NEW CASTLE - Foreign language teacher Cheryl Berman has been honored not once, but twice this year.

And one of her awards will send her to Paris in July to take classes at the Louvre Museum.

At the Maude H. Trefethen School, Berman teaches Spanish to children in kindergarten through Grade 2; and French to children in Grades 3-6.

At Newington Elementary School, she teaches Spanish for Grades 3-6.

"There is a lot of research to show that teaching foreign languages to children is easier the younger they are," said Berman. "They are uninhibited and open. With the smaller ones, we do no writing. They learn by word association and sign language. They are sponges."

Berman got her opportunity to attend a two-week course at the Louvre after learning about the program through a colleague.

"She sent me an e-mail last year, but I was already booked for the time period in the summer," she said.

Berman facilitates a three-week summer language immersion program open to all area children. She teaches Spanish one week, and French and world cultures the other two weeks.

"I hung on to the information and watched for it this year," said Berman.

She said, in order to be considered, she had to create a curriculum vitae and write an essay explaining how the course would aid her locally. She said applicants had to beteachers of French with at least a bachelor's degree, and that 20 applicants were selected for the program.

Berman will be staying with a friend in Paris, saving the cost of a hotel room. The goal of the course is to find ways to meld language and art.

"At the end of the first week, we pick one piece of art to create a lesson plan for," she said. "At the end of the second week, all 20 plans are presented and then we get a portfolio of all the plans."

Berman will also attend the Northeast Conference for Teachers of Foreign Languages in New York City Thursday-Saturday. She was named one of four recipients of the NECTFL Mead Fellows Leadership Program Award.

The award is presented annually to teachers who submit a proposal for a project they want to put in action in their school or school district. Berman's proposal is to design a comprehensive "linguafolio" for all foreign language students that connects to state and national standards, as well as the state's "Follow the Child" initiative.

"A linguafolio is like a portfolio for each individual," said Berman. "It will track their progress through sixth grade here and then can be sent on with them to their seventh-grade teachers so they know the child's strengths."

She said the linquafolios would provide information about languages learned at home or places to which students have traveled."

Berman said she will have a mentor in New York to help her set up the plans.