center, located in Cleveland’s Public Square! The conference meeting space is located on the second floor of the hotel with a great view of the surrounding area.

During the 2017 conference, we strengthened our 6 Core Practices. The 2018 conference will focus on the Core Practice of “Teach grammar as concept and use in context”. Therefore, the theme is “Contextualize This!” Our keynote speaker, Dr. Paul Toth, will be speaking to this during the conference. Dr. Toth’s brief bio was included in the 2017 conference program but is also here if you did not have a chance to read it!

Paul D. Toth teaches Spanish applied linguistics at Temple University, in Philadelphia. After starting as a lunch recess monitor and K-12 substitute teacher, Paul Toth has held a wide range of positions related to language teaching and learning, including: high school and university-level Spanish teacher, foreign language curriculum coordinator, student teacher supervisor, graduate student mentor, and pre-service teacher educator. He has published 18 research articles and book chapters on instructed second language learning, and has twice been awarded ACTFL’s Paul Pimsleur Award for research excellence.

2017-2018 OFLA Year

The OFLA board will start the year in August with the board retreat at the Cleveland Marriott. During the retreat, we work to establish committee goals that best serve the OFLA membership. The member survey that went out in May will help to guide us in our work. Thank you to all of you that took the time to fill it out!

I am looking forward to serving the OFLA membership next year! We have a lot of exciting changes ahead – all with the good of Ohio’s world language teachers in mind!