KWLA wrap-up

KWLA conference as usual was fantastic. It's always nice to hang out with other World Language teachers to share ideas and re-inspire each other. Here's my wrap-up for 2014's conference!

I presented my own session first thing this year on Classroom Management in the Target Language (click the link to view the prezi.) It was so crowded we had to ask for extra chairs and there was still people standing.

My first session other than my own was the "NNELL session: New JCPS Elem WL Curriculum" with Jacque Van Houten and other presenters. They went over how they put together the curriculum and how they envision it in use. What I really liked was how they specifically addressed the question of students coming in and out of your program. And while it is designed with 90 minutes of instruction in mind (key to making proficiency gains) there are easy ways to adjust it for schools that get less than that (which is nearly all of us!) They recycle the same units each year but go deeper each time. AND they also incorporate the new interculturality standards that are now a part of the Kentucky WL standards. If you haven't checked these documents out definitely do so!

I finished Friday out with "Teach Really Well land Still Have Time for a Life." This session was full of great ideas for using technology in the class but a lot of them were geared towards high school or schools that have BYOD. I did decide during this session that my upcoming 90% And More Challenge between classes in 3rd-5th grade could be tracked using ClassDojo.

I ended Friday at the Wine and Cheese reception and then dinner with my northern KY peeps at Shakespeare & Co.

Saturday I was up early and had to decide between "Integration of Arts & Humanities & WL" with Alfonso De Torres or "Student Projects in the Target Language." After a game of janken, Japanese teacher and friend Eric and I ended in Student Projects. (Also I had already seen Alfonso's presentation this summer during my week of flamenco PD with the Kentucky Center.) Most of their ideas were also high school centric (the woes of being an elementary teacher!) but a lot of them could be adapted. I remembered my idea to do something with post cards this year.

Next up was "Teach Bell to Bell not Yell to Yell" with @TNSpanish aka Meredith White. It was another classroom management session and just like mine it was packed. Clearly management is an issue for us all. She had great ideas on organization and classroom set up. For example, put all of your supplies in the BACK of the class so you aren't having students constantly up front with you interrupting your instruction. She also advised us to think about our "hot spots" or what makes us crazy and then figure out a solution and fix it. We deserve to teach peacefully and our students deserve a peaceful atmosphere in which to learn.

I finished the conference with Meredith again in "What's the Story? Creating Engaging and Reusable Strategies for Vocabulary Input." This workshop was all about how to use story telling to introduce and reinforce vocabulary. She also showed the technical side on how to find pictures, crop them, and photo shop them into power point to make engaging and personalized stories for your classes. Did I write a story for my upcoming feelings unit? Why yes, yes I did.

@tmsaue1 I think organization, engagement, & confidence are the issues and they all roll up into mgt #kwla
— Jen Ken (@Sra_Kennedy) September 20, 2014

I also love being on social media during the conference. I found a bunch of new people to follow on Twitter and even discussed sessions with people in my session and sometimes with people not present. If you aren't on Twitter I highly suggest trying it out. You can follow me @sra_kennedy and/or use #FLESchat and #langchat to find new ideas and colleagues to collaborate with.

So that's it! Another great conference. I came back on Monday ready to teach to proficiency and in the target language - and some classes have already gotten up to 100%!