Dear AZLA Members,

It is my pleasure to introduce myself to you as this year’s president of AZLA.  My name is Maggie Fountain and this is my third year working with AZLA.  I began my language experience, like perhaps many of you and your students, in high school.  No one in my family spoke or had studied Spanish, but I immediately fell in love with the language.  I studied abroad in Salamanca, Spain, and cherished immersing myself in the language, culture, and history of the country.  I became a high school Spanish teacher at my high school alma mater and then for sixteen years at Desert Vista High School in the Tempe Union High School District.  I taught all levels and served as the Department Chair.  I currently work as the Content Specialist for World Languages in the Tempe Union High School District.

It is my privilege to invite you to this year’s annual fall conference. It will be AZLA’s very first virtual conference! It will be held Saturday, September 26th from 9am to 3pm.  Due to the restrictions in place because of the pandemic, this year’s conference will now be held exclusively from your own living room!  Our annual theme is “Connecting Through Languages.”  This theme is critical during this time.  When we selected it back in December, we couldn’t have imagined how relevant it would become in today’s world.  We want to encourage our members to connect with one another in a world that can feel more distant and uncertain than ever.  We will begin with a morning keynote given by L.J. Randolph Jr., Ed.D., on “Social Justice in the World Language Classroom”, followed by an afternoon of virtual sessions to choose from.  To read more about our keynote presenter and his session click on the website http://www.azla.info/events/fallconference.

We look forward to “seeing” all of you at this fall’s conference.

Take care,

Maggie Fountain

AZLA President 2019-2020