Ruta Couet2011 State Supervisor of the Year
Ruta Couet, World Languages Education Associate at the South Carolina Department of Education, was recognized as the 2011 State Supervisor of the Year at the Annual Meeting of the National Council of State Supervisors for Languages (NCSSFL) in Denver, CO on November 16. Ruta has served as both NCSSFL treasurer (2002-06) and NCSSFL president (2009-11).
Ruta has been the world languages specialist for the SC Department of Education since 1994. As one supporter wrote, “In service to all world language teachers of this state, Ms. Couet has been tirelessly proactive in developing resources and making them available to as many people as possible. She instinctively knows what language teachers need and strives to provide it.” Special projects for South Carolina, produced by SC ETV, include the development of Bringing New Languages to Young Learners, a distance-learning K-8 methods program delivered by Curtain and Dahlberg, the authors of Languages and Children-Making the Match, and the Kids Interacting Through Early Language Learning (KITE-LL), a hybrid distance-learning program for grades 3-5 in French, German, and Spanish. Her production of the Why Teach French series, funded by the Embassy of France, earned Ruta the Knighthood for Academic Palms from the Republic of France in 2004.
An avid supporter of LinguaFolio®, Ruta has been active in the development, piloting and professional development concerning this tool alongside her NCSSFL colleagues. She has co-authored publications on subjects such as model lessons for K-8 foreign language, planning and evaluating effective language programs, and world language teacher shortage. Ruta was a member of the assessment team for the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards for World Languages Other than English and also served as an advisor to the Teaching Foreign Languages Project, funded by Annenberg/CPB and produced by WGBH in association with the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages.