Department of World Languages Instruction
Priscilla Russel, Supervisor
609-806-4280 x3252
Model Program designation 2012 - 14
Once again the Princeton world languages program has again been named a New Jersey Model Program in recognition of its strong program. The program will be
honored on May 15 at a ceremony at Rutgers University. Four districts in the state have received this dedignation for 2012 - 14.
2012 FLENJ Scholarship Winners
Six PHS seniors have won the annual FLENJ (Foreign Language Educators of New Jersey) scholarship competition. This is a statewide event and eight students from all around the state receive a $1,000 award. FLENJ will honor its awardees at its annual meeting on March 31. Students wrote an essay in response to a prompt and the semi-finalists then were interviewed by phone. There were eight semi-finalists from PHS. The winning students and the language in which they competed are:
Julia Tazelaar - Spanish
Elizabeth Gerberich - Spanish
Chrislyn Choo - Spanish
Dong Kun-Guo - French
Camille Fassin - French
Sabah Qasir - Japanese
Return of our ASIAN FESTIVAL
The 5th annual Asian Festival takes place on Friday, April 20 from 7:00 - 9:30 in the PHS gym. Students, their families and townfolk are all invited to join the celebration. Sample Asian foods, watch students perform and enjoy the Lion and Dragon parades. Three clubs - Japanese, Chinese, and Asian American - organize this fun evening.
Students Plugged in to Learn Mandarin
"I don't want to say Chinese is a hard language. I just say: you need time to learn this language," says Shwu-fen Lin who uses an array of tools to enhance instruction.
Off to Beijing!
Hanban, the education outreach arm of the Chinese government, invited ten Confucius Classroom program directors or school heads from around the country to be its guests for a visit just before the winter break. PRS Supervisor Priscilla Russel was in this group that attended the 6th Confucius Institutes Conference, met with their counterparts from Britain and several ex-pats who work in China, enjoyed clear but very cold air, and did a bit of sightseeing. It was above all a superb cultural experience and provided many opportunities for networking.
Taipei Educators Visit PHS
A delegation of 15 educators from Taipei city schools visited PHS. This visit gave staff and students a chance to show off their skills....
Japan Foundation renews grant to PHS world languages
In Natsuko Buurstra's Japanese IV class, a student listens intently as her discussion partner describes a scene from Harry Potter....
Mandarin comes to JW
Beginning October 3 one class of 7th graders will add the study of Mandarin to their French or Spanish studies. Students have made a two year commitment to attend this class that will prepare them to enter Mandarin II when they enter PHS as 9th graders. All 7th grade families received a letter inviting them to enroll in the course that is a class for true beginners of the language.
New Faculty members
Our department has several changes in faculty for the 2011-2012 school year. We welcome Sova Fisher to our high school department. Mme. Fisher will teach French IVA and AP for the coming year. We also welcome Joe Mazzarella who will teach Italian I - IV. At the elementary level we welcome Patricia Morales back into our department. Srta. Morales will teach Spanish in grades 1 - 5 at Johnson Park. Sra. Valentine is returning from maternity leave to the high school. She will teach Spanish IIIA, II and VI.
At JW we welcome Weefen Tsui as the Mandarin teacher to our new course.
Asian Festival
World Languages Faculty Serving the Profession
This year as usual the PRS World Languages faculty is participating as presenters in many professional conferences:
• Shwu-fen Lin offers workshops to Chinese teachers and school administrators
•Priscilla Russel will offer workshops on the process of formative assessment at the Northeast Conference at the session "Best of New Jersey", a workshop on comprehensible input at FLENJ, and sessions on Chinese curriculum and the STARTALK student programs at the National Chinese Conference in Washington, DC. Each year she offers workshops on various topics at the annual ACTFL conference, last year in Boston and this year in Denver.
•Priscilla Russel has been tapped to co-lead the NJ DoE Model Curriculum world languages writing team that will meet this spring.
Read more news from World Languages department.
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