Minutes 2007 October

New Zealand Association of Language Teachers Executive Meeting Sat 27- Sun 28 October, 2007 Goethe Institut and ILANZ , Cuba and Garrett Sts Present: James Donaldson, Philippa Doig, David Hall, Anne Jacques, Jane Lee, Pam Mabin, Eileen Mueller, Jenness Riethmaier, Jo Rittey, Adele Scott (President), Sue Sutherland (Secretary) Apologies: None

Saturday 27 October

Welcome President Adele welcomed Susan Miller-Thevenard, Facilitator of the Strategic Plan exercise and Eileen Mueller from Hutt Intermediate. Minutes of previous meeting, 28-29 July, were confirmed. Matters arising from the minutes NCEA booklets. Time and financial constraints make it impracticable for NZALT to resume the sale of these booklets. The originals are held at Wellington College of Education. A suggestion was made that the SLA’s be given the originals for distribution as required to members. Instead it was decided to give the originals to James for scanning and retention. Frances Salt (ERO) is to visit next meeting. Adele to make the arrangements. Badges: Sales are closed. Remainders to be given as gifts. Philippa is to send a few of the best badge designs. Thanks to Philippa for her efforts A response to Alastair McLauchlan’s reference to NZALT in his book,The negative L2 climate: understanding attrition among second language students, will be made in a letter to be crafted by SS, AJ and AS Curriculum Update (AS). Legislation of Second Language Learning area postponed to allow for further development of resources and requirements. Strategic Planning 10.00a.m – 5.45 p.m The committee took part in a strategic planning exercise ably facilitated by Susan Miller-Thevenard.

Sunday, 28 October

Debriefing There was positive feedback from the Saturday’s strategic planning meeting. Speak-Up Scholarships. Low uptake, but award is new. Publicity in Polyglot and an article in The New Zealand Language Teacher will further publicize the award. An application from Vivienne Lee, Waiuku Primary School was considered. A $300 scholarship was approved. DH/PD DH will contact Vivienne and outline the requirements for payment of the award ie. proof of having completed the course. DH will contact the regional facilitators and remind them of the existence of Speak Up Award and ask them to promote it. It was agreed that recognition of the scholarship award to Vivienne be made at Conference 2008 AJ/PM. It was agreed that all NZALT PD awards be advertised in the Education Gazette prior to the December closure date. JL/PM. Secretary to organize. in December for the both Speak Up and PD awards. 1

The Jingle Competition was judged. Disappointing response, in spite of strenuous publicity and organizational effort by JD. Thanks to JD for his work. Two first prizes – junior and senior – were awarded Rangi Ruru School Year 13 and Iona College Year 9. The prizes are 2 x $50 CD vouchers, donated by the Sasakawa Fellowship Fund. Letter of thanks to be written to Sasakawa mentioning that the Fund’s support acknowledged on website. James will craft letters to principals of schools and student groups and forward to secretary for formatting Principals: Julie Moor Rangi Ruru Girls’ School, 59 Hewitts Road, Merivale ChCh Mrs Gillian Melville Iona College, 42 Lucknow Rd, Havelock North. Membership and subscriptions. There was discussion around membership and subscriptions - in primary and intermediate schools Suggestions made: Replace present categories with varying subscriptions according to the number of language teachers in a school. Offer services to SLA’s – common data base, subscription collection – to increase the cohesiveness of the associations Membership numbers NZALT membership 2005 Auckland 219 Waikato 67 Massey 47 Victoria 99 Canterbury 102 Otago 39 Total 573

2006 168 66 45 68 72 40 459

Specific Language Association membership Language 2007 Chinese Up to 300

French German Japanese Spanish

346 65 255 on data base – by school not by teacher 50

2007 151 59 56 58 82 29 435 Comments Rotorua and Hamilton are new branches. Numbers reflect that membership includes anyone interested in the Chinese language – not only teachers. Up from 308 in March

Membership down since the departure of Agustin Yague

Data base maintenance: Regional officers to respond to David by 16 Nov about people on data base whose details/whereabouts have changed.. RO’s to remind members that it is their responsibility to change details on the the website.

