Here is What is Happening in Ours

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

Last week I attended the OFLA Fall Into Fun: World Language Club Collaboration on Zoom. It gave me many ideas for the coming year. It also reminded me to get going on this year’s schedule!

Our club at Smithville High School, a small rural school in Wayne County, started over 40 years ago. It has had several different versions over the years as languages were added and subtracted. Currently we celebrate both German and Spanish with our club. The German teacher, Joni Reichenbach, is my co-adviser and we do everything together. We only have four meetings a year and they are in the evenings, not right after school like many who shared at the collaboration Zoom.

I wish I could remember all the great ideas that were shared at this meeting. Since I can’t, I will concentrate on sharing what our fall meeting is like.  

Our fall meeting always starts out with a little bit of business and then any students or staff that traveled over the summer and used their language skills  bring a simple slideshow and share what they saw and how they communicated. 

Last night twin girls in my Spanish 4 class shared their experience in Guatemala on a mission trip. They were so excited to tell everyone how they used their Spanish! They finished their talk by giving the 50+ kids in attendance some advice: Travel! After the meeting one came to me and shared a message from one of their new Guatemalan friends. He wanted me to know that I should be proud of them and their language skills. I am!

Depending on how many speakers there are, we may have time to play a game at the end. Some years the officers have created a series of scenarios for small groups to act out to use their language skills in different settings. Last night they played multi-lingual bingo! The meeting lasts an hour to 90 minutes. Of course we always have snacks – popcorn, pretzels, chips, candy corn, Hershey Kisses, and any other fall themed things we can find.

One year we had two recent grads  come back and give a tutorial on, “Travel on a shoestring budget.” These alumni traveled all over the world while they were in college and still are as young professionals. They really piqued the interest of our students to study abroad. Last night Joni and I talked about the travel opportunities that we offer the students to either Germany or Costa Rica. That is the first time most of the students have heard about it because we are slowly starting it up again after COVID.
One idea that I can remember from the OFLA Fall Into Fun: World Language Club Collaboration on Zoom is the idea of attending a school soccer match as a group. I love that idea and we spoke to the officers about incorporating that for next year. I enjoyed the format that host Megan Brady and facilitator Gary DiBianci used for the collaboration and I plan to attend more in the future to get more ideas for other aspects of my teaching.