| AATF Region VIII Southwest Newsletter |
| updated July 25, 2008 |
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Report from Liège
Region VIII was well represented at the 81st annual congress that took place in Liège, Belgium from 16th to 19th July. Thirty-three attendees were from our region, representing Arkansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah. The following fourteen people, predominantly from Colorado and Texas, made presentations on a variety of topics: Gwendoline Aaron, Albert Alhadeff, Dinah Assouline, Martine Boumtje, Debbie Callihan, Brigitte Debord, James Gilroy, Frédérique Grim, Helynne Hansen, Andrea Henderson, Michael Hydak, Stacy Katz, Alain Ranwez, and Jacqueline Thomas. Bravo! The coveted Outstanding Chapter Officer award went to Janet Smith of the Houston Chapter. During the awards banquet Wendy Kirkle, current chapter president, accepted Janet’s certificate and a voucher for a one-week French immersion at CERAN Lingua in Spa, Belgium or in Provence, including tuition, course material, evening activities, full board and accommodation. Janet also receives a one-year complimentary membership in the AATF. Félicitations! 
Wendy accepts the award on behalf of fellow Houstonian, Janet Smith The Arkansas and Central Texas chapters received small grants for an immersion day and performances by singer Christine Albert and actor Tim Mooney. Melissa Pauletti (TX) received a scholarship to study in France and David Hardy and Aaron Prévôts (both also from Texas) were selected to participate in the summer seminar to Switzerland and Belgium. We look forward to reading about their experiences in a future issue of the National Bulletin. Chapeau! Other Recognition Marie Christine Koop (North Texas) and Claude Boutin (Houston) have been promoted in the Palmes Académiques. Abigail Van Hoewyk and Ann Williams received awards from the Colorado Congress of Foreign Language Teachers in recognition of their contributions to the profession. Nos compliments! Grand Concours Overall enrollments were up 1% throughout Region VIII. Impressive increases in South Texas (28.05%) and El Paso (22.16%) compensated for decreases in five other chapters. Kathy Zipf (New Mexico) deserves special recognition for helping out the Arizona Chapter whose administrator resigned. Kathy accepted their enrollments and took care of their prizes. The first place FLES poster contest went to a teacher in the Houston Chapter. Super! On-going Chapter Events The active chapters continue to have a fall and spring meeting, some of which are combined with state or regional meetings, such as Arkansas FLTO, Colorado Congress of FLT, Southern and Southwest Conference on LT, and Texas FLA. Many chapters have immersion days or weekends, book clubs, book or travel scholarships, a Fête française and/or a symposium. Houston held both a French Camp and a workshop for 20 teachers this summer. Bright Ideas North Texas has a vice-president for social events. They offer a free lunch to participants who bring a first time visitor to their meeting. Houston’s website not only has link to “Why join AATF?” but a way to do so by clicking on a link. There has been a suggestion for organizing and hosting a Texas-wide professional development event for French teachers. These ideas are symptomatic of the on-going efforts throughout our 7-state region to maintain dynamic chapters that support our dedicated teachers. |
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Dr. Jacqueline Thomas j-thomas@tamuk.edu Department of Language and Literature MSC 162 Texas A&M University-Kingsville Kingsville, Texas 78363 |