Courtney Bonino | Llearning Llama
PRESENTATION: 5 Student Voice Routines That Turn Warm-Ups into Community

Session Description:

Learn five simple student voice routines that turn warm-ups into moments of connection, culture, and classroom community. This session will share practical ideas for using quick votes, brackets, gallery walks, research posters, and pulse checks to help students feel seen, heard, and invested from the first five minutes of class.

About Courtney: 

Courtney Bonino of Llearning Llama has been teaching and creating Spanish resources for 9 years. Her experience is mainly as a high school teacher, but she has taught every level from preschool through Spanish 4 Honors. Courtney has a Masters in Foreign Language Teacher. She loves providing teachers with authentic and practical activities to make Spanish class fun! She has a passion for virtual field trips, proficiency based tasks, and incorporating culture in the classroom. 

What does community mean to you? 

Community means that all students feel seen and heard. Everyone works together in a shared space to learn as a team and support one another through language learning. 

Alexis Blum  

Rock, Paper, Scissors: Routines to Keep You Sane

 Session Description: 

Routines to keep you sane as a teacher with multiple preps. We'll talk about the Rocks: steadfast, solid points in your routine to keep boundaries and balance in your classroom. Next, we'll talk Paper: activities that we collect to assess, check, and provide feedback to our students. Finally, Scissors: what can we cut, shape or change to run a smoother, more relaxed classroom?

About Alexis:

"Alexis Blum is a Spanish teacher in rural Ohio. She has been teaching for 12 years in which she has taught all levels of Spanish, was a department of one, and now works with a department of three languages. She is a trained ADI Coach, and has coached at national conferences like the CI Summit and Fluency Matters Conference by Wayside Publishing. Alexis currently serves as the Professional Development Chair for the Ohio World Language Association. She is an active presenter at state and regional conferences. She is passionate about finding joy in the everyday aspects of the classroom and making lasting connections with students. Inspired by her own experiences as a high school student, Alexis strives to share the beauty of other cultures and perspectives with her students. She also leads a student travel program, having led five student tours abroad to Spain, France, and England. She loves to travel and see her students experience a new culture.

In her free time, Alexis likes to read and spend time with her family. She loves to travel and try new adventures. She is married with one daughter and a goldendoodle. A fun fact about Alexis - she is an identical twin! "

What does community mean to you? 

Classroom community is vital to lower the affective filter and creating an environment where students are willing to take risks in their learning! I want my classroom to be a space where everyone WANTS to be every single day, and that's what a solid, positive community means to me.

Devon Gunning | La Libre Language Learning 

PRESENTATION: Let CI Do the Work: Community through Conversation in 5 Mins/day

In world language, communication should be the focus. But it's often put on the backburner with the amount of work it takes to be a teacher and support your students. In this presentation, see how focusing on conversation can actually reduce your workload! I'll show you the why, how to get set up, what 5 things you need to be successful, and how to maintain the routine throughout the year. You'll leave equipped with a daily conversation practice that reduces friction and serves as the foundation of relationships in your classroom.

About Devon: 

Welcome to Practical and Comprehensible 2026: COMMUNITY!

My mission is to help world language teachers discover a practical, teacher-friendly approach to best practice and true community in your classroom: through the power of CI and meaningful social justice resources & PD.

I've hosted this conference 7 times, and it's my favorite part of the year to host you. Thank you for being here! 

What does community mean to you? 

Community means that the students and teacher have ownership, are invested in the group's success, the classroom is fairly self-regulating, and we have a ton of fun while doing meaningful work. It's a tiny, awesome version of what the world could look like. 

Bryce Hedstrom | Hedstrom Language Resources

PRESENTATION: Creating Community with Special Person Interviews

Description:

Bryce is the creator of the Special Person Interview, a favorite activity amongst world language teachers. See how to get started, how to create community entirely in the target language by interviewing students, and how to make sure the routine always stays fresh. 

About Bryce: 

Bryce has taught elementary to college level students for more than 30 years. He now teaches and coaches teachers full time. His teaching emphasizes proficiency and includes storytelling, authentic culture, reading, music, student engagement… and plenty of laughter.

What does community mean to you? 

1. Mutual respect 
2. Feeling listened to
3. Noticing one another

Pav Dhadwal | FLE Avec Mme D 
PRESENTATION: Teaching the Whole Student: SEL in the French Classroom

Description:

I am sharing 5-10 SEL activities for French class, each with a different purpose. Some will be quick activities you can implement, and others will help tackle some of the common challenges we're encountering in our high schools in this age.

 About Pav: 

Pav has been teaching high school Core French in British Columbia for over a decade and is the creator behind FLE avec MmeD. She is deeply committed to equity and justice in French language education and is passionate about creating meaningful change within the field. Pav believes in teaching French through culture, helping students connect with the language in authentic, engaging, and inclusive ways.

What does community mean to you? 

 To me, community means accountability, connection, safety, acceptance, belonging, and celebration. A true classroom community must intentionally foster all of these elements; otherwise, it falls short of what students truly need in order to learn, grow, and feel supported.

Maureen Lamb, Language Tech Tools

Dr. Lake Mathison

PRESENTATION:  #ThrowbackThursday: Building strong school/class community 

Why should you incorporate #ThrowbackThursday into your class routine? Originally a social media trend, grounding discussion in stories and photos from staff and students builds relationships and makes connections not just between you and your students, but students with each other and the whole school community! This session includes multiple ways to frame class discussion plus expansion ideas to target a variety of grammar points and vocab themes. This is the activity that gets my students excited and saying "Ooh yay, it's #ThrowbackThursday, this is my favorite day of the week!"

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. 

What does community mean to you? 

 Community is creating a web of connections, inside the classroom teacher-to-student and student-to-student, but also casting that net beyond the room to the broader school population of staff and students. It's creating a space where students experience feeling seen and seeing others.