Bon dia, y bon bini!/Good morning and welcome! Today I learned how to say a few phrases in Papiamento, one of the four languages that are spoken in Aruba. I, along with WL students at Pelion High School, had the honor of hearing from three International Student Ambassadors who are part of the Thinking Globally program which is organized through USC's Department of International Student Services. Their mission is to promote intercultural enlightenment through cultural presentations across the midlands, and I must say that I was impressed by these international students. They are full time students at USC who volunteer their time to talk with people about their countries and their culture, and I believe our students at PHS were impressed by how similar these students are to us, even though they have different backgrounds, languages and cultures. The countries represented today were France, Germany and Aruba, and some students didn't even know that Aruba existed until today. Other students were curious to hear about French cuisine, yes they eat snails, the German Autobahn, and Aruban New Year's traditions. It was exciting to share in this multi-cultural event, and a big thank you to PHS WL teachers for organizing it. If you are interested in inviting Thinking Globally to your school, check out their website, or talk to Elizabeth Ben Yahia at Pelion High.
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Welcome back WL friends! I know it's been an interesting start to the year, with our unscheduled "Fall Break," but hopefully we've all settled back into our routines and are making up for lost instructional time as we near the end of the first nine weeks.
As you all know, our new vision for Lexington One is "Empowering each Child to Design the Future." Last year many of you felt empowered to share out with the district the excellent learning opportunities you provided for students. I wanted to put out the call for guest bloggers this year. If anyone would like to share what's going on in your classrooms, I will happily post for you, just send me your write up, and a few pictures. Our work in World Languages is vital to the success of our students and in helping each child design a more global future. In other news, I wanted to share an exciting announcement. South Carolina is now officially a state that recognizes and awards the National Seal of Biliteracy! "The Seal of Biliteracy is an award given by a school, district, or state in recognition of students who have studied and attained proficiency in two or more languages by high school graduation." We believe that this will continue to add value to the work we and our students do each day, and I look forward to seeing how many of our graduates this year will earn the seal of biliteracy. For more information, check out the national website: sealofbiliteracy.org/index.php, and you can also stay tuned as we will forward out more specific information as we have it. |
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