Ken’s pens

In an effort to be systematic and logical in the approach to gaining approval for a computer lab. I have sought the assistance of the English Language Learner department, formerly known as ESL.  I have sat down with the head teacher and together we reviewed the rationale that the foreign language department developed.  She had done the same thing with her staff and thus we were able to come up with a composite picture.  I had also done some “surfing” and I shared the articles with my counterpart.  We hope to be able to compose a rationale outlining the needs and the benefits to installing a language lab.   We pretty much have these lined up.  We also researched our total student population studying foreign language and together with the total number of students currently enrolled at the high school, we determined that 62% of the student body was learning a second language.  A very strong statistic indeed.  The language computer lab. would therefore be used by more than half of the student population and would justify the monetary investment.  Hmmm, monetary investment.  That is the topic for another blog since we must explore other avenues for funds since at this time it is doubtful that the school district could or would pay for the whole lab.  Any comments from anyone who has gone through this process would be greatly appreciated.

As the foreign language department head I have been leading the department in developing a rationale for a foreign language computer lab in my school.  As a department we brainstormed those reasons which were obvious and then we began to dig even further to find other significant reasons for justifying a lab.  Two of the first things to be mentioned were that a lab fulfills all of the standards of the Massachusetts Foreign Language Curriculum Frameworks.  Please refer to: www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/foreign/1999.doc for further reference.  Secondly, when one looks at the high school mission statement and the department mission statement it is apparent that a foreign language lab addresses and fulfills these documents as well.  That being said, the next step was to explore the possibilities with the person in charge of the district’s technology.  She has proven to be a strong ally and in a recent conversation she shared the technology department’s vision statement which beautifully reinforces a rationale for a language lab and should be added to our presentation as well.

Currently 62% of the student body is enrolled in a foreign language.  Since foreign language is an elective and not required for graduation, that is a significant number of students who are studying a second language.  If we look at the English Language Learners in the building and the large program which they have with four full time people, then the percentage of students in the building who are involved in language learning rises significantly.  The ELL program was invited to join us in our quest for a language lab and the staff has wholeheartedly endorsed our endeavor.  Together we will be working on adding to and editing our rationale as well as searching for various means of funding so that the district administration will not have to bear the full financial cost of the purchase and installation.  This is a work in progress and hopefully future blogs will add more detail and flesh out our rationale.