Episode 82: ACTFL Takeaways p1

I knew within the first ten minutes of ACTFL that I wouldn't be able to encapsulate all of my takeaways in one episode. So, here's the first of THREE episodes to share my greatest takeaways from this year's National Conference in Philly.

Links mentioned:
Who is it!? jueves - my new series... you're going to LOVE this!
Rocio Jacoby, go learn from her!
Episode 5 Listen to your Gut
Sheryl Lee Ralph's book Diva 2. I am SO excited to bring you this new YouTube series where I interview EXCELLENT educators with 11 carefully curated questions to bring you inspiration, ideas, tips and tricks in SHORT, FUNNY, relatable videos! Click here to tune in and hear from educators like Adriana Ramírez, John Sifert, Darcy Pippins, and more! 

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Transcript

Welcome!

Hello, hi, thanks for being here and listening to this episode. But first, a message from our sponsor. Okay, hi, it's me, la maestra loca. I am so excited to tell you about my new project. It's called "Who is it? Jueves", and it's a YouTube series that I've started where every single Thursday, I'll be interviewing an incredible educator, some of them you might know, others you should get to know, and I'm going to be asking them 11 carefully curated questions called the loca lineup. The beautiful thing is, I've already interviewed eight educators, and every single interview has been drastically different and equally impactful and powerful. You will walk away with actionable ideas and strategies that you can implement the very next day in your classroom, and you'll walk away feeling inspired, and you'll get a few laughs out of it. The loca lineup was designed to give you ideas that you can use right away in your classroom, and inspire you to try new foods, maybe learn something about language acquisition, and I'm so excited for you to watch. So far, I've interviewed people like Adriana Ramirez, John Seifert, Darcy Pippins, Rocio Jacobi, and more. I'll be doing this every single Thursday, and I'm so, so, so excited for you to tune in and watch. I'll link it in the show notes, and I hope you have a wonderful day. Enjoy this episode.

ACTFL

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. Hi there. Welcome to Episode 82 of teaching la vida loca. I am so excited to sit down to finally record my reflections on ACTFL 2024. We were in Philly this year, and it was fabulous. And I realized quickly when I arrived that there was no way I was going to be able to put all my reflections in one podcast. I know I promised that I would share reflections in my last episode, for those of you who didn't get to attend, but literally, within the first 10 minutes of the morning session of ACTFL, I was like, nope, there's no way I'm going to be able to share in one episode, because my emotions and my feelings in the first 10 minutes of being there was" Like, I have so much to say".

Keynote

It's related to one of the questions that I received this week, which was from John Siefert. He said, "What's your favorite part about being at in person conferences?" And I have so much to say, but this first episode, this first reflection, is going to be focused on sharing direct quotes from Cheryl Lee Ralph, who was the keynote speaker for the beginning, the start of ACTFL, and my reflections on those direct quotes. Because, oh, my gosh, y'all Oh, okay, first, let me tell you who she is. She's an Emmy winning actress. If you don't know her, she's most famous right now for her role as Barbara Howard in Abbott Elementary. If you watch Abbott Elementary, then you'll know her well. If you don't know her, look her up. Oh my god, she is literally incomparable. She is a singer, she's an author, she's an activist. She uses her voice to, like, fight for HIV and AIDS awareness and education and social justice. And honestly, her career is such a testament to the power of belief, believing in yourself and like finding your joy. And, God, she's a storyteller. Y'all, oh, my God, if there was ever a storyteller in the world, it was Cheryl Lee Ralph, I learned after her keynote, so I'm going to share literally direct quotes from her keynote, and then share my thoughts on them and my reflections on them, and you're gonna be like, wait, are you sure that's like, not something that you said? Because, oh my gosh, especially Familia loca members who were at ACTFL, countless people and podcast listeners came up and said, oh my god, were you there for the for the speech? Oh my god, you could have written that. Oh my gosh. Did you collaborate with her? Oh my gosh because it's literally everything I talk about all the time. She preached everything I say, but from a platform and from a place of like, Oh, she's so powerful and so dynamic. And I was just like, literally screaming from the second row the whole time. When I wasn't screaming, I was frantically texting Chio, who was sitting next to me, and Chio is a member of La Familia loca PLC. I interviewed her for "Who is it, jueves? with La Maestra loca" also, by the way, have you seen it? Yes, it's freaking amazing. I'll talk about that in a little bit. But I interviewed her. If you want to go and see it, you can check the show notes, and she's an amazing elementary Spanish teacher whose whole entire department won an award at ACTFL for the work that they're doing in the Chicago area. So go and follow her. I will link her in the show notes, but I was frantically texting her, even though she was right next to me, because I needed to save all these quotes somewhere, and then afterwards, I found out that you can text yourself, and that's something that was new to me. Didn't know that.

