Calendar

WAFLT Fall Conference is October 8-10, 2015 at Wenatchee Coast Hotel and Convention Center, Wenatchee.

Here it is the link to the key note speakers, workshops  and registration information:

http://waflt.net/conferences.html

Dear members and friends of CLTA-WA,

On behalf of the Board of CLTA-WA, I would like to invite you to attend our annual fall workshop, to be held on November 14, 2015 at University Puget Sound.  Professor Cynthia Ning from University of Hawaii will lecture on the topic of “Task-based Instructional Activities to Maximize Language Learning with Authentic Material and Reading Aloud“.  Dr. Ning is a distinguished scholar and educator of Chinese language and we are very honored to have her leading our workshop.

The workshop will be free to our members and for non-members, a modest fee of $20.00. You’ll be able to sign up for membership at the workshop. Our annual membership due is $30.00 and the cycle runs from July 31 to June 30 the following year.

We would like to acknowledge our co-sponsors, Confucius Institute of the State of Washington (CIWA) for its generous financial support, University of Puget Sound for providing the workshop venue and Washington Association for Language Teaching (WAFLT) for providing the clock hours.

Workshop registration: https://goo.gl/7Sruha

Please see the attachment CLTA-WA Fall Workshop 2015 Announcement for more information. Please mark the date on your calendar and spread the word.

See you at the workshop!

Best,

Cheyenne Matthewson

President, CLTA-WA

Eastside (Kirkland): Making Taiwanese Lumpia (润饼)

Coordinator: Sarah Yao
Date: Sunday, 1/31/2016
Time: 5:00pm – whenever
Location: Sarah’s house in Rose Hill, Kirkland
Activities: Networking, making Taiwanese Lumpia (润饼) and idea sharing. For those who would like to stay longer after the main activities, Sarah has planned a Taiwanese movie viewing.
Number of participants: 20

Sign-up: https://goo.gl/egNyE1

West Seattle:  Potluck

Coordinator: Meitsu Chuang-Mendel

Date: Saturday, 2/20/2016

Time: 11:00am — 4:00pm

Location: Meitsu’s house in West Seattle

Activities: Networking, idea and food sharing, walking in Lincoln Park, tea/coffee time

Number of participants: 15

Sign-up: https://goo.gl/8ph86V

Dear members,

We would like to invite you to the 2016 annual general meeting of CLTA-WA.  Come meet the board members, mingle with other fellow members and learn more about CLTA-WA.  We will have prize drawing and special teaching ideas/resources sharing.   Refreshments and light lunch will be provided.

Venue:  Kirkland Public Library

308 Kirkland Ave, Kirkland, WA 98033

Date:    Saturday, June 4

Time:    12:30 – 2:30pm

RSVP:    https://goo.gl/9t2FD0  (Please rsvp by Thursday, 6/2)

Agenda for the Annual General Meeting

1. Greeting and opening of the meeting (12:30pm)

2. Report for 2015-2016 (12:35 – 12:55pm)

3. Meet the new board (12:55 – 1:05pm)

4. Lunch/teaching resources sharing and social time (1:05 – 2:30pm)

We look forward to seeing you at the annual general meeting!

Best,

Cheyenne Matthewson
President, CLTA-WA

We proudly co-sponsor the 2016 Why Learn Chinese Competition

                                    Why Learn Chinese Competition
WAACE’s “Why Learn Chinese Competition” is a written/visual submission-based competition. Students all over Washington can enter for a chance to win prizes up to $200 by creatively answering the prompts:

6th-12th “When American Dream Meets Chinese Dream…” 

K-5th      “A famous Chinese Person Who Has Influenced you”

What does the American dream mean to you? Do you know the Chinese dream? How can both dreams come true? What our young generation can do to improve a more positive US-China relationship? Why learn Chinese?

Competition Objectives

Our goal is to generate interest in learning Chinese among American students, to give them the competitive edge and global perspective needed to succeed in the modern-day economy, and to increase Chinese language learning capacity in Washington.

President Obama, during the first state visit to Washington by China’s President Xi Jinping, announced a sweeping new nationwide initiative to see 1 million American students studying Mandarin by 2020. Inspired by President Obama’s 1 million strong” initiative, our vision for this year’s competition is to let the youth voice on building a more positive relationship between US and China be heard by US president. Through this grassroots initiative, we wish to engage and prepare students to enter the dynamic global environment of the 21st century, where we—the younger generation—will be responsible for maintaining the growing economic, political, and cultural ties between the US and China. Ultimately, we hope to spread awareness about the growing importance of learning Chinese, and provide a platform of expression for the reserve of community support for bringing Chinese into more schools.

Encouraged by China’s President Xi Jiping, and with the strong support from the Consulate General of China, we are honored to hold an even bigger competition by including elementary students this year. We hope our competition will help students put more enthusiasm in learning Chinese language and culture and participating actively in the friendly exchange between US and China. 

Competition Description

Who?

Middle and high school students are welcome to submit entries to creatively address the question of “When the American Dream Meets the Chinese Dream”.  What does the American dream mean to you? Do you know the Chinese dream? How can both dreams come true?What our young generation can do to improve a more positive US-China relationship? Why learn Chinese?

In order to encourage young learners, WAACE also provides a particular prompt of “Describe a Famous Chinese Person Who Has Influenced You” to K-5 students.  All entries are evaluated with the same criteria.

What?

Contestants can submit either:

A written entry: an essay (450-600 words), poem (8+ stanzas) or

 A video entry: a song, speech or another creative format (2- 5 minutes)

When?

Online submissions until July 31 , 2016.

Where?

