NABO annually sponsors an instructors' workshop to gather our various Basque club instructors for 1) a chance to share teaching ideas and 2) charge our batteries to keep going.  It's these people who keep our Euskara program going!

Previous workshops:  2009 Salt Lake  2007 Chino

BASQUE LANGUAGE TEACHERS WORKSHOP 2010 (BOISE, IDAHO)
by Izaskun Kortazar and Ibon Izurieta

As every year the Basque language teachers met for their annual workshop. This year the meeting was in Boise, Idaho. Out of the 18 instructors, 11 attended the workshop. Two teachers had family obligations, one was sick and one was in the Basque Country. 

From left to right: Henar Chico, Goisalde Jausoro, Gloria Lejardi,Aitzol Azurtza, Anita Anakabe, Mikel Oteiza, Itxaso Kaiero, Bernardette, Izaskun Kortazar and Ibon Izurieta. Photo taken at the Basque museum and cultural Center in Boise, Idaho ( 2010/01/16)

The workshop started on Friday night with dinner and some games to get to know each other. On Saturday the teachers met at the Euskal museo which hosted the workshop all day. In the afternoon the teachers has a shirt break to get to know what the Basque block has to offer including shopping at the Basque museum and the Basque market and  a short visit to the fronton. This year the workshop focused on educational activities  for the classroom in the morning with Izaskun Kortazar (The Basque language coordinator) and in the afternoon Nere Lete presented differente methodologies that can help students remember Basque grammar easier. a very productive day concluded with a final hands-on practice session at the   Modern Languages and Cultures department computer lab at Boise State University. The teachers practiced the management of the Basque lnaguage on-line program called BOGA as an aid to learning Basque for 2 hours longer at the hands of Izaskun Kortazar. Finally, after a long day, the teachers were able to enjoy a little bit of fun at night, some of them attened the Basque Sheepherders festival in Caldwell and some stayed chatting after dinner.

From left to right: Chris Murua, Aitzol Azurtza, Goisalde Jausoro, Mikel Oteiza, Izaskun Kortazar, Henar Chico with Maitane and Andoni, Bernardette and Anita Anakabe.  Photo taken outside the Basque Center in Boise, Idaho. (2010/01/17).

Sunday morning  afforded no break to the busy workshop participants who shared classroom activitities use in their current classes and took a look foward the future mapping and challenges for the present year 2010. The workshop was videotaped by Chris Murua, Oihana Andion and the teachers. Chris Murua volunteered to record the workshop for the teachers that were not able to attend and for the future new instructors.

We would like to thank the Basque museum for providing us with coffee and refreshments and letting us use its conference room without charge. We wouls also like to extend our appreciation to the BSU Modern Languages  computer lab director for allowing us to use the computers to work on BOGA and Chris Murua for recording and editing the video and all the teachers for sharing their ideas and make this workshop a big success and an invaluable experience.

Haien laguntzari esker

izaskunkortazar@gmail.com