Secondary (9-12) Representative Sheila Cockey  Retired; King George, VA

I bring to AATSP  my 46 years of active involvement in our profession, including 35 years of teaching Spanish in high school, community college, and for special purposes, and my experience as a writer, editor, and facilitator of workshops.  As a long-time participant in AATSP, I attended  my first national conference in Mexico City in 1973.  I hold a BA in Spanish, two Masters’ Degrees, and a current Postgraduate Professional License from the Commonwealth of Virginia.  I am the recipient of several awards including the Helen Warriner-Burke FLAVA Distinguished Service Award. But my joy comes from empowering others.  Therefore, I regularly share my experiences at AATSP, ACTFL, NECTFL, FLAVA, and other local, regional, and national conferences.  Highlights of my professional service include participating on Steering Committees to revise the Virginia Standards of Learning for Foreign Languages, and as Facilitator of a later revision; serving on state-level text book review committees; consulting to the National Capital Language Resource Center as contributing writer and editor of two books and many articles; creating, developing and facilitating many 2-4 day total immersion workshops and several other types of workshops about the teaching of languages; being an NEH Fellow and part of the team that created the ¡Cine con Clase! website; serving on the Board of Directors of FLAVA and as editor of their semi-annual publication; and reviewing for Foreign Language Annals.  Please refer to my full resume for details about specific activities, articles, and events that I have either led or in which I participated.

Ever since my first conference in Mexico City in 1973, I have attended and contributed to AATSP events.  My professional life has been dedicated to Spanish, teaching high school and community college, and developing instruction for fellow teachers.   I am committed to AATSP’s goals.  For 35 years I taught secondary Spanish (years 1-6 and dual enrollment), as well as being department chair/mentor. I have assumed leadership roles in Virginia’s AATSP chapter for over 10 years (President, Past President, Webmaster, Chair of the Scholarship/Awards committees, and delegate to national and international conferences).  As a board member of the Foreign Language Association of Virginia I edited the newsletter, and I was honored with their Helen Warriner Burke Distinguished Service Award.  My consultant work with the National Capital Language Resource Center includes reviews, feature articles, and the well-received advice column "YANA.”  I was Editor-In-Chief of  Teaching World Languages: A Practical Guide and edited The Language Resource newsletter.  For ten years I created and led NCLRC’s 4-day total immersion institutes in Washington, DC, collaborating with the Spanish and Uruguayan embassies and the Mexican Cultural Institute.  In 2004, I was chosen to be an NEH fellow at the University of Virginia to develop the ¡Cine con Clase! website, a contemporary movie resource for teachers.  During my tenure on the AATSP Board I hope to do the following:

• Voice the needs and interests of the 9-12 teacher.
• Increase professional development.
• Expand opportunities for members to influence 21^st century learning. 

Thank you for your participation in AATSP!