Complete the registration form at  http://www.waace.org/wlc.html and submit responses digitally using the entry form. Send video entries directly to president@waace.org, or upload to an online sharing service and submit the link. Limit one entry per contestant.
The entry must be original, in English or Chinese, and depict the prompts of ” When the American Dream Meets the Chinese Dream” (6-12) or “A Famous Chinese Person Who Has Influenced You” (K-5) Limit one entry per contestant.

The award ceremony will be held at the University of Washington. Date TBA.

Why?

Share ideas on the importance of China, and win cash prizes!

Grand Prize: $200

Winner’s entry will be recommended by WAACE and mailed or emailed to the White House. The grand prize winner will also be the ambassador for 2017 WLC competition. 

Three categories: High School, Middle School and Elementary School

First Place: $100 (1 from each category)

Second Place: $80 (3 from each category)

Third Place: $50 (5 from each category)

Finalists (top 15%):

Certificate of Excellence

All entries will be reviewed by a judging panel composed of certified teachers and professionals with Chinese experience. They will be looking for superior ideas, message, and content rather than writing/performing skills. Our chief judges will decide the grand prize.

CLTA-WA 2016 Summer Workshop

Using Technology to Engage Students in Creative and Curious Learning   

Presenter: Kristie Bennett
Skyline High School – Sammamish, WA
Sponsor:  Washington Association for Language Teaching (WAFLT)
Date:         Sunday, August 21, 2016
Time:         1:00pm – 4:00 pm
Location:   Library, University Prep
8000 25th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98115

Cost:         Free for members; $20.00 for non-members
(CLTA-WA annual membership fee:  $30.00 for 07/01/2016—06/30/2017)

Registration: here

The participants who attend the workshop in its entirety will receive 3 clock hours from WAFLT. No partial clock hours will be given.

Refreshments will be provided.   CLTA-WA Homepage: https://jxi.ywi.mybluehost.me/

Workshop Program (Please bring a laptop/tablet):

1:00 – 2:00  Presentation: Tools and Tips for Using Technology to Engage Students
2:00 – 3:00  Small Group Brainstorming Session
3:00 – 4:00  Independent Work Time to Implement Ideas

Workshop description: 

Presentation – Tools and Tips for Using Technology to Engage Students:
Students are creative and curious by nature, so it’s imperative to appeal to this nature in education. By allowing students to be creative and curious in the classroom, we can increase engagement and retention across all subjects. Technology offers us many new and exciting tools that can help us reach this goal. Our presenter, Kristie Bennett, will share some tools and tips that she has encountered that can be applied in our classrooms. The presentation will offer a brief overview of numerous different tools available to teachers to provide as many options as possible to foster further discussion.

Brainstorming Session:
Following the presentation, participants will break into small groups to brainstorm ways they could apply the technologies and tools presented in their own classroom. By engaging in conversation with our colleagues, we will get a range of perspectives and unique ideas, further prompting our own creativity and inspiring us to try new things in our classrooms. Following small group brainstorming, we will compile our ideas visually using Answer Garden

Individual Work Session:
We will end the day with an individual work session. Teachers can work on their own or continue working with a partner to develop lessons, ideas, or projects to implement in their classrooms and curriculum. The goal is to immediately apply our learning so that we have something to walk away with that can directly benefit us in the coming school years.

About Kristie Bennett:
Kristie Bennett has been teaching Physics, IB Physics, and Astronomy at Skyline High School in Sammamish, WA, as well as Astronomy at University of Washington since 2012. She is currently pursuing her National Boards certification in Adolescent and Young Adult Science with an emphasis in physics and astronomy.

For the past 2 years, Kristie has served as Educational Technology Specialist for Skyline. Using her passion for education and her love of technology, she has developed a conference series designed to help teachers find new and exciting ways to implement technology in their classrooms. Kristie enjoys cuddling her cat, Schrödinger, talking about Pluto, making video games, and finding new ways to make science (and learning) accessible to all ages!

Kristie’s Inspiration: 

“I have no special talents; I am only passionately curious.” –Albert Einstein

Teaching Writing: Instructional Scaffolding and Lesson Planning

中文写作之教学实践

Presenter: Nyan-Ping Bi

Senior Lecturer, Department of Asian Language and Literature, University of Washington

Co-sponsors: East Asia Center, University of Washington

                         Department of Asian Language and Literature, University of Washington

Date: Saturday, September 17, 2016

Time: 1:00pm – 4:30 pm

Location: Thomson Hall 101, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195

Cost: Free for members; $10.00 for non-members

(CLTA-WA annual membership fee: $30.00 for 07/01/2016—06/30/2017)

Registration:

Online registration: here

Sign-ins and onsite registration: 12:30-1:00, Saturday, September 17, 2016

The participants who attend the workshop in its entirety will receive 3 clock hours from East Asia Center, UW. No partial clock hours will be given. Refreshments will be provided.

CLTA-WA Homepage: https://jxi.ywi.mybluehost.me/

Workshop Description (Workshop conducted in Mandarin Chinese):

中文写作之教学实践

Teaching Writing: Instructional Scaffolding and Lesson Planning

The workshop will first help its participants examine what criteria should be considered when designing writing lessons. Secondly, it will facilitate participants in developing a road map that monitors their planning and implementation when

teaching writing. The goals of the workshop are 1) to familiarize participants with teaching strategies that meet their instructional needs and motivate their students to become active learners when completing writing tasks; and 2) to help participants produce a framework of writing lessons that they can experiment with in class after the workshop. The workshop will provide hands-on practice and participants are expected to share their ideas and experiences with each other. The workshop also encourages participants, before attending, to inventory the challenges they have encountered when teaching writing.