The institute began with a catered evening meal in Maple Hall Dormitory on the beautiful campus of Iowa State University. Due to unstable weather along the eastern coast at the beginning of the week, travel plans around the country were disrupted and long delays caused the late arrivals of several institute participants, and the cancellation of plans for others to attend this networking event. Friday evening’s “icebreaker” became an opportunity for presenter Cherice Montgomery to hear everyone explain what s/he hoped to gain from participation in this training institute. This year, as in the past, the institute counted among its participants several NNELL members taking the place of official state or regional reps. States represented at this year’s institute (either by representatives or Executive Board members) include the following: CA, CO, CT, IA, IL, IN, MA, MN, MO, MT,NE, NM, NJ, SC,TX, VA, and WV. This evening event served as an introduction to the institute, and allowed participants to focus their thinking in preparation for the days ahead.

Drawing upon the notion of change as that which is being brought about by new technologies, Cherice led participants to the common understanding that change, although possible only over time, always begins with one single agent of change. As you might well guess, each NNELL member present was invited to become an agent of change in either a local, state or regional arena. With continued discussion of mentoring and leadership toolkits, participants developed a sense of how they might personally endeavor to try out a new “hat” this school year, in one of these three areas. Cherice also led participants in a voyage of discovery concerning their personal leadership styles, and invited each participant to take an online survey at http://www.leebolman.com/Leadership%20Orientations.pdf She carefully illustrated how one’s individual leadership style affects one’s professional relationships, and how crucial the building of relationships can be to one’s success as a leader.

Throughout the entire institute, Cherice effectively used the cultural triangle of Perspectives, Practices and Products in a different way, leading participants to become systems thinkers, in understanding that knowledge of perspectives, be they social, cultural or academic, is fundamental to the institution of change through effective mentoring and leadership. “Start where they are” and “Listen more than you speak” and “Know your own leadership style” were defined as three of the lynchpins of successful mentoring experiences.

In illustrating mentoring as a practice, she led participants through a series of practice scenarios allowing attendees to put into practice different mentoring stances, including consultative, collaborative, and coaching stances, offering a range of possibilities from direct guidance to cooperative exploration to a more “hands-off” approach to assisting new teachers and colleagues.

Before breaking for the dinner that evening, Cherice invited participants to begin thinking about what kind of Action Plan they might choose to develop over the summer, in an effort to begin to put into practice what they had learned at the institute. It was noted by several observers that the level of focused and intelligent discussion at this institute was outstanding!

Saturday evening, after dinner, all state and regional reps met with the Executive Board, under the direction of Vice-President Paula Patrick, to discuss “What’s New in Your State?” This institute event has proven to be invaluable, over the course of the past three years, for NNELL representatives who are often called upon to provide information beyond the perimeters of their own states and regions. This discussion is a natural extension of the Advocacy Share and serves each year to motivate representatives to carry out in their own states some of the wonderful activities and events held in other states. The Rhyme Celebration which has for so long marked the celebration of Foreign Language Month in CT will also be attempted for the first time in MA this year. Other activities, such as festivals and events dedicated to particular cultural icons, were discussed and promoted. All participants were urged to take part in any public discussions of foreign language advocacy held at the State Board of Education level, and to publicize events related to second language learning on a regular basis.

Ginny Staugaitis, NE Regional Rep, presents her district's content-enriched FLES Program at the NNELL 2007 Summer Institute.

Sunday marked a full day of NNELL networking activities. After an early morning breakfast, participants were treated to three different presentations of elementary second language program models. Although Beatrix Preusse-Burr, our VA Rep, was unable to attend due to travel snafus, she graciously emailed her electronic presentation to V-P Paula Patrick, her district coordinator, who was able to seamlessly step into this role and deliver this professional presentation on the Fairfax County Dual Immersion Program. NNELL President Terry Caccavale offered information regarding her district’s total immersion program.

Ginny Staugaitis, Northeast Regional Rep (CT), delivered an electronic presentation of her district’s longstanding Content-Enriched FLES Program, including the results of a satisfaction survey administered to parents in her district. New Mexico State Representative Mari Haas shared the statistical information regarding the implementation and evaluation of the WYFLES Project in Wyoming Public Schools, under the direction of Ann Tolefson. All of these power point presentations will be made available on the NNELL website at www.nnell.org.

These wonderful presentations of various program models were followed by equally engaging publisher presentations. Ms. Cherisse Litteken, of EMC Publishing Company, offered information on visual memory as it applies to second language learning in her presentation, entitled Visually Speaking. Ms. Marcella Gerber, Texas State Representative, presented information on oral/aural language development on behalf of Wright Group/McGraw-Hill. Ms. Marcia Speilberger, representing Santillana USA, offered a presentation entitled Models for Success in Early Language Learning and described the Georgia Model Program in detail.

Before breaking for dinner on Sunday evening, attendees took part in the NNELL Advocacy Share, led by Advocacy Chair Tammy Dann , National Networking Coordinator Jean Modig, President Terry Caccavale and Vice-President Paula Patrick. It was during this discussion that the critical issue of NNELL membership was addressed. Currently, NNELL stands at approximately 700 members. The targeted goal for our 20 th Anniversary Celebration in November of 2007 is 1,000 members. The call to action was made to every NNELL rep to recruit new membership at the local and state level. A form letter intended to recruit new members will be mailed to all state and regional representatives during the month of July. All reps, including those who could not attend the institute, are asked to accept this challenge and help to find 10 new members of NNELL. The greater our membership base, the greater will be our possibilities for continued networking throughout the foreign language profession. Terry noted that all new FLAP Grant recipients will be receiving membership invitations from NNELL. All reps will be asked to contact schools in their areas, both public and private, to solicit new members, including institutional members. Institute participants accepted this challenge and promised to set to work finding new members.

On Sunday evening, institute attendees were treated to a lovely catered dinner in the Campanile Room of the Memorial Union at ISU. NNELL President Terry Caccavale presented gifts of appreciation on behalf of NNELL to Dr. Marcia Rosenbusch, NFLRC Director, Vicki Gray, Administrative Assistant, and Cherice Montgomery, Institute Presenter. Terry also personally thanked every institute participant for the energy and enthusiasm s/he brought to the three-day event. Later, after dinner, attendees met once again in the lounge of Maple Hall to discuss the contents of the institute and to begin to shape their Action Plans.

The end of the morning was used for institute evaluations, which are also available here on the NNELL website. Overall, the 2007 NNELL Summer Institute was a great success! Thanks to all of the NNELL Board Members who helped to plan and carry out this wonderful event as well as to our sponsors, Santillana USA, EMC Publishing Co. and Wright Group/ McGraw-Hill. Our special thanks go to Dr. Marcia Rosenbusch and Vicki Gray of the National Foreign Language Resource Center at Iowa State University. For more information regarding NFLRC initiatives, visit the website at http://www.nflrc.iastate.edu/.