BU Wheelock to Host Massachusetts Foreign Language Association’s Core Practice Institute
On March 13 and 14, BU Wheelock will host the Massachusetts Foreign Langauge Association’s (MaFLA) 2020 Core Practices Institute (CPI). Open to all teachers, of all languages and levels, the Institute serves a professional development opportunity for world language teachers to hone their core practice essentials for developing student proficiency in a communicative classroom.
Educational programming at CPI is led by Megan Smith, Kentucky’s Teacher of the Year in 2011 and Jason Cabral, a globally experienced world language educator with his graduate degree in Applied Linguistics. Smith will be leading workshops on lesson planning and vocabulary with Cabral leading a workshop on world language proficiency in Elementary Education. Attendees will also have the opportunity to work collaboratively with each other to translate what they are learning in workshops to actual lesson plans.
This year’s Institute will be held on the Fenway Campus and is being spearheaded by BU Wheelock’s Dr. Catherine Ritz, clinical assistant professor of modern foreign language education.
“It’s been really nice to merge my service to MAFLA with my work here at BU,” Dr. Ritz explains. Dr. Ritz’s involvement in the Institute stems from her role as MaFLA’s programming coordinator where she helps to facilitate professional development programming for world language educators across the state.
At BU Wheelock, Dr. Ritz focuses on developing proficiency-based thematic curricula and performance assessments, effective world language methods and pedagogy, and world language teacher development.
For more information on MaFLA’s Core Practices Institute, please follow this link.
