Fall Conference Frenzy! #KWLA15, #edcampWL, #IWLA15
Don’t you wish you could go to ALL of them? I mean, you’d miss your kids after a couple, but you’d get a rare chance to be around your #langchat tweeps–people who really get you! In the flesh! But even if you could handle all the travel, you know neither the school budget–nor your own–could last past number two.
Still, if you can’t be there, at least you have a loving PLN who will still pass on great ideas for you via Twitter!
#KWLA15 and ACTFL ToY @NicoleNaditz reminded me to think Big Picture in all I do with my classes. After the Comprehensible Input sessions, I’ve still got exploring Movie Talks on my pedagogical bucket list and some more ideas on how to find accessible authentic texts for my kiddos. @SECottrell and @tmsaue1 are also starting to help reshape my lesson landscape to better match the paths of the brain.
I have ALWAYS wanted to go to an edcamp just for language teachers, but the 13-hour car ride to #edcampWL was a little more than I was ready for. Even if I didn’t get to see my amigos, I still got some tips on engaging the local community an sticking to the target language, plus a few techy tips.
#IWLA15 was the language teacher twittersphere Shangri-La if the tweets are to be believed! Two days of non-stop inspiration. My fellow Laura Catherine, @SenoraLauraCG, and had about a zillion musical ideas to steal, and @SraWienhold had about a zillion more! @Profeklein had some really cool ways to engage students with stories. The ever effervescent @SenorG reminded us how important language is in the real world, and how our classes must BE the real world before @SraDentlinger shared ways we can actually connect with the world–the whole world–through social media.
AND THAT’S JUST DAY 1!
Once again, Comprehensible Input was the name of the game on Day 2 and @SenorG gave us some ideas to hook students with culture while @km_york showed us how to hook them with relationships and relevance.
I hear #TFLA15 is coming up soon and not to be missed. Myself, I’m getting pumped for FLANC in a couple of weeks, where I’ll be presenting Less Is More. I’m counting on my tweeting amigos to keep me in the know for ACTFL, though, because I just couldn’t swing San Diego this year.
So keep tweeting, amigos!
