Allison Wienhold - Mis Clases Locas
 

PRESENTATION: Joyful Routines 

This session will focus on infusing joy to any World Language class through classroom routines. Streamline your planning, while building a positive classroom community.

About Allison:

Allison Wienhold of Mis Clases Locas has 10 years of experience as a #deptof1 secondary Spanish teacher. She has a passion for using novels, CI-based stories, music, and movement in a #deskless class. Allison loves to save busy teachers' time!

What does Joy & Fun mean to you? 

Make time every day for joy in the classroom. This means building a positive classroom community through connection, movement, and fun.

Tia Parnell from Parfaitement Parnell

PRESENTATION: From Stress to Success: How to Keep Joy in the Classroom with Time-Saving Teaching Strategies

Feeling overwhelmed by lesson planning and classroom management? In this session, Tia Parnell will share practical, time-saving strategies to help you reduce stress and bring more joy to your teaching, so you can focus on what matters most—your students and their success.

About Tia: 

Tia is an elementary French Immersion teacher from Ontario, Canada. She is also the owner of Parfaitement Parnell, a small business where she creates modern & engaging resources for French teachers and parents. 

What does Joy & Fun mean to you? 

To me, joy and fun in the classroom this year mean creating an environment where students feel excited to learn and confident to take risks in French. It’s about embracing creativity, laughter, and meaningful connections through language, to create the best possible experience.

A.C. Quintero | Novels and Resources by A.C. Quintero

PRESENTATION: More Than Simple Stories: Sparking Critical Thinking with Lower-Level Novels

Are you on the fence about using novels in your lower-level classes? Do you feel like your students aren't ready?   This session will help you to get the most out of lower-level novels.

About A.C.: 

A.C. Quintero is currently a Spanish Teacher in Chicago, IL. She has 20 years of cumulative experience as an IB middle school teacher, high school teacher, and adjunct instructor. She holds a Master’s in Latin American Literature. A.C. was most recently recognized by AATSP for her role in improving DEI initiatives for students. She has authored several compelling comprehensible novels such as La clase de confesiones, El escape, y Las apariencias engañan. You can view her Spanish, French, and German readers on her website below. 

What does Joy & Fun mean to you? 

To me, JOY and FUN in the classroom this year mean creating meaningful connections with my students and fostering an environment where learning feels natural and exciting. It's also me not leaving school drained and exhausted.

Amy Marshall / Zonadeprofes
Work Smarter Not Harder

Teaching has grown increasingly difficult and demanding based upon the culture and society that we live in. The demands seem to grow with each passing year and teachers are burning out and in many cases cannot be found to fill the vacancies. This session will focus on addressing how to work smarter and not harder as language teachers with grading practices, classroom activities and planning, using AI and general time management strategies.

About Amy:

Amy Marshall is a dynamic and energetic Spanish teacher who teaches with a variety of techniques that fall under the umbrella of comprehensible input. 

What does Joy & Fun mean to you? 

Joy this year means connecting with the students who needed me as more than a teacher.

Tracy E. Rucker

PRESENTATION: Authentic Planning and Enduring Engagement: Creating Meaningful Pathways to Cultivate Cultural Connections in our Diverse World Language Classrooms

Understanding intercultural competency through active communication drives learning and acquisition. This session focuses on seven key proven strategies that boost communicative proficiency while focusing on students' interests, personalities, and co-created experiential practices.

About Tracy: 

Tracy Rucker is an outstanding, award-winning world language teacher with more than 30 years of teaching experience. A frequent regional and state presenter, he is known for helping world language teachers enhance their existing programs by incorporating many strategies that incorporate interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational communication and global awareness into the classroom. Rucker has served as chair of the World Language department, president of AATF-KY, vice-president of AATF, and teacher representative for the Société Honoraire de Français. His extensive experience as an AP exam scorer for more than 15 years has significantly impacted how he approaches instruction.

