Voces is hosting its second-ever virtual conference! This conference will focus on a season of breakthroughs, because what a season of breakthroughs it has been—for you, for us, for the world!

As educators and front-line workers, you have reached new heights, reached more students, and found new and creative ways to teach. This conference is about honoring those breakthroughs and supporting you as you search for more.

March 1-12, All Virtual $50.00 Registration Fee ~ Free to All Voces Subscribers

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The Voces Spring Conference is unique in that we want everyone to have a reason to attend and be able to attend! With that in mind…

• The conference is free to anyone with a current Voces subscription.
• If you don't have a subscription, registration is $50.00. However, if you pay the registration fee and subscribe to Voces either during or after the conference, we will refund your registration fee in full.
• All sessions will be recorded and available to registrants afterwards, forever.
• There will be raffles and trivia with prizes for those who attend in person!
• There will be sessions benefiting all Voces titles and series, and sessions benefiting language teachers, even if you don't use Voces.
• Sessions will be held on weekday evenings and the weekend, spanning March 1-12.

Yes, we understand: You have lives, you have jobs, and you have an interest in professional development, and you shouldn't have to choose!

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Presenters
Our presenters are a diverse group of educators, some of whom are familiar faces and some of whom may be new, and all of whom have something to share about Voces, about language teaching, and about being our best. Learn more about our presenters here.

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Schedule
The schedule is still taking shape, but here's a peek at what we have in store:
(*All times are Eastern Time)

Monday, March 1
6:00pm ET	A Season of Breakthroughs Presenter: Erin Almeranti	In this opening session, we reflect on the year behind us, the challenges we've had, and the breakthroughs we've made! Download Presentation
7:00pm ET	Let Our Story Help Your Students Find Success in 2021 Presenter: Gary DiBianca	How will students fare when we're back in the classroom? In language classes, by accepting students' proficiency levels and working to support language acquisition, we can ease students' re-entry. Let Nuestra historia/Notre histoire/Nostra storia—story-based, pre-AP® curricula—be your guide. These online curricula support students with meaningful Comprehensible Input, and allow teachers to scaffold lessons, building each student's proficiency level in a just and equitable way for a brighter future. Watch the Recording Download Presentation

Tuesday, March 2
6:00pm ET	Welcome to Voces! A Beginner's Guide and Review Presenter: David Wilson	Join David for an overview of the many features and tools we offer! He will cover how to navigate through Voces, set up your classes, assign and grade pages, use an LMS link, and customize your title. This session will cover everything you need to know to get started using Voces in your class, and introduce some of the tools explored in our other discussions. Download Presentation
7:00pm ET	Student View Basics: From Setup to Troubleshooting Presenter: David Wilson	Learn how to get your students started and using Voces effectively. We will set up temporary student accounts to explore the differences between a teacher's account and a student's account. We will also see and solve some common student issues so that you can keep Voces running smoothly in your classroom. Watch the Recording Download Presentation

Wednesday, March 3
6:00pm ET	All About Editing, Creating, and Sharing Presenter: Erin Almeranti	Learn about the Voces editor, including the Quick Edit tool, and find out how to build your own activities and content anywhere in Voces. You will also learn how to share content and collaborate with colleagues and other Voces users. Watch the Recording Download Presentation
7:00pm ET	All About Assigning Presenter: Kelsey Lewandowski	In this session, you'll learn everything there is to know about assigning work to your students. A live demonstration will include how to assign work to full classes or specific students. You'll also see how to use the assignment parameters to make your assignments more or less formal. Kelsey will also cover folders, differentiation tools, and the student view for new assignments. Watch the Recording Download Presentation

Thursday, March 4
6:00pm ET	Story Script 101 Presenter: Anna Porto	Starting to create "Class Stories" with your class? Looking for an effective way to provide comprehensible input? Trying to engage students in a compelling way? Before you begin, here are some tips for having a great Comprehensible Input (CI) class story that your students will love. This presentation is for teachers that are starting their adventure with CI and storytelling. Watch the Recording Download Presentation
7:00pm ET	Before We Read Presenter: Bryan Kandel	Stories, articles, and other texts make up much of the Voces Digital curriculum. Most teachers agree that reading is essential to proficiency growth. However, reading can be a challenge in a world language class, especially with difficult texts. What we do before we read a text can make the experience much more enjoyable and effective. In this session, we'll explore strategies for preparing students to read. We will look at techniques for internalizing key vocabulary, reducing intimidation, and increasing comprehension. Watch the Recording Download Presentation

