The Spring Conference 2004
The CCFLT Spring Conference - Achieving Balance In Teaching Language - will be held from February 19th to February 21st, 2004, at the Antler's Adam's Mark Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Click on the Registration Form!
The Antler's Adam's Mark Hotel is located at:
(Free Covered Parking)
Room rates for CCFLT Conference reservations made by January 19, 2004:
Pre-Conference Workshops
Thursday, February 19, 2004
1. Susan Gross: TPRS Storytelling (Full Day)
2. Pam Centeno and Kris Wells: Colores, Olores, y Sabores de Oaxaca (Full Day)
3. Samba Ndyiaye: La Francophonie: the Culture and Civilization of the Francophone World (AM Only)
4. Doris Demmel and Ekkehard Sprenger from the Goethe Institut: German Culture in the Classroom (AM Only)
5. Bob DiDonato: Linking Reading and Writing in the Language Classroom (AM Only)
6. Renee Rehfeldt: Using Virtual Tours to Bring Culture into the Classroom (PM Only)
7. Bob DiDonato: Active and Interactive Learning in the Languge Classroom (PM Only)
On June 9, 1985, in Beirut, Lebanon, Dr. Thomas Sutherland was seized by gunmen from the Islamic Jihad and taken captive as a hostage. That day would be the first of 2,354, nearly six and one-half years -- the second longest period of captivity of any Western hostage.
For six years, Dr. Sutherland lived face to face with one of the "other sides" in the bitter religious and factional conflict that has ravaged the Middle East. Captivity gave him a unique view of that other side and of the true meaning of life, under the most testing of circumstances.
Thomas Sutherland came into his imprisonment as someone both ordinary and extraordinary. Ordinary, in that he was not a politician or diplomat, not a "Middle East expert" or journalist. He was a scientist and teacher in a practical field, animal science. The expertise he brought to his post at the American University in Beirut was in agriculture and academic administration, not in politics.
In other ways, he was not ordinary at all. He was highly educated and thoughtful, a gifted teacher and communicator, and someone whose background was international. Even before he moved to Beirut in 1983, his life and work in agriculture had taken him to three continents. He was born in Scotland, educated at Glasgow University (B.S. Agriculture, 1953), and was a member of the Scottish Youth International Soccer Team.
He came to the United States for graduate study at Iowa State University (M.S.1956, Ph.D. 1958). For twenty-five years he was Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University, where he received many honors as an outstanding teacher. During that time, he also spent a sabbatical year at the leading agricultural research station in France, and worked for two years in Ethiopia setting up the training program for the International Livestock Center for Africa.
Throughout his years of captivity, his wife Jean stayed in Lebanon, maintaining solidarity with him while continuing to work at the American University of Beirut. Dr. Sutherland was released on November 18, 1991. He has discussed his hostage experience on national television, including appearances on "Nightline," "The Today Show," "Good Morning America," "The McNeil-Lehrer Report" and on BBC and BBC Scotland. The HBO film "Hostages" featured his plight along with others in a two-hour film. In the fall of 1993, "NBC Now" with Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric featured Dr. Sutherland's return to Lebanon, including a visit to the headquarters of Hizbollah, his alleged captors. He was the first hostage to undertake such a return visit.
Dr. Sutherland speaks about his experience, the insights gained from it, about the Middle East and America's role in the world abroad, the nature of terrorism in today's world and particularly its threat to the United States, his worldwide efforts for peace, and his faith in America's future. Few have paid such a price for their citizenship. Fewer still have the ability to express their feelings with such humor and sensitivity.
Imbued with a deep love and appreciation of freedom in general and American citizenship in particular, he'll leave you with a true appreciation of what most of us regard as a birthright. One seldom meets a more positive, optimistic American, with such a keen sense of humor. Dr. Sutherland and his wife Jean reside in Colorado. They have three daughters, Ann, Kit and Joan.
