Summer 2020 Professional Development Opportunities for World Language Teachers

I have a confession to make – I love professional development.

And when I say professional development, I don’t mean those weekly (or daily!) after school meetings that many of us are forced to endure, with content that is often unhelpful or irrelevant to world language teachers.

I’m talking about good PD, those sessions that leave you furiously scribbling down notes, or even better, completely enthralled by the speaker and/or the subject that you forego taking notes entirely. The kind of professional development that gets you excited about the positive changes and innovations you can make in your language classes moving forward.

I know I’m not the only one always on the lookout for relevant PD, so here’s a list of professional development opportunities for world language teachers that I’ve come across, and/or participated in. If you’ve engaged in any of the opportunities listed, please share your feedback in the comments! The world language teacher community would definitely benefit from hearing about your experiences. Likewise, if there are valuable professional development opportunities that are missing, please let me know so I can add them.

The opportunities are listed roughly in ascending date order, so the ones happening sooner are the ones you’ll learn about first.

TPRS ONLINE WORKSHOP

Jun 8-11, 2020

Learn all about Teaching Proficiency Through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS) through this 4-day workshop led by the method’s creator, Blaine Ray.

Workshop topics include demonstrations techniques for optimizing comprehensible input, learning to understand, read, write and speak a new language, and strategies for teaching stories.

WORLD LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY PROJECT 2020 SUMMER INSTITUTES

Jun 8-12; Jun 15-19; Jul 20-24; Jul 27-31, 2020

The World Language Proficiency Project offers a week-long training on world language teaching systems that build proficiency, cross-curricular literacy, content knowledge, and student engagement. The Summer Institutes are designed to help teachers develop a solid plan to structure the year, sequence learning activities, select topics and themes, and assess student growth.

The Institute will be hosted four times in the summer, accommodating both EST and MST time zones. Participants can choose between two strands: People, Places, and Stories (Description and Narration) or Cultures, History, and Issues (Information and Opinion/Argument).

CARLA SUMMER 2020 INSTITUTES FOR LANGUAGE TEACHERS

Jun 22-Jul 21, 2020

The Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) at the University of Minnesota will offer a number of synchronous and asynchronous workshops that will last between 1 and 5 weeks during the summer.

Courses include Teaching Language Through the Lens of Social Justice, Creativity in the Language Classroom, Meaningful Portfolio Implementation, and Culture as the Core in the Second Language Classroom.

OWL VIRTUAL SYMPOSIUM

Jun 23-26; Jul 14-17; Aug 4-7, 2020

Organic World Language offers a week-long workshop where teachers learn to implement a proficiency based, student-directed learning environment. The four day experience focuses on the whole teacher and student through Social and Emotional Learning practices, experiential learning of OWL methods and strategies, and implementation of an immersive environment, multiliteracies, and community in the classroom. The workshop is offered once in June, July, and August.

Workshop sessions include Assessment and Feedback for Language Teachers, Virtual or Social Distancing Engagement for World Language Teachers, and Games and Activities for Language Growth.

IDIOMA EDUCATION AND CONSULTING

Jun 29-Aug 6; Jul 13-Aug 21, 2020

Idioma offers a variety of workshops and courses in seven languages other than English, and you can choose between both self-paced and live options. The courses are offered either from 6/29-8/6 or from 7/13-8/21, so be sure to check the dates of each course so you can register in time.

Course options include Novice-Level Novels to Enhance Communication in the French Classroom, From Classic Stories to the Big Screen: Using Animated Film to Teach Italian, and Teaching Spanish Grammar as a Concept in Context.

EXPRESS FLUENCY CONFERENCE IN THE CLOUD

Jul 13-17, 2020

Express Fluency will offer workshops during this week-long conference that focus on teaching language with acquisition-driven strategies. This is perfect for CI/TPRS world language teachers.

Workshop topics include Comprehensible Input 101 for Beginners, Authentic Resources, and Curriculum and Assessment for Distance Learning.

NYSAFLT SUMMER INSTITUTE

Jul 30-Aug 11, 2020

The New York State Association of Foreign Language Teachers (NYSAFLT) offer 2-3 workshops daily throughout the 2.5 weeks of its Summer Institute. It is open to teachers outside of NY, just note that some of the workshops will cover content specific to New York State.

Course options include Hooked! Teaching Like a World Language Pirate, They CAN Understand It: Classroom Management in the Target Language, and Using YouTube and Music as a Resource for Authentic Language.

What professional development opportunity will you pursue this summer? Let me know in the comments!

Until next time, keep living + learning 💙