Foreign Language Ed.
at Buff State: Fast track to
Spanish certification
On your mark,
get set…
Features…
•Class size for courses in major capped at 15.
•Thriving Spanish Club featuring guest
speakers and film discussions.
•New AATSP-affiliated professional community,
Buffalo Spanish Teachers.
•Innovative course of study that features
coursework in Spanish teaching (en esp., claro)
•Summer study abroad program in Salamanca.
•Blended to fully online coursework that match
innovative online learning technologies to
rigorous standards for proficiency-oriented
pedagogy.
Program distinctions…
•Among first in state to achieve ACTFL (American
Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages)NCATE (National Council for Accreditation in Teacher
Education) National Recognition.
•Upheld in 2012
•Close connections to professional organizations
from the local to national level...
Fast track to adding Spanish:
Starting from scratch (18 crs.)
Consult Open SUNY for online Spanish (very
few past 4th semester). Lots: BE PICKY!
Rosetta Stone- less useful for higher levels.
Learn while planning for future students. Use
what you have as template.
Use web resources wisely- more authentic,
less drill and grammar charts.
Save room for two upper-level courses in
culture/literature. You´ll need a base in arts
and letters, culture to pass the…
NYSTCE CST-Spanish.
Fast track to adding Spanish
New NYSED fast-track for highly
proficient speakers of Spanish:
Attain ‘Advanced-Low’ on full ACTFL
Oral Proficiency Interview.
Attain ‘Advanced-Low’ on full ACTFL
Writing Proficiency Test.
Pass the NYSTCE CST-Spanish
Two upper-level Spanish courses in
culture/literature.
Additional resources
Available for online courses-by-contract or
independent studies Jterm or Summer.
Will be regular offerings online:
SPA421:Structure of Modern Span.,
SPA402: Span. for Span. Teaching,
SPA410: Literacy for Span. Teaching
Network with colleagues through
WNYFLEC, AATF, Alliance Française,
Buffalo Spanish Teachers to create
intensive cohorts (summer immersion for
5th and 6th semesters of Spanish).
Jean LeLoup´s Costa Rica Program.
Advice from French Teachers
pursuing Spanish certification:
Mary Ellen Gianturco (Depew HS): Our
class online was great. It really helped me
solidify my writing.
I think a good idea is for French teachers
to get together and have a study group - I
did that w several gals from your
class. My school happened to have had
several Spanish-speaking exchange
students at the time that I was getting
certified and I was able to get a lot of help
from them on our free periods!
Advice from French Teachers
pursuing Spanish certification:
I would recommend trying to get one of
the scholarships to study in Mexico this
summer for a few weeks. I wasn't able to
do that because of my kids.
I also had a good friend from Peru who
worked with me regularly.
I also had a friend of a friend who was
getting a PhD at the time in philosophy
and I traded Spanish lessons from him for
the review of his thesis!
Advice from French Teachers
pursuing Spanish certification:
Jenna Gaske (Iroquois HS):
I found Buffalo State to be very helpful with the
process.
The certification officer at Buffalo State was a
great resource for questions on meeting state
requirements.
Both you and Dr. Miller have actual classroom
experience. I found this very
helpful. Professors with actual experience at
the lower levels understand much better what
K-12 teachers need to be prepared to teach
those levels.
Advice from French Teachers
pursuing Spanish certification:
The online course incorporated many
communicative activities that helped
increase my proficiency. It was a good
balance of communicative activities and
grammar based exercises.
The online course allowed a certain
flexibility in terms of completing activities
and assignments that a traditional
classroom course does not.
Advice from French Teachers
pursuing Spanish certification:
I was able to connect with several other
LOTE teachers form the area to not only
learn Spanish together but network and
discuss our French programs as well.
Advice from French Teachers
pursuing Spanish certification:
Kara Muldoon (Lackawanna MS):
I did the majority of my cert online…I
would honesty say that anyone who
thinks that online classes are easier
are mistaken. There is often a lot of
work involved and you have to stay on
top of the work and the due dates.
Advice from French Teachers
pursuing Spanish certification:
I LOVED online learning because I was
working full-time and I had a baby at
home so being able to write papers at
night and submit blogs during my lunch
period at work....made life much easier for
me. I often would take my laptop outside
and sit in the sun in the summer while
doing work for your class.
It's definitely an advantage to online
learning........and being able to stay in
your pajamas!!! :)
Advice from French Teachers
pursuing Spanish certification:
The downside is the oral aspect. Your
classes were the only ones that truly
promoted the oral aspect of the
language by Skyping with you and
interviewing native speakers.
Other classes that I took often had NO
oral assessments at all. It is so
important to speak the language to
improve.
Advice from French Teachers
pursuing Spanish certification:
Having the background in French made the
Spanish a piece of cake. The languages are
so similar. I'd say to get hired as a French
or Spanish teacher today that it is
imperative to have both languages--many
districts won't even look at you if you don't
have both.
Some worthwhile
web-based resources
Learning Spanish After French (Googledoc):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DGJaSIQ9sQz9E_TQdLqqHHRqBQfVkM4ny89WfiDrXiI/edit
Lingüística y Pedagogía del Español (Fb group)
Sociocultural Model Lesson Plans:
http://digitalcommons.buffalostate.edu/spanish_lesson_plans/
Spanish Proficiency Exercises (UT-Austin):
http://www.laits.utexas.edu/spe/
Spanish Language and Culture with Barbara
Kuczun Nelson (Colby):
http://personal.colby.edu/~bknelson/SLC/index.php
WordReference Forums:
http://forum.wordreference.com/forumdisplay.php?f=23