Profe+Egnatz

=About Señora Egnatz=

[[image:lwnegnatzclasses/Cuernavaca_06_131.jpg width="356" height="574" align="left"]]
====**Señora Egnatz enjoys her subject and her students**. It's her belief that practice helps you master your language skills, so you'll have many classroom opportunities to use Spanish (both spoken and written). She gets excited when her students are able to use their Spanish skills in real-life situations. Every year, she sponsors a trip to a Spanish-speaking country where students can put their classroom efforts to the test! These trips are open to all students at all four Lincoln-Way High Schools who are studying Spanish and wish to apply, but space is limited to 40 students. The 2013 Springbreak Trip was a combined tour with Spanish, French and Art students to France and Spain. In 2014, we'll be celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Panama Canal with a collaborative tour of Panama with Science students and teachers.====

====As a faculty co-sponsor, Sra. Egnatz invites students to excel in their language-learning and become members of the National Spanish Honor Society, "Sociedad Honoraria Hispanica," and take advantage of the cash awards, scholarships and student travel opportunities that membership offers.====

===="Profe" is committed to maintaining her own Spanish-speaking and teaching skills. She has a Master's Degree in Spanish Literature, has taught Spanish at Purdue University and Joliet Junior College, and travels to Spanish-speaking countries every year, often taking courses to enhance the student's learning experience. The photo on the left was taken at Teotihuacan in Mexico where she took a course designed for AP Spanish Language Teachers at the University of Mexico. She also works to improve her skills in those areas, like technology, that will help her students use their language skills in whatever career they may pursue in the future. In 2010, she was named Lincoln-Way North's "Teacher of the Year." Sra. Egnatz is a National Board Certified Teacher in World Languages and became a certified Oral Proficiency Interview Rater for the American Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. In 2012 she became the Illinois State Foreign Language Teacher of the Year and this past Spring was both named a 2013 Golden Apple Fellow (TV Awards Program in Fall 2013 on WTTW-Channel 11) and the 2013 Central States Conference Teacher of the Year. Egnatz will represent the 17 Central States as one of five National Finalists for the 2014 National Foreign Language Teacher of the Year, to be named this November in Orlando, Florida.====

====Sra. Egnatz serves on the Executive Board of Directors for the Illinois Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages ([|www.ictfl.org]) as President and Webmaster. She has been a Conference Co-Chair for their annual Fall Conference. She is an Advisory Board Member of Central States Conferences of Foreign Language Teachers and a member of both the American Conference of Teachers of Foreign Language and the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese. She is active in conferences, often as a presenter, and pursues other opportunities to improve both her language and teaching skills. She is contributing teacher to the Library of Congress for which she designed a website that explores Spanish exploration of the continental United States before the English colonies began using the LOC's library of digitized materials. Most recently Egnatz testified before the Illinois legislatures on behalf of the Seal of Biliteracy, which would be awarded to Illinois High School graduates who demonstrate language proficiency in two languages.====