Quote #1

So, these are the quotes literally read from my message thread to Chio, and I'm gonna share a quote and then share my reflection. Share a quote, share my reflection. Okay, here we go. Are you ready? Oh, my god, so good. Okay. Quote number one, "Language teaching doesn't have to look like what it did when we were in classrooms". End. Quote. Do I need to say anything else? I mean, do I need to share an actual reflection on that. Okay, here is my reflection. Y'all. Did you know that I failed Spanish one, three times, three not once, not twice, three times? Did you know I loved all my Spanish teachers so much, and they were so freaking good at their jobs, and I literally struggled weekly. My parents hired tutors to help me, because I was not just determined, but like really wanted to acquire Spanish, and instead, I was learning it, memorizing, trying to figure out how to do this grammar thing that I wasn't good at. Oh, that was so powerful for me. I screamed when she said that. Language teaching doesn't have to look like what it did when we were in classrooms, when we grew up. Y'all. OOF. OOF, okay, next one.

Quote #2

"I found joy, joy, joy, joy, joy when my teacher showed a movie and pulled me out of my French depression, that's when French came to life." This for me, I was like, oh, well, boom, there you go. So, she was talking about how, like, she got very little out of her French classes. Literally made all the joke that we all hear like, you know, oh yeah, I took French, but right, which is just such a freaking bummer for a person to be on stage at a world language conference and being literally the person that we are saying, right? But that was so many of us would have been in that position if we didn't find a way to acquire right. And yes, and yet, I mean, she also says, I found joy when my teacher showed a movie. That's when French came to life. Why? Because that's compelling. Suddenly, she was engaged and willing and ready to listen and acquire because the teacher was doing something other than vocab lists and grammar drills. They imagine that so freaking good. That was another great quote. Okay, here's the next one. 

Quote #3

Ooh, y'all this one directly relates to episode five of teaching la vida loca, or maybe episode three. No, I think Episode Five. I'll link it. It's called listen to your gut. And that's all I could hear when she said this quote, are you ready? I'm gonna read from like, the very beginning. And this one's a long one. I recorded it, thank God, and I will post it on Instagram and YouTube, and then hopefully bring more traffic to the podcast. Okay, ready?

"That is why for today, you are all stars. You are my stars. Stars, who, to shine bright, you must take better care of yourselves, because if you don't take better care of yourselves, you cannot hang on to your joy. If you don't like your job, if you're feeling burnt out about your job, please get another job. People who do not like their job, they are unhappy people. And the one thing that unhappy people are really, really good at is making everybody else unhappy." Y'all, I, I mean, you're gonna hear it in the recording. I was saying preach. I was yelling, yes. I was saying that, like, this is so important, if you are so done, if you cannot find the joy anymore in the small things, if you are fried, it's okay to say, I've had a great career, I'm done, or I've had a great three years, I'm done, or I've had a great 10 years, I'm ready for the next chapter in my life. That's okay, because if you are completely lacking in joy, it's not going to be a joyful process for your students and the kids in front of you. It's just so important.

More Quotes…

Later, another quote directly related to that, she said, whew. She said, "Choose to go out there and get your joy". Another quote she said directly related to it. I mean she literally. I would think that her favorite word is joy, just like mine. My favorite word for ever has been joy, and it felt like it was hers too. This is one of my favorites, favorite, favorites. Maybe I should save that one for last. Yeah, I'm gonna. I'm gonna save that one for last because it's my favorite. I think. I mean, how do you even choose a favorite already? So good, right? Um, here's another great one. "Reconnect with moments that light you up." I encourage you to do this at the end, oh, sorry. End quote. So, the quote was, reconnect with moments that light you up. End quote. I encourage you to do this every day. I have said it before. I think something you can do for your mental health at the end of every school day is just take a second to write down one, two or three good things that happened that you're grateful for. You can also do this so that you can make positive phone calls home, right, just acknowledging the good things. But it doesn't always have to be about students. It could be like something about a colleague. It could be something that you did for yourself. It could be that your planning period was focused on planning, or that you took care of your personal needs, and you ate lunch sitting down, right, or whatever it is, or that the copier didn't break, or whatever, tiny little moments where it was like, oh, that was really, I'm grateful for that, and finding joy in the little things, right? 

Such a Good Quote!

Okay, are you ready? This one's so good, too. "You are the syrup of joy on a big pancake of love". What? I love this woman so much. Y'all. "You are the syrup of joy on a big pancake of love." End quote, thank you. Thank you. Cheryl Lee, I am. I am the syrup of joy on a big pancake of love. 

