Did you know that NYSAFLT has over 2,000 members? While those 2,000+ members share a passion for languages, they also represent diverse constituencies. Most are teachers. Yet many others are students, administrators, or advocates for language study. Currently they represent 15 different languages at every level of instruction. Given such diversity, NYSAFLT would like to offer its members the opportunity to educate each other about their situations, their issues, and their needs. The Voices of NYSAFLT will be a feature on this website throughout 2007.

Members from NYSAFLT’s various constituencies are invited to respond in writing to three important questions:

• What is important to you?

• What do you want fellow NYSAFLT members to know and understand?

• What issues are you facing?

In each question, “you” refers to the member and others who represent a particular constituency, such as “elementary language teachers” or “teachers of Greek.”

If you would like to be a Voice of NYSAFLT and share your insights with fellow NYSAFLT members, please email Joanne O’Toole mentioning which constituency you would like to represent. The ones envisioned for this feature include (but are not limited to):

• Teachers, Instructors, Professors: (Elementary, Middle School, High School, Community College, Four-year College, Methodologist, Arabic, ASL, Bilingual, Chinese, ESL, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Heritage, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili)

• Administrators (Department Chairperson, Staff Developer, Principal)

• College Students (Pre-service Teacher, Graduate Student)