Episode 81: Making the Most of ACTFL (Even If You Can’t Go!)

In this episode I share suggestions for making the most of ACTFL 24 in Philly, even for those teachers who can't attend this year!

Links mentioned:
Conferencing Intentionally pages
CCLT SIG Sessions
La Familia Loca PLC will meet up on FriYAY- check the FB group for info

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Transcript

Welcome!

Welcome back to teaching la vida loca, the podcast you come to for short and sweet and sometimes spicy episodes full of enthusiasm, magic and tips and tricks for your classroom. I'm Annabelle, your maestra loca, and I'm here to bring you inspiration, unapologetic authenticity, and ideas to spark more joy in your teaching journey. I'm turning up the excitement and elated to have you right here with me. I'm not just your host, I'm your cheerleader, and I'm thrilled you're tuning in. So, let's do this. Let's tackle teaching la vida loca together.

Hello. Welcome to Episode 81 of teaching la vida loca. Today's episode is going to be again, short and sweet like always. But I want to talk about ACTFL and even if you're not going, you can listen. In fact, I'll start with my recommendations for people who are not going to ACTFL. The first thing I want to say is ACTFL is stupid expensive, like it's actually insane. I always submit a proposal to ACTFL with the hope of it being accepted and the hope of being able to go and present, but with the knowledge, knowing, hey, you know, I have always paid for ACTFL out of my own pocket. Always, always, always, I think one time I got to go as a helper to Senor Wooly, Jim Wooldridge, and that was the only time where he paid for the actual conference for me, but I've had to always pay. I've always paid out of pocket. And when you pay for the conference itself, it's insanely expensive. And then factoring in flying there plus lodging like it's not economically reasonable for average teachers to do this out of pocket. It's bananas.

ACTFL

So, I am going this year, and I'm excited, but I just want to say that if you are not going this year and you're bummed about it, I get it. I totally get the financial reasons for not being able to go. If your school isn't sending you, it's a huge investment. It's a huge financial investment to make the trip. So, you can still learn. My suggestion is to follow the hashtag ACTFL 24 I am not on X or Twitter. I mean, I am, but, like, I literally never, ever, ever post there. So, I probably won't be on this trip, but I'm going to be sharing tons on my Instagram stories that I'm learning as I'm learning. And other people will be too, and they'll be using the hashtag ACTFL 24 so follow that hashtag and learn along with the people at the conference. And then I know that I'll be sharing my takeaways in a podcast. For sure. I'm sure other people will be too. So, I just want to say that if you're, if you're not going because of financial reasons, there's still ways to learn and to get immediate takeaways that you can implement in your classroom. And I just also want you to know that it's, it's okay, like, I totally get the financial piece. And it is, it is a big thing for my family this year, because since I'm not in the classroom, we have only the income of my business and Paul's barbering. And it's a big thing. Actual, is a huge cost for us. And I'm not making any money, you know, so I get it. 

Who’s Going?

Now for those of you who are going, I want to remind you of a couple things. The first is, the people that are presenting at ACTFL are presenting the best of them, the things that they're the best at, the things that they feel the strongest about, the things that they're most passionate about. And so, when you go into the sessions, keep that in mind as you're watching. Do not play the comparison game. Remember comparison is a thief of joy. Go in open and ready to learn with an eager attitude. And write down your notes. Take your notes. Keep track of the things that feel most inspire, inspiring to you. I'm going to link my conference worksheets. If you want them. They help you get specific about what you're taking notes on and what your greatest takeaways were. I'll include those in the show notes. 

Take Notes

But the biggest thing I want you to think about is at the end of the conference, or even the end of each day, this is what I do the end of each day, go back look at your notes and find your three greatest takeaways. Even bring a highlighter, just highlight the three greatest takeaways from each day, and then at the end of the conference, look at those and remember to be intentional and actionable about your takeaways. What is your greatest and when do you want to implement it by? Was it an activity that you learned? Okay, now set a date for when you're going to implement it by, and then to hold yourself accountable. Tell somebody about it. 

