Alice Anne Bell This is Me

Education

 View all 7 references Web References

1. 1. CLTA Teacher Recognition

   www.clta.net/recognition/index - [Cached]

   Published on: 3/25/2008   Last Visited: 3/25/2008

   Alice Bell

2. 2. TPR Workshop Schedule: ESL, foreign language classes, instructional work shops, Immersion and Dual Language

   www.tprsource.com/workshop.htm - [Cached]

   Published on: 12/21/2004   Last Visited: 3/10/2006

   For more information, contact Alice Bell, CLTA Conference Program Chair--(530)246-2936

3. 3. Redding: Features

   www.redding.com/redd/features/ - [Cached]

   Published on: 7/6/2005   Last Visited: 7/6/2005

   FINE DINING: Alice Bell entertains students from her French class on the deck of her Redding home. She served the meal in the French way, one course at a time.
   ...
   Alice Bell's picture must be in a dictionary somewhere, opposite the phrase joie de vivre.
   ...
   Although Bell retired from a career teaching French at Anderson High School in 2003, she just finished another semester in front of a group of night students at Shasta College. "Animated" doesn't begin to describe her performance.
   ...
   Alice Anne Bell
   ...
   Born in San Diego, Bell lived in several California communities with her family before attending Sacramento State College. Ultimately, she earned a master's degree in French language and culture from the University of California at Santa Barbara.
   
   Working toward a teaching career was a no-brainer. She knew that's what she'd do from the fifth grade. But she switched her major from math to French -- it was more fun -- as a sophomore in college and signed up to spend her junior year in France.
   
   She'll never forget arriving alone in Paris and trying to catch a plane to Bordeaux.
   
   "It's six in the morning," she recalled. "There's hardly anyone around.
   ...
   In 1966, Bell set out on a new adventure by taking a Peace Corps assignment in Ivory Coast, which had won its independence from France six years earlier.
   
   "(I joined) just because I wanted to do some more exploring the world," she said. "The more exotic it is, the more tempting it is."
   
   She was among 40 candidates chosen from a pool of 90 after a screening process that included a battery of psychological tests. She trained at Oberlin College in Ohio and in Quebec.
   
   "In those days, it was pretty ruthless," she said. "I felt kind of humbled because I was from a state college."
   
   In Ivory Coast, she lived alone in a three-bedroom house. A houseboy washed her clothes by hand, did her shopping and cleaned her home.
   
   As a teacher of English, she encountered some quirks of language she hadn't expected. Certain concepts, such as time, were alien to her students.
   ...
   And Bell took up the cello in elementary school, playing through college.
   
   "I loved playing, and that's one of the things I really want to get back into," she said.
   
   Bell also taught Anderson High's first computer class, helping spark a technology program that blossomed over the years, said former superintendent Boyle.
   
   She will continue guiding group trips to France as she has for years, as well as traveling with her husband.
   ...
   "He's the most wonderful person," Alice Bell said of her husband.
   ...
   "Then we'll do the cruise thing where you don't have to move around much," Alice Bell said with a smile.
   
   She remains active in the education of others. A former president of the California Language Teachers Association (she won the group's Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award in 2003), she's also co-director of the Northern California Foreign Language Project, which focuses on professional development for teachers.
   
   "I think education is in turmoil everywhere, more in California because with its diversity, it's hard to meet everyone's needs," she said. Not only that, but she observes other countries and wonders how the United States will measure up.
   
   She cites the example of India where, she said, "people work 40 hours a week while they're furthering their education.
   
   "We have to motivate our young people to great things," she said. "We need to inspire students to work hard."
   
   Learning a foreign tongue can only help, Bell said.