WELCOME TO THE 2019-2020 SCHOOL YEAR

Lesley Chapman, OFLA President 2019-2020
French Teacher, Sycamore High School

Dear OFLA Members:

It is my pleasure to welcome everyone to the 2019-2020 school year.  2020 seems so futuristic, doesn’t it? I recall not so long ago hearing the year “2020” and thinking of flying cars and vacations to Mars. While those things are not (yet) a reality, what is real are the advances in education, and particularly in World Language education. Thanks to modern technology, we are more connected to the world – and each other – than ever before. With that connectivity comes incredible strength as a profession. Every day I go on Facebook, Twitter, and teacher blogs, where I find a more united group of collaborators than ever before. This unity is exciting to me and makes me enthusiastic about where the future might bring us.

I ask my students frequently why they want to take French. They tell me “I want to become fluent.” While that might seem to be a lofty goal for some high school students, it is important that we, as language educators, do everything we can to get them started. Our goal for our students is language proficiency, and our task is to use current best practices to help them achieve it. Continuing to learn, create, and share is vital to language educators, and in doing so we all take part in forming global citizens who are ready to take on the 21st century and all its coming advances.   

If you have been teaching for 10, 20, 30 years, ask yourself: What changes am I making in my teaching this year?  How am I aiming to improve upon what I have done in the past? How will my teaching in 2020 look and feel different from 2010, 2000, 1990? 

The OFLA Board is excited about the 2019-2020 school year, as we are planning on offering a variety of professional development opportunities to help Ohio’s teachers reach their goals. Stay tuned to our Facebook page and Google group for these events. And, please note that our 2020 conference is planned for April 2-4, 2020, in Cincinnati, Ohio.  We hope you will make plans to join us there, and to enter into “the future” prepared (and ready to take on the robots!)

Sincerely Yours,

Lesley Chapman
OFLA President, 2019-2020