Tracy emphasizes practical strategies - the use of target language, cultural connections , and contextualized grammar - in the language classroom. He brings to his seminars a high level of understanding of proficiency and how to train students to spiral through performance levels while honing communicative proficiency skills. He also brings a high level of humor and down-to-earth realism about what works for teachers and diverse learners at various levels of proficiency. Rucker is a frequent presenter at local and regional conferences as well as being recognized as Kentucky's World Language Teacher of the Year award in 2022. Tracy earned his BA in French Language and Culture from The University of the South and his MA in French from Middlebury College. In his free time, Tracy loves creative writing, gardening, and reading autobiographies and non-fiction works.

What does Joy and Fun mean to you?

Culture is not merely what we see or what we learn from poems, songs, or food! As language teachers, we advance in a perpetual quest for cultural literacy, and as we seek to make input comprehensible, we incorporate various resources that make learning fun and enduring.

Maureen Lothrop Magnan, Ph.D

PRESENTATION: Unlocking Potential: Integrating Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in the World Language Classroom

Are your students truly at the center of your lessons? Discover how Universal Design for Learning (UDL) can help you tap into student interests to create inclusive, engaging language classrooms that support all learners.

About Maureen: 

"Maureen Lothrop Magnan, Ph.D. is passionate about language, learning, and helping educators rediscover their joy. With 19 years of experience teaching Spanish and English in the U.S. and abroad, she has also served as a 6–12 World Language Coordinator, K–5 facilitator in Massachusetts, language coach and educator supporting students and teachers across grade levels. She presents regularly at conferences such as MAFLA and ACTFL, teaches graduate courses at Framingham State University, and currently teaches in Natick, MA.

When she’s not teaching or presenting, you can find her spending time with her three kids, husband, and their turtle—living her best multilingual, hammock-loving life!"

What does Joy & Fun mean to you? 

For me, joy and fun in the classroom happen when I get to be my full self and help students do the same. Fun doesn’t mean flashy; it means connection, curiosity, and a sense of shared purpose. When we laugh, take risks, and see each other, that’s when learning sticks and the classroom feels alive.

Dr. Lake Mathison

PRESENTATION: Proficiency over points: Practical ungrading in world language

There's nothing less joyful than reducing our students' knowledge and abilities to a number in a gradebook, so to maximally embrace joy, we should redirect their attention as much as possible to their learning and acquisition and away from grades. There are lots of ways to do that, and Ungrading has many possible dimensions to explore. This session touches on the what, the why, and some practical how for reducing or eliminating scores and refocusing on feedback.

About Lake: 

Dr. Lake Mathison teaches high school Spanish as a department of one in rural Minnesota. This is her third year ungrading, and it continues to be a work in progress. The most joyful part about it is no longer hearing "Is this going in the gradebook?"

What does Joy & Fun mean to you? 

This year I found joy in establishing connections with students and constantly pushing and encouraging them to level up, take risks, be creative, think deeper. Students and I focus on the communication in the moment with no specter of points and gradebook percentages hanging over us.

Maureen Gassert Lamb

PRESENTATION: PROMPTS, PLAY, and POSSIBILITY:  Low Tech, Low Prep CI Activities for Generation Alpha 

Discover low-tech, low-prep ways to bring language learning to life for Generation Alpha through high-energy, high-engagement CI activities that require little to no materials, but deliver big results! Perfect for educators who want joyful, purposeful, and practical strategies they can use right away.

About Maureen: 

"Maureen Lamb is the Latin teacher and AI Task Force Chair at Miss Porter's School in Connecticut. With nearly two decades of experience in language education, Maureen is known for her innovative, student-centered approach that blends technology, equity, and joy to foster inclusive and communicative classrooms. A nationally recognized leader in proficiency-based instruction, she regularly presents on topics such as comprehensible input, culturally responsive pedagogy, AI integration, and differentiation through station rotation models.

 What does Joy & Fun mean to you? 

This year, JOY has meant watching students grow confident in real communication. FUN has meant creating a space full of movement, laughter, and connection where students feel safe to take risks and celebrate their progress every day.