Share Your Goal

I learned a statistic from Lisa MCH recently that I want to share that's just like mind blowing. So I'm part of her digital cleanup club, and last month she said that people have a 65% chance of completing a goal if they tell somebody about that goal, and then that's like, because they've committed it to somebody a 65% chance, and then that goal goes way up if it's connected to some sort of like, something that like they if they don't do it by a certain date, they have to do something that they don't want to do. So, 65% chance of completing your goal. So, choose the thing that you're going to do, choose a date that you want to do it by, and tell somebody, and then go back to your notes again and choose your next biggest takeaway. Because conferences like ACTFL, when you have literally hundreds of sessions to choose from, and it feels so overwhelming, it's important to digest the learning and think about what you're going to do, otherwise, you will never do the things that were of interest to you, because you'll just go home and be totally overwhelmed and say, you know what? Never mind. It's okay. I'll just keep doing what I'm doing, and that's such a waste of money. We've already talked about how much ACTFL costs. 

Come See Me!

Now, as far as deciding what you want to go to, I have some recommendations. The first is obviously my own presentation. I would love to see you join Bertha Delgadillo and myself on Saturday morning at 10 in the morning in room 120 C, 120 C, our presentation is called ADHD Empowered: Supports for Teachers with ADHD, and we're super excited, whether you have ADHD or want to get to know your colleagues more who have ADHD and learn how to support them. We would love to see you in our session. We're really, really excited about it again. That's Saturday, the 23rd at 10am.

CCLT

The other thing you can do is you can go to Alicia Cardenas and the CCLT sig have created an amazing document where CCLT sessions and CCLT adjacent sessions. CCLT is the communicative, like the SIG that is about communicative teaching, like teaching with acquisition driven instruction. So, there's some SIG sponsored sessions. But there is a document that I will share in the show notes, where anybody who is presenting a session like that can add their information to it, so you can go through, and you can find this ADI specific sessions. Now I know of at least one session that is not on there, and I've sent it to Paul to fill out for his session, but you obviously you have access to the whole program, and you can look for other ideas, but this is a great starting place. 

Take Time

I will also be intentional about taking time to decompress. I am bringing baby loca with me, and my friend Rose is coming to take care of her, and I have very intentionally scheduled time where I know I'm gonna sit down with Ben Tinsley and just chat and catch up on life. I know I'm gonna have some time with Familia loca to decompress and not talk about work and just have dinner together and maybe go dancing or, you know, have a game night. And I think that that time is important too, because, again, ACTFL can be so big and so overwhelming and so overstimulating, it's important to schedule time to just be in Philly and enjoy, maybe sightsee. Get out, take a walk, take breaks. Don't feel like you must be in every single session. 

Come Find Me!

And finally, I'll just say, I hope that you come and find me and say hello. Let me know that you listen to the podcast. It means so much to me when I meet people who are listening to the podcast. Let me know if you read my emails. Just be a bright spot in my day. Come and say hi. I will definitely be at the opening session loudly screaming, being the loudest person in the audience for my Berta Delgadillo, who will be on the stage competing for ACTFL Teacher of the Year. She is my ACTFL teacher of the year, and will always be, one crazy, crazy, inspiring woman like I'm just blown away by her dedication to our profession and to her own professional growth. She's working on her doctorate right now and still being an amazing mom, wife, teacher. She is amazing, and that's who I get to present with. Like, how lucky am I okay? Teacher, I hope that I get to see you at ACTFL, and if I don't, I hope that I get to share my takeaways with you. I would love for you to learn from ACTFL with me, and I'm just so grateful for you. Thank you for listening to this podcast, thank you for supporting me, thank you for all you do in your classroom, for your students, and thanks for allowing me to be part of that journey. I love you so much, and until next time you'll be teaching la vida loca, I'll be learning it ACTFL and can't wait to connect soon. Take care. Teacher, bye, bye.