Welcome! My name is Michelle and I am so excited to be the NNELL president for the next 2 years! 

What a year it has been! Seriously. When I look back at January 2020 I’m astonished at how much life has changed. Some of it was good and some of it was extremely challenging. For me personally, 2020 was a wild roller coaster of highs and lows, a year of challenge and growth. In February 2020, my husband was in a motorcycle accident. It was the most frightening and challenging time for me and my family. But it also brought a renewed sense of gratitude and appreciation for all we have. And while he is still recovering, I have a renewed sense of thankfulness every day and a reminder not to take for granted the people and things that are important to me. I have a lot of experiences similar to that. Not being able to travel has led me to exploring nature and sites in my local area. Working from home has reminded me that I need to establish a healthier “work/life balance” and the ever changing and stressful work environment has forced me to take time for self-care that I never did in the past (although I needed it then too!).

For many of us, 2020 was also filled with change, uncertainty and stress in our professional lives. Trying to navigate the new educational landscape and provide support to students and teachers who were going through something that none of us were prepared for was challenging to say the least! But with that challenge came a lot of mistakes. And with those mistakes came a lot of growth! It wasn’t always easy, but I believe we are stronger and better teachers, colleagues, and coaches than we were a year ago. 

The same can be said for NNELL this year. Moving our traditional summer institute to a summer summit this year was unexpected and challenging but in doing so we were able to connect teachers to each other in a way that wasn’t possible in the past. Our Regional and State representatives were able to grow and learn virtually at our leadership summit and our NNELL Annual meeting “Breakfast in PJs” brought us together again to collaborate and connect to each other. As our Past-president, Kathleen Priceman, said this year has also provided us with some “Pandemic Perks.”

As I look forward to 2021, I feel that as a person, as an educator, and as an organization we are stronger because of the challenges we have faced and I am looking forward to taking what we have learned to better support students and teachers. In the next year, my goal as NNELL president is to continue supporting students and teachers and advocating for early language learning. I hope you will join us. We will have opportunities this year to not only attend NNELL events but to participate in the planning and implementing of events and initiatives. If you are interested in professional development, leadership or advocacy please email me at president@nnell.org. 

I’m looking forward to collaborating with you this year to learn, grow, collaborate and advocate in the service of our early language learners! Thank you for everything you do everyday! 

VOICES FROM THE FIELD

HIGHLIGHTING

ANCHORAGE  SCHOOL DISTRICT'S 

COMMITMENT TO WORLD LANGUAGES 

by Brandon Locke,
Director of ASD World Languages and Immersion Programs,
NNELL Representative for Alaska

ADVOCATE. ADVOCATE. ADVOCATE.

Karen Sasky Hughes, NNELL Advocacy Chair, encourages YOU to take the challenge next month!

Consider taking the challenge to create and record your own brief “elevator pitch” (1-2 min.) to advocate for early language learning. Make it compelling and you stand to earn a fun prize from NNELL! Upload your brief recording to this Google Folder. This opportunity will help you prepare for when you may need to promote your own early language program or that of a colleague.

Marcia Harmon Rosenbusch, Ph.D. (Iowa State University, 1987) is a founding member of NNELL.  She began her career as a preschool and elementary school Spanish teacher and later served as the founding editor of the Iowa FLES Newsletter and of two publications of the National Network for Early Language Learning, FLES News and Learning Languages.  

Dr. Rosenbusch was also the founder and Director of the National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC) at Iowa State University (ISU), a federally funded Center (1994-2008) that sought to improve the nation’s capacity for teaching and learning languages at all levels of instruction by building a strong foundation in exemplary K-12 foreign language teacher preparation.  Dr. Rosenbusch coordinated the 43 NFLRC summer professional development institutes that were taught by nationally recognized leaders in the profession to 800 K-12 world language teachers and teacher educators representing all 50 states. 

Honoring her leadership in the profession, Dr. Rosenbusch received the Iowa Educator of the Year Award in 1987, the Florence Steiner Award for Leadership in Foreign Language Education in 1996, and the Anthony Papalia Award for Excellence in Teacher Education in 2001.     

After retiring in 2013, Marcia and her husband, Ricardo, moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, to live near their family.  “I love the amazing hikes we take here every week in the beautiful mountains surrounding Las Vegas!” she exclaims.

NNELL is grateful for Dr. Rosenbusch's trailblazing efforts and service on behalf of early language education in our nation. We stand on your shoulders.  Thank you! 

Monica Alegría Frazier currently teaches at Battle Ground Academy in Franklin, TN.  She is the Lower School Spanish Teacher and the Director of After School Programs. Monica holds a B.A. from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, and a M.A.T in Spanish from Middle Tennessee State University. She has taught Spanish for 15 years, teaching every grade level from Kindergarten through the college level with the exception of 5th grade. Monica has been at BGA since 2013, and truly enjoys teaching in a FLES program.  

Monica is a member of the Leadership Team at the BGA Lower School and also a member of the Strategic Planning Task Force, with an emphasis on Diversity and Inclusion. She is a Board Member of the Tennessee Foreign Language Teaching Association (TFLTA), and has been involved with NNELL since 2016. 

During the 2019-2020 school year, Monica was awarded BGA’s Lower School “Second Mile Award,” in recognition of her contributions made outside of the area of classroom instruction. In March 2020, when the pandemic broke,  Monica put the  entire Lower School student body on an eLearning platform and trained the faculty members on how to use it within a span of about 48 hours.  

Outside of school hours, Monica enjoys running, cooking, and spending time with her family and pets. She also loves to travel, and her favorite vacation spot is any beach anywhere.  

NNELL is fortunate to have Monica represent us  and make our NETWORK stronger by the day! Thank you, Monica.  

"On this day and in the days ahead, let us recommit to care for and look out for one another. Let us recommit to our common purpose to educate and serve. And let us recommit to our shared destiny as a government of the people, by the people, and for the people." 
-  President Gabel,  University of Minnesota 

Register for webinars from CERCLL at https://tinyurl.com/litbased. If you register before the date of the webinar, you may listen to it at a later date. Past webinars are archived at CERCLL. View here for upcoming events: https://cercll.arizona.edu/upcoming-events/  (Click on Professional development tab for upcoming professional development.)

The SWCOLT 2021 conference will be a virtual event held on March 25-27. The call for session proposals and registration information will be open soon.The SWCOLT 2022 conference will be held in Reno, NV on March 24-26 at the Grand Sierra Resort.