Online Resources
Teacher Certification in Florida:
- Florida Department of Education - http://www.fldoe.org/educators/
- Educator Certification Home - http://www.fldoe.org/edcert/
- Specialization Requirements for Certification in World Languages (Grades K-12)--Academic Class - http://www.fldoe.org/edcert/rules/6A-4-0243.asp
- Certification Examinations (FTCE/FELE) - http://www.fl.nesinc.com/
Language Programs in Florida:
University of Florida- http://www.languages.ufl.edu/chinese/
University of South Florida Confucius Institute - http://global.usf.edu/confucius/
Websites for Learning Chinese
Teacher's Blogs
Favorite Sources for Chinese Language Materials
Cool Applications, Tools, and other Resources
Other Organizations of Interest for Chinese Language Teachers
- Chinese With Mike--Mike Lao Shi teaches Chinese from his garage with very entertaining 10 minute video lessons. Videos and downloadable material currently available on his website for free! Watch it, learn Chinese, and enjoy!
- English With Mike -- If you have Chinese friends who want to learn English, have them check out Englishwithmike.com, where Mike teaches English to Chinese.
- Creative Chinese is a fabulous website that includes teaching resources, a blog, lessons, lesson plans and submissions from Chinese teachers from around the world. Some of the materials are available by subscription, but there are a lot of materials that are available for free.
Teacher's Blogs
- Collaborations and Connections between the World Language and Contained Classrooms: contains ideas and materials for helping promote collaborations between elementary classrooms and world language classrooms.
- Adventures of a Zhōng wén lăo shĭ -- a new blog by a Chinese language teacher, including her thoughts on teaching, on China, and on China related books and other materials.
- Chinese Teacher's Blog -- This blog is a collaboration between three Chinese language teachers at Gap State High School in Australia. Lots of good stuff there, so check it out!
- Laowai Chinese -- this is a great blog for helping with learning Chinese, and especially reading about some of the unique quirks of Chinese, from the point of view of a Chinese-speaking Laowai.
Favorite Sources for Chinese Language Materials
Cool Applications, Tools, and other Resources
- TrackStar for Teachers--pre-select websites for students to research and annotate them!
- RubiStar--build your own rubric with RubiStar's template tool
- 4Teachers.org has all kinds of different tools you can use! Check it out!
- DropBox -- instead of "sneaker-net, " e-mailing documents to yourself, or passing around the thumb drive, try putting documents into the online DropBox and access your files from wherever you are!
- MDBG Online Chinese Dictionary -- I use this all the time-- it is probably the most comprehensive Chinese dictionary I have found online. http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php
- Zhongwen.com -- I like this dictionary for its explanations of radicals and derivations of the characters. Definitely helpful for visual thinkers.
- The Teacher's Corner -- this is one of my favorite places to go to make my own matching, fill-in-the-blank, word search, and crossword worksheets. You can even input Chinese characters! And best of all, it's FREE!
- edHelper.com -- This is a site with a treasure-trove of materials that are available by subscription in all kinds of subjects. What I've found it to be most useful for is guided reading and activities for Chinese culture -- especially Chinese New Year. I print out edHelper activities when I need to prepare materials for a substitute teacher (who most likely does not know Chinese). The main grade levels covered are middle through upper elementary through middle school. There are some high school materials about Chinese culture, but most of the materials are probably best for 2nd - 7th grades).
- Quizlet-- This is a great website for making flashcards.
Other Organizations of Interest for Chinese Language Teachers
- Florida Foreign Language Association (FFLA)
- American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)
- Chinese Language Teacher's Association (CLTA)
- Chinese Language Association of Secondary-Elementary Schools (CLASS)
- CLASS News and Announcements (CLASSexpress)
- Chinese Language Digital Teaching Association
- Center for Applied Linguistics -- CAL have developed proficiency guidelines and assessments for language learning, including the SOPA, ELLOPA, and COPE.
