I am delighted to write this Spotlight feature article on two dynamic foreign lan-guage teachers, both from Gwinnett County Public Schools, Christy Belbey, who teaches French at Dacula High, and Erica Poole, who teaches Spanish at South Gwinnett. Their in-credible and innovative teaching styles and creative nature in the foreign language and education field have led these two great edu-cators to receive the noble honor of Teacher of the Year at their respective schools. They were honored at the GCPS Teacher of the Year Banquet on November 3rd at the Gwinnett Civic Center.

Ms. Belbey has been teaching French since 1993, beginning at Stone Mountain Jun-ior High and later in 1994 arriving to teach French at Dacula High School (levels I.–V.), plus she was the department chair from 2002 to 2005. During her years of teaching, she has garnered several honors, such as Georgia High School Teacher of the Year for the American Association Teachers of French (2009), local Teacher of the Year Finalist (2002, 2003, 2011), Teacher of the Month (May 2002), list-ing among Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers (1996, 1998), National Society of High School Scholars, Educator of Distinction (2008), and the GCPS Foreign Language Pro-gram PEAK Award in Exemplary Foreign Lan-guage Instruction (2008–2011). She earned her degrees in Georgia with

an Associate of Arts, Liberal Arts from Young

Harris College, Bachelor of Arts in French

(1992), and a Master of Arts in Applied Lin-

guistics and Second Language Pedagogy

(1999), both from Georgia State University.

She attended the Universite de Montre al

(summer 1990), Montre al, Que bec, Canada and

earned her teaching certificate from Jackson-

ville University, Florida.

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November 2011

FLAG Spotlight Congratulations

Christy Belbey, Dacula High & Erica Poole, South Gwinnett High

Christy Belbey in Paris, France

Ms. Belbey has always been a very actively involved French teacher and believes in teaching students the importance of French culture by reg-ularly organizing educational trips to France for students (1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010). She has a great “amour” for teaching her students about French culture and the importance of broadening the mind cultural-ly. Belbey says, “I have made it my goal to encour-age Dacula’s students to experience other cul-tures first hand through travel and study abroad. Go abroad and see the world, and then decide for yourself the validity of another cul-ture’s way of life.” She has even taught workshops on sports, cooking, art, and music at the French Immersion Camp offered by Georgia’s American Association of Teacher of French (AATF) and went as far as to facilitate French Immersion workshops for teach-ers. She has served as Georgia’s AATF French Contest Administrator. Furthermore, she has proved her achieve-

ments as an extremely active and efficacious edu-

cator at her high school by sponsoring French

Club and French Honor Society, and is always on

the cutting edge of the latest technology in for-

eign language education as a “techspert” for the

Foreign Language Labs, where her students en-

gage in meaningful conversational activities in

the French language through the various authen-

tic speaking activities she creates.

At the county level, she is an author

for the online GCPS Communication Center

website, which provides foreign language

teachers with activities, games, Power-

Point presentations, songs, and music and

much more for their classrooms. She was

honored with her TOTY plaque at the 2011

banquet. Congratulations!

Christy Belbey continued

Christie Belbey (above) & Erica Poole (below) receiving

their awards at the November Teacher of the Year Banquet

Erica Poole has been an outstanding Spanish Teacher at South Gwinnett High School since 1997, and also has taught as an Adjunct Faculty member at Gwinnett Tech-nical College in Lawrenceville, GA, where she taught conversational Spanish to adults in the Continuing Education program. Before teaching in the Gwinnett Coun-ty Schools, she taught 7th and 8th grade Span-ish in the DeKalb County School System at Miller Grove Middle School. Erica earned her AB in Romance Lan-guages and a Certificate in Global Studies from the University of Georgia (1994), Masters of Arts in Teaching Spanish from Piedmont College (1999), certificates in the Portuguese Immersion School from Middle-bury College, Vermont (June, 2005) and in Faculty Development in International Busi-ness for Business Spanish at the University of South Carolina (June, 2006). She has a knack for languages and

speaks fluent Spanish and Brazilian-Portuguese. Her work outside of the foreign language classroom extends to the international business world. She has trans-lated business literature for a variety of companies such as Sprayglo Auto Refinish-ing and Body Repair and Classic Ground Co-vers. In addition, she served as an interpret-er for visiting Brazilian music professors at the University of Georgia School of Mu-sic back when she attended. She is the owner of her own business known as 3 in 1 Corporate Language Train-er, LLC. Erica has a great passion for flamen-co dancing and teaches her students this great art form as well as the importance of culture generally. Studying the percussive artistry of flamenco dance allows her to hone her ear to its extensive footwork vo-cabulary and to apply intricate rhythms whereby she stays inspired to learn its lan-guage. As a result, Erica's teaching goal for her students is for them to remain motivat-ed outside of class to always apply and re-fine their Spanish skills. She has been very active in the Flamenco dance community by serving as a volunteer staff writer for Atlan-ta’s online Flamenco Newsletter at jaleole.com. As a matter of fact, she per-formed a Flamenco dance at the 2008 Teacher of the Year ceremony at her school, which can serve as a total full circle moment for Erica inasmuch as she was honored with her TOTY plaque at the Gwinnett County 2011 banquet. Congratulations! ∞

Joe Frank Uriz, Ed.S. Foreign Language Association of Georgia Please send any information and/or news on any excellent World Language Teachers Leaders "caught in the act" of doing a excellent job in your

school/district and/or foreign language events your school/district may be celebrating (such as awards, contests, festivals, performances, camps, etc.) These announcements will be posted on ISSU and FLAG facebook

ERICA POOLE South Gwinnett High

Erica Poole, performing in Fronteras 2011