Friday, March 5
4:00pm ET	Virtual Happy Hour with Voces Developers	Join Kris and Erin for conversation, games (with prizes!), and demonstrations. Our weekly virtual happy hours have been important to many teachers throughout the pandemic, and we'd love to see new faces and share the positive energy with you!
5:00pm ET	Using Schoology: I didn’t know you could do that! Presenter: Michelle Bloom-Scheff	There are many sweet features included in Schoology that a lot of teachers aren’t familiar with. During this session, we will cover some topics such as: Creating groups for grading and discussions. Assigning quizzes to individual students or groups of students. Ways of organizing your materials and sharing it with other teachers. Ideas for grade setup, including narrative comments in the place of number grades. Ways to view grades and make edits as necessary, including bulk editing. Creating your own grade scales and rubrics. Printing/creating PDFs of grade reports to give to students/send to families. A few non-traditional types of assignments/quizzes that you can make within Schoology. Watch the Recording Download Notes
6:00pm ET	Building Classroom Culture with Questions Presenter: Señor Jordan/Jeremy Jordan	Join YouTube's Señor Jordan as he discusses how to build a classroom culture where students feel valued. By incorporating Personalized Questions and Answers (PQA), teachers can tailor conversation to students and their lives so they actually can become part of your curriculum. Examples will be in English or Spanish but could be applicable to any language. Watch the Recording Download Notes

Saturday, March 6
9:00am ET	Cooking Virtually in the World Language Classroom Presenter: Dan Kraiza	Turn your remote classroom into a live cooking show! Learn how to engage both student and teacher by incorporating the 5 C's into a lesson on culture by demonstrating how to cook a dish from your TL culture. Bring your appetite, plan your culinary adventure, and cook along with us. Watch the Recording Download Presentation
10:00am ET	All About Authentic Materials Presenter: Stacia Ford	We know that our students need a lot of practice so that they will be able to read and listen to authentic materials in the target language and understand them. However, selecting readings and videos matching their skill level can be difficult. Voces Novice has the work done for you with lots of authentic materials, but if your students need more practice, how can you find level-appropriate authentic materials and create meaningful activities to scaffold their understanding? Come to this webinar to build your own activities around an authentic reading or video that you have already chosen. Watch the Recording Download Presentation
11:00am ET	Teaching Grammar with Voces Presenter: Kayla Cousineau	This session will provide guidance for teachers who aren't quite sure where to start or how to approach teaching grammar, particularly at the novice level. It will provide ideas for direct instruction, as well as student engagement through easy-to-adapt games, websites, and apps. Watch the Recording Download Presentation
12:00pm ET	Input and Interaction: Quality Content and Questioning Presenter: Profe Loco/Kyle Carr	Virtually all second language acquisition researchers agree that input is essential for acquiring language. In this presentation, I will focus on techniques for providing quality input (content), but a greater focus will be on interaction. How do we make sure that the content we provide is actually engaged with? That is where interaction comes in. For students to interact with input, we need some solid questioning techniques with our content and stories that we provide through input. Watch the Recording Download Presentation
1:00pm ET	Student Exploration of Products, Practices, and Perspectives Presenter: Gayla Martens	Create opportunities linked in Voces for students to explore a country-specific product. Encourage students to discuss the practice and perspective of that particular product, as well as comparing and contrasting their findings to their own culture. Watch the Recording Download Presentation
2:00pm ET	Communicative Tasks and IPAs Presenter: Darah Harper	Communicative Tasks and IPAs: what are they, how can you incorporate them into your curriculum and use them effectively to assess your students. This workshop will take a look at the myriad of both Communicative Tasks and IPAs already embedded in the Voces books. Special focus will be on the Notre histoire, but the ideas will apply to all Voces texts. In addition to the Voces resources, we will look at how to set your students up for success through pre-assessment, scaffolding, and preparation. Watch the Recording Download Presentation
3:00pm ET	Making Life a Little Less Crazy: Tips and Tricks for Teaching in These Crazy Times Presenter: Michelle Bloom-Scheff	Are you looking for some life hacks to make teaching less stressful while helping your students be successful? In this session, learn some of the strategies Michelle uses with Voces as well as some things that will just make teaching smoother in general. She will discuss remote learning vs. teaching in the classroom, organizational techniques, setting priorities, and how to take it all in stride. Watch the Recording Download Notes
4:00pm ET	Picture this! Bringing stories to life with pictures! Presenter: Sandy Lewis	Stories are always better with pictures, and pictures help the Voces stories pop of the page! From drawing programs to the internet, Sandy will show some different ways to acquire pictures for the stories, and then show different ways to incorporate pictures into everything Voces! Watch the Recording Download Presentation

