Spice up your spring at the Voces Spring Conference, happening March 1-4 in a Zoom room near you! This is a free, virtual event open to all world language teachers.
At the Voces Spring Conference, we’re bringing together some of our favorite educators to present on topics relevant to them and their passions! This conference is a chance for you to deepen your understanding of Comprehensible Input and Acquisition-Driven Instruction, to learn new techniques when it comes to reading and writing in the classroom, to discover new games you can use to engage students, and to get other new ideas that you can use today with your students. You’ll also get a chance to learn about the CI Summit, a CI/ADI language conference sponsored by Voces happening this summer in Savannah, Georgia.
See the Voces Spring Conference schedule below – additional details will be added closer to the date. Register now so you don’t miss out!
Daily Schedule
March 1-3 (evenings only) and March 4 (all day)| Wednesday, March 1 | ||
| 6pm ET | Allynn Lodge Time for a Project! |
A great project can provide a welcome change of pace for students and teachers alike! Students get to work in a relaxed atmosphere while you get a break from the daily grind of lesson planning. In this session, Allynn Lodge, the author of A Teacher's Guide to Our Story, will show you how to integrate a story writing project into your curriculum, no matter the level or language you teach, or the content areas you need to explore. This sweet little project can adapt to it all. You'll receive a project overview, detailed guidelines, sample student work, grading rubric, and ideas for how project-based work can fit into your classroom. Leave with a new way to celebrate the power of stories as a vehicle for helping students build language skills and a curiosity about others' lives! |
| 7pm ET | A.C. Quintero How To Teach A Novel In 10 Days |
Reading is such an important part of language acquisition. Engaging students in high-interest content with high-frequency words undeniably attributes to language proficiency. However, no matter how enthralling a novel is, and the plethora of tailored-made activities you've produced, students can get bored fast. They want the next big thing! Actually, that's not such a bad idea. As an author of CI novels, and supporter of reading in the classroom, A.C. Quintero has learned how to keep it short and sweet. That's why she wants to explore with you how to teach a novel in 10 days without skipping a beat! |
| Thursday, March 2 | ||
| 6pm ET | Eric Richards A Recipe for Writing: Practical Writing Activities for the Classroom |
In this session, Eric shares his secret sauce for writing. He shows you how to use Voces stories to create a recipe for better and more engaging writing in the classroom. He will teach you practical writing strategies and techniques that help students grow in their language abilities. Plus, he shares his secret ingredient – getting repetition of the target language through not only writing, but also reading! |
| 7pm ET | Gary DiBianca What Does Storytelling and Story-Asking Look Like in My Classroom? |
Join Spanish teacher, Gary DiBianca as he delves into what storytelling and story-asking looks like in his classroom with both novice and intermediate level students. Gary will discuss and show how he uses story-scripts for story-asking with students, how he uses pre-written stories with students, how he engages students through reading stories, and his process for writing stories and story-scripts. He also will make connections to how storytelling and story-asking using language that is comprehensible fits into larger units of study that require students to make connections and enhance their cultural competency. |
| Friday, March 3 | ||
| 6 – 7:30pm ET | Paulino Brener, La maestra loca, & other CI Summit Team Members The CI Summit Pajama Party! |
Paulino Brener, keynote and team member at the CI Summit, opens the party with inspiration, fun, and reflection! Next up is La maestra loca who will share her "latest" and "greatest" Brain Breaks for Boosting Engagement, Input, and Joy! Afterwards, join in with other CI Summit team members for the remainder of the party. Learn from the experts, ask questions, and enjoy prize drawings, games, and music. |
| Saturday, March 4 | ||
| 9am ET | Bryan Kandel Weekly Trivia: Building community through classroom competition |
Nothing brings a community together like a big game. Competition and a common goal unite us. What if we could harness the power of competition in our classes WHILE we provide input and explore culture? In this session, we will explore the power of a weekly trivia question. World Language students love trivia because of the competition and potential prizes. World Language teachers love trivia because it is a compelling source of input and culture, and it builds community within each class. We will discuss the necessary preparation and delivery to make trivia an engaging source of input in your class. |
| 10am ET | JJ Epperson Music to Your Ears: Not the Same Old Song and Dance |
Undeniably powerful, music plays an integral role in WL curricula. This session strikes just the right note and shows you how to make music your forte and be the star of your show. Join the fun and leave with exciting, ready-to-implement ideas and resources that go beyond typical cloze activities. You don't want to miss this! |
| 11am ET | Kara Jacobs 2 For 1: Game for ANY text + ADI Review |
Bring a piece of paper and prepare to be a student doing an interpretive listening activity in this session! The purpose of this session is twofold: 1) to participate in a game that you can use in class with any text and 2) to familiarize you with, refresh and/or review some fundamentals of ADI and CI. |
| 12pm ET | Haiyun Lu Cook with Chef Haiyun: When East Meets West at the Dinner Table |
After living in the west for more than 20 years, Chef Haiyun’s cooking has become a blended table where the East meets the West. From tweaking Italian dressing with Chinese balsamic vinegar, to making grilled salmon with Pakistani spices, to cooking up fresh yummy vegetarian dumplings, she can make it all happen in less than an hour, and so can you! The recipes are what she calls “the fool-proofed-simple-and-delicious.” It means anyone, including a 9-year-old child, can follow along. Let’s cook the winter blues away! Cook along with Haiyun! Here are the ingredient lists for the dishes Haiyun will be preparing. |
| 1pm ET | Erica Peplinski-Burge The Power of Community |
We are social creatures, and our brains learn at their best when we are in an environment where we feel safe and supported. In this session you will learn how to cultivate this environment and build an emphatic and supportive classroom that connects your students to yourself and each other through Class Meeting, Student Surveys, Games, and Class Pets. Attendees will leave this session with low to no prep activities you can apply in your classroom next week! |
| 2pm ET | Bryce Hedstrom Relearning and Learning: Teaching a New Language in a New Setting |
Bryce’s daughter started a school and asked him to volunteer to teach… Latin! Only problem was he didn’t know the language. He had to quickly learn some Latin to begin teaching the language about whose culture he knew very little. He decided to take his own medicine and acquire the language by reading and listening, avoiding explicit grammar. It’s been a challenge, but it’s worth it. Come to this session and find out what Bryce has remembered and discovered about teaching language. You’ll leave refreshed, inspired and ready to handle new challenges that come your way. |
