Professional Learning Opportunities

This session focuses on strategies to integrate diverse perspectives and lesser-told stories into the social studies curriculum. Participants will explore ways to engage students through empathetic learning approaches and inclusive instructional practices. Practical resources and examples will support educators in creating a more representative and meaningful classroom experience. Lunch on your own

Which languages do you speak? Let's expand this question to include the valuable skills of listening and negotiating meaning, because if someone speaks, the assumption is that others listen to them and understand them. In this session, participants will: (1) experience engaging ways to develop their students' world language production and comprehension skills - and therefore their overall communicative competence - in the interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational modes of communication and (2) learn to use backward design to start with summative assessments via performance tasks and work backward to the daily plans for teaching students how to engage in speaking and listening through debates, oral interviews, role plays, oral presentations, storytelling, guided and spontaneous conversations in pairs or small groups, and more.

Whether you are afraid that AI will replace you as a world language teacher, excited about all the AI tools out there to save you time and inspire you in your efforts, or somewhere in-between, this session is for you! We will engage in conversation and show-and-tell regarding the ways in which you are currently using Artificial Intelligence in the World Language classroom, with plenty of time for asking each other questions and diving deeper into both the opportunities and challenges presented by new AI tools for teaching and learning World Languages.

Americans have always looked beyond their own borders. Nevertheless, the Founders advised Americans to steer clear of foreign quarrels. This seminar will examine how the tension between these two tendencies has played out through the history of the United States. This program will be conducted as a Socratic discussion, utilizing primary source documents as the only readings, and with the Discussion Leader facilitating the conversation instead of lecturing or presenting. Registrants, therefore, are highly encouraged to read all the documents in advance and come ready with questions.