Leanna Homsey has volunteered to be the new Administrator of the National French Contest for the Central Texas Chapter, replacing Rita McKee! Félicitations, et bon courage!
2008 Fall Meeting - September 13
Mark your calendars right now! The Fall Meeting of the Central Texas Chapter will be held in San Antonio on Saturday, September 13. We are working to set up a tour of the new facilities of the McNay Art Museum. A featured exhibit will be "Jean-Paul Viguier: Cool Models/Maquettes Froides," one of which is the new wing of the McNay itself.
After that, we will move to the Community Room of HEB Central Market for a catered lunch, business meeting, and presentations. More details will be posted as they become available.
2008 Spring Meeting
The Spring Meeting was held at the Texas Language Technology Center of the University of Texas at Austin and at La Madeleine on May 17, 2008.
Following coffee and croissants, Karen Kelton and Carl Blyth of the TLTC gave us a stimulating and wide-ranging presentation, beginning with an overview of the open education movement, covering the on line resources of the UT French program, including Le Français Interactif and Tex's French Grammar, and exploring other internet resources that can be used for language instruction, such as fr.youtube.com. For an overview of the Language Technology Center and its projects in French, Spanish, German, and Portuguese, visit the TLTC Web Site.
After our visit, we moved to La Madeleine on North Lamar for lunch and our business meeting. Heather Alonso presented the minutes of the November meeting and the treasurer's report. Rita McKee gave her report on the Grand Concours, indicating a slight drop in enrollment but an increase in national winners from our chapter! There was a discussion of how to best recruit a new administrator for the Grand Concours, as Rita is stepping down after a number of years of dedicated service. (see the National French Contest section below.) We also discussed plans for a members' survey and for providing certificates for continuing education units to members attending this and future meetings.
The election of officers was held next. Janet Lumley was re-elected as president and Helen Guillory was elected vice-president, replacing Andrea McCullough. There was some discussion about staggering officers' terms and we will review the bylaws at the fall meeting.
Following the election, we had two interesting presentations by members. Mary Nichols spoke of her efforts at "Using only French in the classroom," and this led to a lively exchange of ideas. Dr. Aaron Prévôts, recipient of an AATF small grant, gave us an update of his "French with songs in the classroom" web project and led us in some of his new compositions.
The day concluded with the presentation of a plaque to Joel Mayer in recognition of his service to the chapter in developing this web site. A number of generous anonymous admirers also got together to present Joel with a gift certificate for a technology store where one always finds the best buys. Merci beaucoup, mes amis!
If you would like to receive e-mail notification when this page is updated and bulletins of chapter news, write to webmaster Joel Mayer. It is not necessary to be an AATF member in order to be on our mailing list!
The AATF Online Store is now open for business! You may purchase merchandise and even renew your membership for 2008 on line!
Stages Pédagogiques, study abroad for French teachers, is still taking place the first three weeks of July. You must provide your round-trip ticket to Paris. What is covered:
Subscription fees and the training for 3 weeks
A round-trip train ticket from Paris to the provinces
The AATF will again offer summer scholarships (hopefully) to France, Belgium, and
Quebec. Details will be posted at
frenchteachers.org/hq/scholarships.htm as they are received. The application deadline will be March 1. The scholarship money is substantial, and the
train ticket is paid to and from your French destination. The airline
ticket is not reimbursed.