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Fall Conference Frenzy! (part 2) #TFLA15 #FLAM15 #STARTALK15 #ICTFL15

Published by SraSpanglish on

I got to enjoy my own state conference, but that’s it for me this semester. Fortunately, the conferency goodness did not end with KWLA, IWLA, and EdcampWL, and I can keep learning from my tweecher peers online (and imagining myself in the selfies, right, Mme. Farabaugh?)

Please take selfies at #ACTFL15 for me! And, you know, maybe edit me in!

I like how #STARTALK15 focused on motivation and making kids want to learn–and moreover making teachers want to help students want to learn. Whether it’s stories or feedback, it’s about making language learning worth it and possible.

One of these days, I may have to conference in the land of my birth. In the meantime, I’m signed up for CSCTFL so I can at least be among my fellow Missourians if not on native soil. And of course I followed #FLAM15 fanatically.

There is NO ONE who marries Project-Based Learning and Comprehensible Input like Carrie Toth (unless maybe it’s Kristy Placido…whose blogging I miss 🙁 …) Students should be changing the world with their language learning! Video contests to help real people gives language PURPOSE and cultivates a sense of community and soul for service! But even if your students aren’t getting clean water to impoverished Central American communities, like Sra. Toth’s, you can ALWAYS keep doing better for your students, bit by bit!

Seems like I was just in Texas last year…oh wait…Still, it looks like #TFLA15 was a #langchat POWERHOUSE, and it made me lonely for my amigos! Special thanks to #langchat mod @SECottrell of Musicuentos for tweeting some early language tips for our elementary amigos. @FriEDtechnology kept the keynote focused on MEANINGFUL learning, on keeping kids involved by doing something that MATTERS (I’m sensing a keynote theme here…) You can also check out some links to tips for going textbookless and questioning your way to proficiency. Also be sure to keep the brain in the back of your…brain? when lesson planning and dig into some fun brain breaks. And don’t forget the music!

It turns out that all of the tweeting was really happening at #ICTFL15, and why not? @SenoraCMT , @WescottSpanish,@miprofeAP, and @adsamples know where it’s at! Authenticity and purposeful struggle were the order of the day in workshops. Day 1 of sessions it was time for some intercultural introspection on how to get kids really connected with cultures outside their own–with questions, stories, and emotion. Also how many ways can you think of to retell a story? Did you ever consider a paper chain? Or creating infographics? Or a game of dominos? And how does learning actually flow? It’s really more of a cycle than a line! And as Amy Lenord, the Language Coach has been telling us for years, we really need to be coaches who focus on the positive and push our students toward goals, rather than the disciplinarian of the past that discouraged all but the best and brightest.

Thank you so much to everyone tweeting from their local conferences for all of us to learn! Please remember us little people when you are living it up in San Diego! And, you know, maybe leave room in some selfies for a quick photoshop for your friends!

Categories: PDPLN

SraSpanglish

Laura Sexton is a passion-driven, project-based language educator in Gastonia, North Carolina. She loves sharing Ideas for integrating Project-Based Learning in the world language classroom, including example projects, lessons, assessment tips, driving questions, and reflection.