The Cardinal

Carol Eiber, Stow-Munroe Falls HS, Retired

It is surprising where LinguaFolio turns up. I hardly expected to see it while traveling for pleasure in France last April but that’s exactly what happened. Continue reading →

New Plans are under way for Camp OFLA 2014!

Dr. Lori Winne/Co-director, Camp OFLA

Camp OFLA 2014 will celebrate its tenth year this summer! Camp OFLA is a one-week elementary residential camp in Ohio sponsored by the Ohio Foreign Language Association! Camp OFLA directors, teachers and counselors are excitedly planning new activities to celebrate this tenth year, so watch for news at www.campofla.org! Continue reading →

Medina High School Chinese Class Booth At The 5th Medina International Fest

Shasha Gibbs, Chinese Teacher, Medina High School

On August 24, Medina had its 5th Medina International Fest.  Students from Medina High School who are taking Mandarin Chinese participated in this event. Continue reading →

Writing Our Own Bilingual Thanksgiving Story

Paulina Montaldo, New Castle Christian Academy, Spanish Teacher K – 8th

The 4th and 5th graders at the New Castle Christian Academy have worked writing a bilingual story, English / Spanish, about Thanksgiving. Continue reading →

Becky Searls, Spanish Teacher, Upper Arlington City Schools

I’ve been using Google Docs (renamed Google Drive in recent years) for quite some time now and have gotten to the point where it has 99% replaced any other word processing or presentational software I use in my classroom. Continue reading →

Moving Beyond the Workbook

Kirsten Dickerson, Mentor High School
Dickerson@mentorschools.org @CardinalFrench

I am smack dab in the middle of my eleventh year teaching French, and I must admit that – besides my first year when I cried every day – this is both the scariest and most exciting one yet. My daily mantra since August 16 has been, “All great changes are preceded by chaos,” a quote by Deepak Chopra I heard this summer in a yin yoga class during the uncomfortable third minute of my snail pose.  Recently, although the change in my classroom has been uncomfortable and chaotic at first, I’m finally starting to see the greatness. Continue reading →

María Postigo

María Postigo is a native speaker from Spain. She teaches Spanish III/Honors & IV and is the Spanish Club Advisor at Canal Winchester HS. She is on the OFLA Secondary Language Learning Committee. She is also working on her PhD Dissertation on Translation and Interpreting Studies.

It seems like I am constantly reflecting on Second Language Acquisition. In Spain I took Latin, ancient Greek, English, German, Italian and Dutch. I spent two weeks in a Danish high school, did my junior year of college in Belgium and my PhD research on Translation Studies in Canada for another year. I have worked as a translator, an interpreter, an Associate Professor of German and a teacher of English and Spanish. I met my American husband in Spain when he was studying there, and he is also a Spanish teacher. Our two children are growing up bilingual. I hardly have any memories of a day in my life when I wasn’t trying to speak, understand or teach another language. I have traveled to more countries than I can remember and have met people from all over the world. Continue reading →

The Most Commonly Taught of the Less Commonly Taught Languages

Jennifer Nichols, Kenyon College

In the mid-1980s, I began studying Arabic with Dr. Mahdi Alosh in my high school at Worthington (now Worthington-Kilborne). The program only lasted a couple of years. As students we bonded and went on with our lives. However, it is a testament to the exposure we had that out of the 10 of us, 7 of us have chosen career paths which have kept us in the Middle East and Arabic speaking world. At the present time, most of the state schools in Ohio and many of the smaller colleges have developed Arabic language programs. It has become a “popular” language. Continue reading →