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.

I will be completely honest with you -the groups so far have been small. There has been a Spanish group and a French group each time, and I believe the first time there was a Chinese group as well (I´m not sure which language they were speaking). What has been lacking is a German group. I have a colleague, also a singleton, who has attended twice and had no one to converse with her so she joined the French group. German teachers, we need you!

While the groups have been small, they are serving their intended purpose. Alexis Blum, the OFLA Professional Development Chair, puts together a list of topics/questions that we use to get our discussion going and then we are off! There is a volunteer moderator for each breakout group and I have really enjoyed getting to know other professionals and practicing my skills through our discussions. I swear that those French teachers are having the time of their lives judging by all the laughter and well wishes happening at the end of each session. Alexis told me that there has been a volunteer to moderate an English group for English learners as well. 
In March we will attend the annual OFLA Conference at the University of Otterbein, and during session 5 from 3:30 – 4:20 pm on Friday the 8th there will be Communication Stations set up to provide a similar experience to the language cafés. There will be spaces available for Arabic, French, German, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish, and other languages with a moderator to help each group get started. We can meet the people  that we have been chatting with on Zoom in person and make some new friends! Let’s use this opportunity to practice our skills and make some connections. Then, when we meet together virtually later in March I’m sure we will have a much more diverse group and my colleague will have others join her for a real Stammtisch.