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Membership services: One full RO newsletter to go to members after the first Exec meeting. Thereafter members, i.e those who have paid, receive a full newsletter and others get a reduced version reminding them that they have not paid. PD/AJ It was agreed that J D’s executive meeting notes be posted on the website in PDF format. DH/ PD Polyglot and NZLT 480 copies of Polyglot are to be printed. JR agreed to pick up extra copies from Taieri Print and send copies to National Library, contributors( NZLT), and recent members. JL raised the issue of cost - 50% of income is spent on publications. $12000 expenditure on two publications is financially unviable. It was proposed that NZALT trial the biannual publication of Polyglot on line in 2008 in consultation with the editor PD JR. Passed. Rationale : cost-saving and ecological benefits. Jenness to write to editor to discuss implications of this motion. NZLT is in final stages of editing. Certificates of Excellence NCEA awards now include an excellence annotation with the result that NZALT awards may be less valuable. A change in criteria for NZALT Certs of Excellence was agreed with the passage of the motion that the number of excellences required at Level 1 be increased from 3 to 4. PM/DH It was moved that NZALT reprint the certificates for Year 7 and 8 students to reward effort and achievement. PD/JA When and where, who, how later. Correspondence Inwards from J. Robertson -Thank you MoE Evaluations of 2006 Secondary Numeracy Project MoE: Early Childhood eduction and young adult competencies MoE Evaluation of Promoting Early Childhood Education Participation Project MoE Evaluation of MoE - funded Early Childhood Education Professional Development Programme AsiaNZ – acknowledgment of repayment of unspent money and receipt for $2800 Christchurch East School – invitation to A Jacques Steve Maharey- acknowledgement of receipt of President’s letter M. Cullen – acknowledgment of receipt of President’s letter Subject Association Newsletter Jeanne Gilbert – request for sponsorship Outwards to AsiaNZ/ Janine Chin Steve Maharey re scholarship decision Michael Cullen re New Learning Area Thanks to Sue Chalmers NZQA , Tony Turnock MoE Eligibility of Native Speakers for Scholarship Awards. a. NZQA will not make the proposed change to language scholarship exams by requiring English responses b Adele tabled Steve Maharey’s response to the Association’s letter: there would be no change to the recently made decision to allow native speakers to receive monetary rewards until there was evidence that non-native speakers were disadvantaged. c There was discussion around the collection of data. 3

It was moved that NZALT ask Sarah Perkins and Jo Rittey to begin the collection of data about subject choice in Year 12 and 13. AS/AJ This decision fulfils the motion passed at AGM 2007 “that NZALT instigate and coordinate the gathering of accurate data relating to languages students’ subject selection in Years 12 and 13 and monitor issues related to first language speakers being eligible for monetary rewards in 2007 and in the future.” d Adele will prepare a statement for Regional Officers’ newsletters and the website regarding NZALT’s discussions with the Minister and NZQA re scholarship eligibility 2008 AS/AJ e Adele to be the spokesperson re the New Curriculum – launch 6 Nov And to organize a Press release /exec response to the new learning area. Y7 and 8 representation on NZALT executive It was agreed that Eileen Mueller be invited to represent the Year 7 and 8 Sector until the next AGM. AS/PD Katipo JL and DH reported on the meeting with Rachel Hamilton and Rob Lyons of Katipo Of the choices offered, DH and JL decided to continue with the Club Data programme and solve the problems associated with it. Those problems are: no receipts, RO’s can’t check who has paid; the invoice needs to be reshaped; the timing out of data downloading Katipo have been asked to give a price for solutions to the problems. DL and DH sought approval to go ahead with the necessary changes to do with invoicing and receipting and were authorized to access funds up to $5000 in order to update the facilities for online membership at their discretion. AS/AJ Treasurer’s Report Financial Balance $12,500; Two term deposits of $15000. One of the fixed term deposits is to be broken to allow payment of expenses JL/PD Accounts until end of Sept were approved. JL/PD It was also agreed that the issue of branches reporting on their financial situation be addressed at the March exec meeting SS/PD Conference Report. PD reported on conference. Two keynote speakers have been secured: Dr Ema Ushioda of Warwick University and Ian Lillico of Western Australia. The early bird fee: $330 incl GST. Venue: Wellington Girls’ College. Thanks to PD and SS for continuing work with conference. Proposed dates of Future conferences 2009 Sydney 2010 Nelson/Queenstown 2011 2012 Conf in Brisbane FIPLV Portfolios Eileen was given the job description for the Yr 7 and 8 portfolio. Eileen will be sent an official letter of invitation. New portfolio, research and marketing, was created on the motion that NZALT create a new portfolio entitled Research and Marketing, the parameters of which will be defined by strategic planning later /ASAJ/ Jo Rittey accepted this portfolio. 4

Representation at the PPTA Professional Conference and Subject Association Forum. It was agreed that NZALT should be represented at PPTA Professional Conference 17-19 April and the Subject Association Forum 20-21 April 2008 Auckland Next meeting March 29 and 30 , 2008 Meeting closed at 3.25 p.m. Confirmed as a true and correct record of the meeting of 27-28 October 2007 Signed by the president Adele Scott on 29 March, 2008 …………………………………………………………………………………………

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