The WAFLT Nominating Committee is pleased to present a ballot for WAFLT President-Elect for the biennium 2025-26 that carries the names of two dedicated language teachers with records of service to our association.
The candidate earning a plurality of votes will undertake a six-year period of service to WAFLT in the following two-year offices: President-Elect 2025-26, President 2027-28, and Past President 2029-30.
According to our constitutional requirement to rotate the presidency among the languages represented on the WAFLT Executive Board, this year’s nominees for President-Elect have been selected from colleagues teaching German.
Please read the qualifications of each candidate carefully. Vote for one candidate. You may cast your vote online.
Cast your vote!
Bobbette Leu-Timmermann | Jolene Wochenske
Bobbette Leu Timmerman
Bobbette Leu-Timmermann Retired
PROFESSIONAL BIOGRAPHY
I recently retired from Cedarburg High School,where two of my students were chosen as trip winners based on their AATG national exam results. Prior to that I was the middle and high school German teacher at Assumption in Wisconsin Rapids. Like many of us, my roles have included advisor for German Club, German Honor Society and World Language Department Chair. I have been active in WI-AATG and WAFLT both as a participant and as a leader, most recently as Grants and Scholarships chair. My own practice has been formed by living and working in Germany for multiple years, and I have enjoyed participating in annual immersion weekends with Wisconsin and Illinois teachers. As a former President of the WI-AATG, I made updates and encouraged members to attend WAFLT and nominate students for the Honor in Language Study. The WI-AATG also honored me with the Distinguished German Language Educator Award in 2019. Nationally, I was chosen to represent the Midwestern Region as a member of the AATG Executive Committee. Additionally, I have been a regular contributor to the AATG Listserv Fans, Wir unterrichten AP-Deutsch, and the GAPP Teacher Forum, sharing knowledge and building community. Last fall, the Goethe Institut and AATG recognized my contributions with their Certificate of Merit award. In my retirement I continue using my time, talents and knowledge as the AP German Online Community moderator and as an Avant Stamp 4S German Language Rater.
As WAFLT President, I plan to build on WAFLT’s strengths as a voice and advocate for world language teaching and learning. Throughout my life, I have been a strong proponent of language learning. In my roles as world language department leader and cooperating teacher and during my tenure as AATG President, WAFLT board member and Midwest Representative, I have passionately encouraged world language association membership with my colleagues, new teachers and teachers in training to benefit their own learning and professional growth. I feel it is essential for teachers in this century’s classrooms and beyond to be life-long language learners in order to model high standards in language proficiency, demonstrate cultural practices, and share the value of learning a world language as a valuable life-long skill. In this era of deep and wounding budget cuts, coupled with the advent of artificial intelligence technologies, it is critical that our stakeholders understand that there is a need for our children to have actual and not artificial abilities to speak and understand other languages and cultures so that they can support and promote our state’s goals of increasing employment in emerging technologies and improving our economies. To this end, as WAFLT President, I will utilize my leadership experience to advocate for the continuance and enhancement of world language programs in our schools, encourage world language colleagues to mindfully and intentionally collaborate in order to keep their programs relevant and assist teachers develop innovative, proficiency based curricula which incorporate high expectations in order to grow their students’ cultural and linguistic competencies.
Jolene Wochenske
Oregon High School
PROFESSIONAL BIOGRAPHY
My high school German teacher inspired me to become an educator. I earned my BA from UW Stevens Point where I majored in German and minored in English as a Second Language and History. After a few years of public school teaching, I returned to school and earned my Master of Arts degree in German from Middlebury College. This pushed me to complete my coursework in Germany, where I then stayed and worked as a translator in an international law firm and eventually as a teacher at the Europa Schule in Wiesbaden. After several years in Germany, I returned to the United States and taught German for 21 years at the middle and high school levels. This is also when I began attending and presenting at WAFLT, Central States, and eventually ACTFL conventions. I was also inspired to join the planning team for the annual German Teacher immersion weekend, which is a collaborative effort between the Wisconsin and Northern Illinois chapters of AATG, and I currently organize the Madison and Southwestern Wisconsin AATG speaking contest. Additionally, I was selected as a member of the charter AATG Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. I have been honored as a Herb Kohl Fellow and with the WAFLT Certificate of Merit.
VISION STATEMENT
WAFLT is a wonderful and strong organization supporting teachers and learners of world languages in the state of Wisconsin – I am proud to be a member and excited about the prospect of being your President-elect. Our leadership has had to adjust and even pivot in recent times, and I am inspired with the hard work they have done to continue to thrive as an organization and to support educators and students. I am looking forward to not only recognizing the work of our teachers and our students in their studies, but to also strengthening school language program advocacy efforts so that their work and impact are not lost. I hope to work closely with the DPI to highlight less-spoken languages trying to survive and give them a voice throughout our state. I want to continue the excellent work of the board while bringing focus to our changing profession. What does AI mean for us? We are not obsolete, and I want to expand our offerings on professional development, not just at our annual conference and summer institute but also leaning on experts among us to host opportunities all over the state. How are our students changing, and how do we alter our practices so that we can meet the challenges of the social emotional needs of our students? Giving our students a space at our table as an organization in order to support our work in making our languages as exciting as social media – that is a path I wish to pursue. Finally, I hope to bring into service the connections I have made with teachers across the country and what I have learned from them and their state organizations to build upon the phenomenal work that WAFLT is doing in service to you. I plan to lean on our current leadership to grow into the role and bring us all further along our own path of proficiency in professional growth.
