Returning Back to Work

I return back to work tomorrow for pre-planning. I cannot believe that my summer vacation is over – these past two months have gone by very quickly. At the same time, it was a very full summer. I took two online graduate courses for my Ed.D. program in Instructional Technology (one course was on Digital Citizenship, and the other was on Managing Data Systems in a District – I ended up getting A’s in both!); attended two conferences (ACL Summer Institute and IFLT), where I presented at both; and managed to squeeze in a trip to Disney World before IFLT and then a trip to CA after IFLT to visit family. As packed as my summer was, in many ways, I feel like my summer vacation just started.

However, I am ready to be back to work. As I look back at the blog post which I wrote two months ago at the end of theschool year, I can sense just how physically and mentally exhausted I was when I wrote that. One of the things which I mention is that I was looking forward to the summer to have time away from students in order to recharge my batteries. Well, the time away from work and students did its job, because I certainly do feel ready for the school year.

My time at IFLT has played a HUGE part in this. Even though I had a larger role in leadership at the conference as a sub-cohort leader, coach, and presenter, I still received so much out of my time there as a participant. Seeing Linda Li teach a Mandarin class again (with me taking a part in it) showed me afresh how to deliver CI in a language class – people tease me that after Krashen, I am Linda Li’s biggest fan! Mostly, for me, however, being in an environment where I did not have to defend myself pedagogically, and where the presenters and lab teachers humbly gave of themselves to help others become better CI teachers (may I eventually display that level of humility) has so motivated me for this school year. I challenge all of you to attend a NTPRS or an IFLT, because although one can learn much about CI from conference presentations, in-services, and blogs, there is NOTHING like experiencing it in person in a weeklong, immersive environment.

So to those of you who still have a month of summer vacation left, enjoy it! I am ready to be back at school!