Sunday, March 7
2:00pm ET	Ideas for Assessments Presenter: Allynn Lodge	This workshop explores different approaches to assessing students. We will briefly look at the assessment opportunities that are already built into the book, and explore how to create original assignments that are inspired by the book's content. The session will also touch on what types of assignments teachers collect for a grade, how grade books can be configured, and how to use and adapt rubrics. Watch the Recording View Resources
3:00pm ET	How CI Teaches Intercultural Competence Presenter: Rachel Emery	Intercultural Competence is, in part, the ability to navigate cross-cultural experiences. Learn how you are already teaching these intercultural skills in your CI classroom, and how to address them more deliberately in the future. Watch the Recording Download Presentation
4:00pm ET	All Together (and) Different Presenter: Bryan Kandel	As world language teachers, we are often faced with classes that are filled with students at varying proficiency levels. They may come from different backgrounds, classes, or learning situations (face to face, remote, hybrid). Now more than ever, we must find a way to provide opportunities for growth to students who are not starting on the same page. Is it possible? How do we do it? In this session, we'll explore strategies for using Voces materials and other strategies to handle this challenge. Watch the Recording Download Presentation
5:00pm ET	What's So Super About Súper Lápiz? Presenter: Señor Jordan/Jeremy Jordan	Learn how to soar with your students while using the Súper Lápiz level 1 series. This session will include ideas for personalization, discussion, and tips and tricks to get even more out of the episodes while having a SUPER time. Watch the Recording Download Notes
6:00pm ET	To the Community and Beyond! Presenter: Nicole Hartung	In this session, we will explore ways to utilize the "In my community" component in Nuestra historia, Notre histoire, and Nostra storia to cultivate connections with the community and the globalized world. How can the community challenges found in each unit spark student interest, and engage them in meaningful work and impactful projects? Watch the Recording Download Presentation

Monday, March 8
6:00pm ET	Grading Assignments with Voces Presenter: Kelsey Lewandowski	Join us for a detailed look at the Grading and Results portal in Voces. Kelsey will show you how to adjust auto-graded activities, manage teacher-graded assignments, and generate grade reports. We'll also take a look at how to leave feedback, and how students view that feedback. Watch the Recording Download Presentation
7:00pm ET	Let's Chat: Simple Ways for Your Class to Get to Know Each Other Presenter: Eric Richards	In this session, you will learn simple (and quick) ways to engage your students in the target language in a way that they (and you!) get to know each other. As your class gets acquainted with one another, a classroom culture of respect and understanding naturally comes about. These activities are flexible. They can be used as warm-ups or implemented at any time during instruction. They can also be tailored to fit any topic or unit or simply used as a way to "chat" and get to know each other better and build a better atmosphere in the classroom. Watch the Recording Download Presentation

Tuesday, March 9
6:00pm ET	Pear Deck with PQA Presenter: Kara Jacobs	Before delving into a story, a chapter, or a novel, PQA (Personalized Questions and Answers) are so important, engaging, and personalized. But how do you get all students to answer questions? Pear Deck! This tech tool can be used when teaching remotely, hybrid, and/or good old-fashioned face-to-face teaching. This session will share how to use PQA and Pear Deck. Participants will act as students to fully understand how to use PQA with Pear Deck. Watch the Recording Download Presentation
7:00pm ET	Let's Play Presenter: Bryan Kandel	Games are a great way to provide input to students, review key components of class, and increase class engagement. In this session, we’ll explore, demonstrate, and play some games that work well in language classes. We’ll also discuss how to most effectively use games and maintain student engagement. We will use units from Voces as examples, but most of the games can be applied to any situation. Watch the Recording Download Presentation

Wednesday, March 10
6:00pm ET	Voces and the Sustainable Development Goals: Together They Will Rock Your World Presenter: Karen Clarke	Inspire your students as global learners. Empower them as global citizens. Discover how to deepen learning and intercultural awareness through student-driven storytelling and inquiry-action projects that use the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals as a lens for interpreting the wide variety of cultural, geographic, and environmental texts in all Voces titles. Watch the Recording Download Presentation Sustainable Development Goals Document for Gathering Voces Resources and Experiences
7:00pm ET	Simplify Your Teaching Presenter: Allynn Lodge	This workshop is geared toward the overworked teacher who is trying to balance the demands of the school year and still have a life. This session will provide an overarching framework for lesson planning and will feature some no-prep and low-prep ideas and activities that teachers can begin implementing immediately. An opportunity will also be given for attendees to connect and share ideas with one another during a breakout session. Watch the Recording Download Presentation

Thursday, March 11
6:00pm ET	The Balancing Act Presenter: Lauren Sharon	In this year of quarantines, high rates of absenteeism, and virtual students, teachers are faced with the challenge of teaching all students well while not losing their minds! Join Lauren Sharon in an honest discussion on how to juggle virtual and in-person students without giving up on your health and personal life. Watch the Recording Download Presentation
7:00pm ET	Lesson Planning with Voces Presenter: Ivana Farina	Join Ivana for an overview of how to build a lesson around the stories on Voces. Learn how to integrate Movie Talk to facilitate speaking, Blooket to learn vocabulary, and GoFormative as a tool for assessments during remote and hybrid teaching. Ivana will present a lesson inspired by a story in Notre histoire 2. Watch the Recording Download Presentation

Friday, March 12
4:00pm ET	Virtual Happy Hour with Voces Developers	Conclude the Voces Conference by joining Kris, Erin, and many Voces teacher "regulars" for games, prizes, and music during our virtual happy hour. Come to ask questions, enjoy conversations, play games (and win prizes!), and—best of all—relax after an intense week. Our weekly virtual happy hours have been important to many teachers throughout the pandemic, and we'd love to see new faces and share the positive energy with you! Add to Calendar

About the Presenters

View the Conference Schedule