A confession: as a teacher, I feel like my well has run dry. There are only two more months left in my school year (last day of school for students is Wednesday, May 21), and if you are like me, you are dragging and are SO ready for things to be over. As a CI/ADI teacher, I hate this feeling, because I so want to continue giving understandable and engaging input to my students, but the reality is, I am TIRED and feel like I have nothing left to give.
This is why meaningful (note that word!) professional development is SO important for us as CI/ADI teachers, and recently I took part in two PDs, one online and one in-person. I attended the first evening's slate of sessions for Voces Digital's digital Spring into Reading conference, and then later that weekend I attended the Central States Conference on Teaching Foreign Language (CSCTFL). Both of these could not have come at a better time for me!!
I was only able to attend the first evening of the Voces Digital online conference, but there were some really good speakers that evening. Below are the videos from that evening:
All of the presentations were great! Although I had never seen Mike Peto present before, I had always heard great things about him - he did not disappoint!
Later that weekend, I attended my first Central States conference in Kansas City. This conference is nicknamed "The Friendly Conference," and indeed it was - much like my experience at Comprehensible Iowa last summer, Midwesterners indeed are friendly and hospitable! I had always heard that Central States always had a good slate of CI/ADI presentations, and indeed - it seemed like each session time had a CI/ADI presentation, and I did my best to attend as many as I could. Shout out to Mira Canion, Caitlyn McKinney, Valentina Correa, Carrie Toth, Jeremy Jordan, and Eric Richards for their sessions - you gave me so much to think about and to use in my curriculum. Mostly what I enjoyed was catching up/hanging out with other CI/ADI folks - people whom I primarily only see at conferences but we share such a deep mutual respect for each other. I needed definitely needed to be with folks all of whom we were on the same page pedagogically with CI/ADI. If you have the chance next year, attend Central States! I am seriously considering now submitting a proposal for next year's conference in Chicago.
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