Educational Materials
Learn How to Learn More
Valuable Resources for Education & growth
Educating others, and ourselves, about different countries and cultures remains one of the core goals of Upstate International
We’ve provided a list below of valuable resources, references and educational material in order to promote multicultural learning.
Feel free to browse, download, or share any of the information below.
Annually every March: “Learn a Foreign Language; Gain a New Perspective!”
- Sponsor your own videocast competition for your students! Promote world language study at the elementary level in your district.
- Start a Facebook or Twitter account for your foreign language club.
- Produce a foreign language website recounting activities for the week; post on your district’s website.
- Challenge your students to take the “Are you Smarter Than a Language Teacher” quiz, available on the ACTFL website.
- Induct students into foreign language honor societies sponsored by AATF, AATSP, AATI and AATG, and publicize the event in your local newspaper.
- Invite administrators into your classroom to see current student projects and activities.
- Invite administrators to judge world language activities.
- Organize a foreign language film festival for your school and/or community.
- Invite parents of your heritage language learners to visit your classroom to share their experiences and recognize them.
- Encourage students to create bumper stickers, t-shirts, slogans, buttons, etc. and use them during Foreign Language Week.
- Create an online scavenger hunt for your students.
- Play international music during the daily announcements and let students and staff identify it.
- Bring students to a Board of Education meeting and have them address the topic of the importance of second language study.
- Ask School Board to do a Foreign Language Week Proclamation.
- Have your students create posters to promote their foreign language using www.glogster.com
- Have students identify their home language on large wall displays or hand prints, and write messages in their heritage languages.
- Organize an Idol competition with international music and songs.
- Present key information on daily announcements in multiple languages. Invite native speakers to read an authentic target-culture childhood story in the target culture and discuss in the target language.
- Organize an International Career Fair and invite community members and business partners to participate.
- Send a press release highlighting all your Foreign Language Week activities to local t.v., radio and newspapers.
- Survey staff about languages studied/spoken, exchange experiences, travel experiences, heritages, and post results.
- Hold a “People Who Inspire” event to highlight the accomplishments of multilingual/multicultural members of your community.
- Organize or host an international dinner/festival/concert.
- Do a live videoconference with a school in the target culture on a topic of study.
- Invite professional dancers/musicians to perform for students.
- ACTFL Foreign Language Advocacy. Tips on how to become a foreign language advocate in your community.
- New York Association of Foreign Language Teachers. A repository of advocacy materials, including talking points, benefits of second language study, sample letters of support, articles related to business, the job market, national defense, and others.
- California Foreign Language Teachers Association. Links to a wide variety of materials, including how to publicize your events and sample press releases –
- Foreign Language Association of Georgia.
- Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research at The Pennsylvania State University (CALPER). Documents, opinion pieces and news stories.
“The World is but a Canvas to Our Imagination” is the theme of the 2018 Upstate International K12 Art Contest.
Schools all over the Upstate are invited to participate in this Upstate Art Contest on the Elementary, Middle and High School levels. Is, 2nd and 3rd place winners from each division may win cash prizes. In addition, each school’s art program that produces a winner may also receive a cash prize. For full contest information and rules, click here.
- Host an internationally focused meeting, a speaker, DVD, and/or music.
- Put up a display featuring a different part of the world.
- Have someone from another country talk about similar programs.
- Have employees/clients who are first-generation talk about the similarities and differences in organizations and practices in their home country.
- 100 bells Saturday, March 1, at noon. If possible, wherever you are in the Upstate, ring bells 100 times for international peace and understanding. (Bergamo, Italy, rings 100 bells each night at 10 p.m., honoring a tradition of the upper city gates of Bergamo closing. It gave people time to enter or leave for the night.)
- Organize an event featuring other religions, help create new understanding; host a speaker from that religion, show a video, read a book.
- Feature your missions program or host a missionary and show a movie about the work.
- Host a prayer session for international peace and understanding.
- Have members who are first-generation from another country talk about the similarities and differences in religious practices of their home country.
- 100 bells Saturday, March 1, at noon. If possible, wherever you are in the Upstate, ring bells 100 times for international peace and understanding. (Bergamo, Italy, rings 100 bells each night at 10 p.m., honoring a tradition of the upper city gates of Bergamo closing. It gave people time to enter or leave for the night.)
- Organize an event featuring other religions, help create new understanding; host a speaker from that religion, show a video, read a book.
- Feature your missions program or host a missionary and show a movie about the work.
- Host a prayer session for international peace and understanding.
- Have members who are first-generation from another country talk about the similarities and differences in religious practices of their home country.
