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Twenty five teachers from various Lithuanian Schools in the US participated and were trained by two Lithuanian language teaching and assessing specialists from Vilnius University Linguistics Department in Lithuania, Joana Pribusauskaite and Rita Migauskiene. There were two separate workshops offered during the seminar: one for the teachers participating for the first time, and other - for the returning specialists who have tested students previously. Boston Lithuanian School principal Gailute Urbonate-Narkeviciene opened the seminar Friday morning with inspiring words: "Students that receive such certificates represent Lithuania - it is the main idea giving purpose to our work. The Kazickas Family Foundation and I hope that more and more people will learn to understand Lithuanian language proficiency levels, ways to differentiate them and how to assess the students. The more that knowledge is spread around, the more Lithuania's name is shared with the world. We and our students aim to become global ambassadors of Lithuania and its language."

Lecturers J. Pribusauskaite and R. Migauskiene, who have a lot of experience working with the foreigners, American Lithuanians, individuals of Lithuanian descent, shared the history of test preparation and how such system was created, mentioned the novelty this year - two types of tests, one for the youth, the other for the adults. They introduced the goal of this seminar - to learn how to assess the same way. It means that an individual taking the test has to be evaluated according to the same criteria regardless who is testing and where he or she is taking the test - would it be in Chicago, Washington or Boston. First, proficiency levels were explained and participants were assigned the first task - to recognize what level was described in the provided description. It turns out, it is a lot more difficult to recognize it in practice, participants had many different opinions and discussion continued throughout the break. Later on teachers were introduced to the test, its structure, rules, instructions, course, and most importantly, its assessment scale. Participants were able to test newly acquired skills - after observing visual data, discussion with arguments started that was resolved quickly with some help from the lecturers. Marija Dainiene from Lithuanian School of Washington shared: "Seminar is really valuable and necessary because young people living in the USA want to know their Lithuanian language proficiency level. We, the teachers, have an opportunity to refresh our skills, to expand our knowledge in understanding the distinctions between the language levels and their charasteristics, and once more to verify our expertise. Seminar gathered together teachers that work for the same goal - to preserve and cherish Lithuanian language while living abroad. Seminar's lecturers - real professionals and experts in their field, highly experienced how to share their knowledge in a very short, effective and exciting way."

Saturday morning teachers who have been trained previously joined the participants new this year and together they all arrived at the Boston Lithuanian school where they not just continued their training but also got to know school's students, teachers and joined them for January 13th memorial. During the seminar's second day teachers were able to test their assessing skills. Later on they reviewed, evaluated and discussed their issues and advantages in groups. Participants shared how testing makes them feel and lecturers were proud of everyone's hard wprk. Ausra Covalesky from Dr. V. Kudirka Lithuanian School in Elizabeth, New Jersey, described seminar as "perfect opportunity to remember and refresh our skills, to extend the experience already gained. Lecturers offered many valuable assignments, we had a chance to clarify all the issues. And, of course, it was great to see old colleagues and share the experience."

Last day, Sunday, was for making sure participants were proficient in their newly learned skills: they had to pass the test and everyone became assessment experts. At the end of the seminar teachers were excited to share their experience, take pictures and everyone received the certificates. Vincas Kreve School teacher from Philadelphia Rimante Navickaite shared that this seminar met her expectations, everything was interesting, important and useful, and because language studies are her specialty, everything about the language is really exciting to her. According to Lina Tumusoniene from Maironis Lithuanian School in Lemont, Illinois. "such steps of the Kazickas Family Foundation and especially the Ministry of Education and Science show that Lithuanian language education abroad is taken seriously. I've always strived and always will strive to accomplish certain academic level at school, I try to encoiurage my students to set learning Lithuanian language as an academic goal; I'd like them to understand the system itself and to coprehend that by studying it in a consistent and sequential order, they can become proficient, whih is way beyond "kitchen" language used at home. Seminar raised teachers to a higer - examiner's - level." Danguole Senuta from Boston Lithuanian school who participated at such seminar for the third time already, shared: "I'm impressed by the systematic high quality work and how professional and challenging lecturers are. Every year I feel stronger and more qualified to assess students. I realize the importance of organizing such seminar yearly to refresh the skills, a lot is forgotten during the year. They are also valuable because we get to meet specialists from other schools, we expand our professional circle and learn about the work of other Lithuanian language schools."

After gaining new skills, seeing old colleagues and making new friendships, participants rushed to the airport. They went home where they will continue enhancing their Lithuanian language proficiency level assessment skills during the March 17th test. Since the very first trial test, number of students taking the test grew almost 7 times and organizers hope that even more people will show interest in checking their proficiency level.

Text: Gaile Budvytyte, Boston Lithuanian School teacher intern

Photo above: Seminar participants in Boston 2018; photo courtesy of Aidas Jakubenas

Photos bellow: Moments from the seminar; photos courtesy of Gaile Budvytyte