“I have been obsessed with the African concept of Ubuntu, ‘I am only because we are.’ I think that’s beautiful, because it reminds us that we fit into a bigger picture. I am kind of a big-picture person. I use backward design when I plan, because I want my students to see where they’re going before we start the journey together. And I think if we approach life in that way, if we backward-design life, I think that it can be so powerful if we can see what our end goal is, and then work towards that goal.”
Carmen Scoggins was my guest on Episode 27. Click here to access my conversation with her.
Carmen Scoggins’s Bio
Carmen Scoggins teaches Spanish at Watauga High School in beautiful Boone, North Carolina, where she is also an adjunct Spanish and Foreign Language Methodology instructor at Appalachian State University. She earned a BS and MA in Spanish Education from Appalachian State and is a National Board Certified Teacher. Carmen is an active member of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), the Southern Conference on Language Teaching (SCOLT), and the Foreign Language Association of North Carolina (FLANC). She is a past president of FLANC and currently SCOLT board past president. In 2007 Carmen was FLANC’s Teacher of the Year and in 2008 she received the SCOLT Teacher of the Year honor. In 2015 Carmen received the ACTFL Award for Excellence in Foreign Language Instruction Using Technology with IALLT (K-12). In November Carmen was awarded the ACTFL Florence Steiner Award for Leadership in Foreign Language Education K-12.
Carmen presents at the state, regional, national, and international levels on integrating technology into the World Language classroom, personalizing the language-learning experience, and building student relationships. She is passionate about getting future world language teachers involved in the profession. Carmen lives in Boone, North Carolina, and is in her 27th year of education.
Resources
scogginsc.wixsite.com/carmenscoggins – Carmen’s personal website
https://www.scolt.org/ – Southern Conference on Language Teaching
https://www.actfl.org/ – American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
How great leaders inspire action – Simon Sineck – TED Talk – What is your why?
https://www.ted.com/talks/celeste_headlee_10_ways_to_have_a_better_conversation – Celeste Headlee Ted Talk
https://youtu.be/D2lWQ6XvVgY – The Concept of “Ubuntu” – Nelson Mandela
To learn more about previous guests on It’s About Language or access other episodes of the podcast, visit It’s About Language or click on the Podcast tab above.