Oh, okay, here's another direct quote, directly related to what I said about finding the joy in the small things. She said, "The answer comes in finding joy in the small wins. They're what make teaching so profoundly rewarding. Create moments of joy for yourself and your students". End quote. That was like spaced out. There were a lot of fillers in between those three sentences, but man, I just thought that was so powerful, because, yes, teaching can be profoundly rewarding, it can also be profoundly challenging, and we need to continue to create moments of joy for ourselves and our students. We can do that through brain breaks. We can do that through using acquisition driven instruction. We can do that through connecting with them, forming those relationships, and really bringing language and culture to life in our classrooms, and that's what makes teaching rewarding, right? But we do have to take time to find joy in the small wins, because it is really, hard. Teaching is really, hard.

Okay, oh my goodness. Okay. The next one is quote, "I hope you take time to reflect on a few positive moments, sometimes the tiniest things matter. Love your students enough to help them be better". Here's another one, "Resilience is about setting boundaries, not about pushing through, no matter what. End quote, what? I mean. How many times do I talk to you all about setting boundaries? Resilience is about setting boundaries, not about pushing through, no matter what. She talked a lot about, like protecting yourself. And you're taking your weekends back, not working on the weekends, not working at night. And I've talked about that for ages with y'all. I just think it's so important to, teaching can be part of our identity, but it shouldn't be our whole identity, right?

Take Care of Yourself

On that note, she said, "Take care of yourself so that you can be the best version of yourself for your students, self-care is not selfish. Self-Care is necessary. Your well-being matters. You matter. Your mindset has power. Approach each day, knowing that you can make a different, make it different even when it's hard. Sometimes they, like your students are looking for what you have, the joy of learning. When they find their voice. You share in that success; your impact is so special. So, think about your students who come back 30 years later, you are a beacon of light in this complex journey of learning. So, hold on to your joy like it is the treasure that it is." I mean, it's so good.

So Good!

I literally wish I could have just recorded her whole speech and put it on my podcast for you, because can you imagine an hour of this? And she demanded that teachers take better care. She demanded that we take time for ourselves. And she also weaved all these quotes in with stories about her life and her challenges that she's overcome, and her joy, her extreme joy, and her family, who are all teachers, like it was just beautiful. Because I like to keep my podcast episode short. I want to share my last quote, my favorite. Favorite? Are you ready?

One More…

"Communication thrives in joy, and when you allow joy to be part of the process, it becomes contagious." End Quote, can I just say that one more time? "Communication thrives in joy, and when you allow joy to be part of the process, it becomes contagious." End quote. Let's do that. Let's create classroom spaces where communication can thrive, because the affective filter is so low, because joy is so high, that students and you just are like reveling and lavishing in the joy that communication just happens, and it happens in the target language, joyfully in the target language. 

I cannot say enough about this woman. I cannot say enough about her speech at ACTFL. She, at the end, shared a quote from her book. Her book is called Diva 2.0: 12 lessons, or life lessons from me for you. And I bought it for myself during the keynote. And then afterwards, my dear friend Heidi, told me, hey, I bought it for you, and I didn't have the heart to tell her. I'm sure she's listening now like what? I didn't have the heart to tell her that I had already bought it, but I'm gonna send the other to my mommy, so for Christmas. But man, if you haven't read that book, I'll link it for you in the show notes. She did a shameless plug and plugged Amazon to buy it from. So, I'll link that. But this book, if you just, if you're not a reader like me, and you just fan through it like I am right now, at the end of every chapter is a life lesson, and like diva lesson two, I just flipped open to this page. Search for your joy, because when you find it and are doing what you love to do, everything will be all right. So good. 

Remember…

And remember, it's okay if you had joy and you've lost it, and you're ready for your next chapter. It's okay if you're just done, because it's all been a lot lately, and if you're really struggling finding joy in those small moments, listen to your gut. It's okay. You are so talented, and you could do anything. You could do anything. Teachers are literally the talents that we have that can be applied to any job. It's wild. So, I'm excited for you to find those joy, the joy in the small moments. I'm excited for you to practice joy and gratitude. I'm excited for you to find communication thriving in joy, because joy is contagious, and I love you, and I look forward to connecting with you in my next episode, where I'll be sharing more takeaways from ACTFL and the following as well. Next two episodes are gonna be about ACTFL takeaways, and I'm super excited to share with you. I love you, teacher. Have a wonderful rest of your day. Make sure you pass this along to somebody who might need to hear it, who might need to be reminded about the importance of seeking your joy. And please don't forget to leave me a review on Spotify or Apple podcasts, where it's a written review is like super helpful, and it really brightens my day reading them. I appreciate those of you who take the time to do that. It means so much to me, and it brings me great joy. I love you. And until next time, you'll be teaching la vida loca, and I'll be here to support you, and I'm so grateful for all you do. I love you. Take care. Bye, bye.