So You've Just Come Back from Your 1st NTPRS/IFLT - Now What?

CI conference season has ended here in the US (it is about to begin in Agen, France), with both NTPRS and IFLT being huge successes. Perhaps the following scenario is you: This was your first time attending one of these conferences, and your mind has been totally blown away by everything which you learned and experienced. You also have a notebook full of great ideas from both presentations and lab observations which you are sifting through and trying to consolidate. You were coached for the first time in storytelling and asking questions, and as scary as it was, you made it through. You met so many dynamic people who share the same passion as you for teaching world languages and making connections with students. But now that you are home: now what?

I can totally relate to this, because after my first NTPRS conference in 2014, even though I had been implementing CI/TPRS for years, suddenly my mind had been completely expanded and blown away by everything which I had experienced during that week. Here are my suggestions to keep the ball rolling:

1. Take time to reflect of what you just experienced. After an experience like NTPRS or IFLT, it is common to experience some degree of letdown. Reflect on your experience though: what did you go in thinking NTPRS/IFLT would be like? Where were my expectations not met? Where were my expectations exceeded? What "a-ha" moments did you have? Where do you still have some misgivings about CI? What are some strategies which I can implement in my classroom? 
2. Find some type of CI professional learning community (PLC), either online or in person. This is key, since you cannot keep this up alone. Finding a CI PLC which meets face-to-face may be difficult depending on your area, but they do exist out there. I know of TCI Ohio and TCI Tri-States which meet on a semi-regular basis. If you cannot find something, organize one yourself! Online, there are so many CI PLC's on Facebook, such as IFLT/NTPRS/CI Teaching, and others which are language specific.
3. Find online resources such as blogs, podcasts, and vlogs. For me, outside of in-person conferences and presentations, blogs are my lifeline for learning more about CI. The list of CI blogs on the sidebar are a few places to begin. Most importantly, do not worry if the blog is is not for "your language," because CI implementation is CI implementation regardless of the language. As a Latin teacher, I cannot tell you how much I actually get from presentations by CI Spanish and French teachers. I am always floored by how many non-Latin teachers tell me that my blog (still written with Latin teachers in mind) has greatly helped them with their classroom.
4. Watch videos online. I had no idea that so many CI teachers out there had classroom videos - I just learned about it last week at IFLT 2019. Here are some:
1. Annabelle Williamson (lamaestraloca)  
2. Erica Peplinski
3. Another channel by Erica Peplinski
4. Tina Hardagan (CI Liftoff)
5. Follow CI teachers on social media. My only use of social media is Twitter (I do have a Facebook page which I had to create for professional purposes but I rarely use it), but I really do enjoy reading and interacting with tweets from these teachers.
6. Attend CI presentations at state/regional/national conferences. I know that at ACTFL, Fluency Matters always creates a list of CI-focused presentations for participants to look over. 
7. Collaborate, collaborate, collaborate. To be honest, you cannot do this journey alone. Find others with whom you can collaborate on lessons, either in person or online.
8. Expect to feel like a first-year teacher when implementing CI in the beginning, so take your time. I am not of the mindset of "all in or nothing" when it comes to using CI, because that is how I started out years ago and burned out after 6 weeks. I had no idea where I was going, since I did not have a strong enough foundation. My advice: take a few CI strategies/activities and run with them until you feel confident to add more. It is okay to do a hybrid CI/whatever until you feel like you can do more. 
9. Give yourself permission to fail. Great CI teachers did not just come out of a box like that. Believe me, I still fail as a "veteran" CI teacher (note the quotation marks implying doubt) on a daily basis. I also tell myself "Well, tomorrow is another day" (didn't Scarlett O'Hara say something like that?). I have seen too many novice CI teachers experience a "failing" moment with CI, then blame CI as the reason, and then leave it all behind. 
10. Always be hungry to learn more about CI. This week at IFLT, there was a particular session which I wanted to attend, and when I walked in, the presenter said to me, "Wow, what are you doing here? You know all of this." I think I replied something like, "That does not mean that I still don't have more to learn on the topic." And I did walk away from the session with a number of strategies which I now plan to implement!

So to all of you for whom this past NTPRS or IFLT was your first CI conference, I am so excited for all of you - here is to the journey!