Reflecting on my responsibilities as National Language Teacher of the Year for 2020, I think I felt the need to see all that I'd accomplished and bring some closure to the experience. As much as I loved serving, I do feel a weight lifted from my shoulders! I am just thrilled to see Elena Kamenetzky carry the torch into 2021 and what I hope will be much brighter times for World Language teachers, learners, and the world as a whole. Many thanks to everyone who supported me during this past year and helped me meet the moment: ACTFL 2020 President Bridget Yaden, ACTFL Executive Director Howie Berman, ACTFL Education Director Paul Sandrock, outgoing ACTFL TOY Rebecca Aubrey, all my colleagues at Wellesley Public Schools (especially Department Head Tim Eagan!), my #langchat and #langbook virtual colleagues, and everyone at MaFLA & NECTFL who had my back from the very start.
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I will always be grateful to my department head Tim Eagan who encouraged me to write about my first experiences writing thematic units. At the time, I remember asking him, "Who on earth would want to read about this?" But what mattered most was that writing allowed me to think deeply about my process and give it shape. • “Gotta Catch ‘Em All: Reach Every Learner with High-Yield Strategies,” ACTFL’s The Language Educator, February/March 2020 • “To One’s Own Standards Be True” post on National Board’s blog The Standard, 2019
• Contributed to Path 2 Proficiency blog with three guest posts, 2017-2018 • “Going Deep with Novice Learners,” ACTFL’s The Language Educator, November 2017 • “Impactful ACTFL,” MaFLA Newsletter, End of Year 2016 • “Reinvigorating Teaching Toward a Student-Centered Classroom,” ACTFL’s The Language Educator, March 2015; also featured in The Marshall Memo, April 7, 2015
I did a trio of interviews for the We Teach Languages podcast in 2018 and 2019. I can't say enough about Stacey Margarita Johnson's generous, inquisitive spirit in running this production! She allowed me to dream big and talk to some of my teaching heroes live. Here they are: • Interviewed Jennifer Gonzalez of Cult of Pedagogy (see above!) about 4 of her beloved posts and how they apply to World Language teaching • Interviewed Kara Parker and Megan Smith of Creative Language Class blog about teaching for proficiency • Interviewed my Department Head Tim Eagan about professional development and working together Ashley Uyaguari of Inspired Proficiency (and also a MaFLA TOY!) interviewed me about two high-leverage teaching practices for two episodes of her awesome podcast:
Target language comprehensibility Building a target language discourse community Empowering Diverse Learners: Research-based Strategies for Success presented for ACTFL in April 2020. Access a pdf of the presentation.
Description: The ACTFL National Language Teacher of the Year shares effective strategies to engage and motivate students, combining language and culture to develop learners’ language performance. What makes this teacher’s learning tasks effective so learners become confident of what they can do with the language? These instructional strategies are applicable to all languages and all levels. Be inspired with new ideas and examples directly from the Teacher of the Year’s classroom. Our World is Changed, Our Goals are Not opening keynote presented for NFLC Virtual Summit in July 2020. Access a pdf of the presentation. Description: How do we keep our focus on what really matters in a time of change? Revisit your curriculum goals and identify those that truly have the potential to engage learners and grow proficiency. Join the 2020 ACTFL National Language Teacher of the Year LIVE on YouTube for an inspirational message to kick of the 2020 NFLC Virtual Summit. Show Me What You Can Do: Developing Contextualized Language Performances presented for Vista Higher Learning in April 2021. Description: If teaching for proficiency is all about what students can do with the language, then it's essential that assessments reflect this priority. Dig into the design and administration of interpersonal speaking and presentational writing assessments. Examine best practices for using performance rubrics to score student work and provide meaningful, timely feedback. Study real-life examples of performance assessments for hybrid and remote teaching contexts from the presenter's own middle school French classroom, adaptable to other levels and languages. “We’ll Always Have Paris:” Adapting Best Strategies to The New Now presented for NECTFL in May 2020. Access a pdf of the presentation. Description: Although COVID19 has turned our society upside down, we can still rely on our solid foundation of communicative tasks to maintain — or even build — students’ language proficiency during remote learning. This webinar will focus on adapting the interpretive and interpersonal tasks already in our toolbox to suit both synchronous and asynchronous teaching settings. Rebecca will focus on creating successful learning progressions that guide students from input to output. See how level-appropriate Can-Dos statements, varied authentic resources, non-verbal processing tasks, scaffolds, and “level ups” can bring students into real-world communication with confidence and success. Going Virtual with Interpersonal presented for MaFLA Virtual Core Practices in April 2020. Access a pdf of the presentation. Description: Let's get creative with the interpersonal mode as we engage our students in distance learning. After a brief overview of this most important mode of communication, we'll dive into some real-world tasks with authentic audience that allow students to: • Share how they're experiencing the current situation. • Engage with classmates using existing, established curriculum. •Take a break from screens while using their target language skills. Tasks for Purposeful Communication with MCTLC and Extempore in January 2021 Description: Compare Exercises, Activities and Tasks as defined by Bill VanPatten in While We're On The Topic and explore specific examples of Tasks in the World Language classroom. Co-presented with Megan Budke of MCTLC and Extempore. Healing the World with Languages presented for AFS-USA in June 2020. Description: Conversation about becoming a language teacher and using one's language skills to advocate for language-learning and multilingual people in the US. |
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