Olivet Nazarene University alumna Hannah (Gorecki) Keppner ‘17 is one of only two 2018 recipients of the Illinois Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ICTFL) Award for New Teachers of Foreign Languages.
This award recognizes Illinois teachers who have recently entered the foreign language teaching profession.
Hannah — a Spanish education graduate from the School of Education at Olivet — is a second-year teacher at Minooka Community High School (Illinois). As a first-year teacher, she led the process of creating a proficiency-based curriculum — free from the textbook. She wrote entire units and lesson plans as needed. She showed her department how to create interpretive and interpersonal tasks and assessments, giving teachers the confidence to take risks and step outside textbook exercises and worksheets.
Dr. Nancy Bonilla, chair of Olivet’s Department of Modern Languages and Hannah’s professor and mentor, attended the award ceremony.
To learn more about foreign language education opportunities at Olivet, contact the Office of Admissions at admissions@olivet.edu or 800-648-1463.
Reprinted from Olivet The Magazine, Winter 2019 issue.
Photos submitted by Dr. Nancy Bonilla and used with permission.
