Reflecting on my experience this year from ACTFL 18 has been a hard one to pin down because I really wanted to get in and put myself back in the learner's chair and glean from colleagues and others who are doing great things. Some of my most impactful conversations, however, happened outside the session rooms, as I connected with those colleagues I've kept up with over social media--Twitter, in particular--since I've been in engaged with #langchat for about the last four years.
- My biggest takeaway for ACTFL 18 was relationships. Engaging in relationships with other professionals really cements the fact that we teachers are part of a national network, and more than materials, resources, or lesson plans, we can reach out to people who are doing great things. Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell, at the Tennessee Foreign Language Teachers Association keynote address just two weeks prior to ACTFL 18, admonished us to find our good practices and engage with others in how we can, then, best reach our students.
- Conferences are a time to keep up with others' ongoing research, rather than the culmination of a task that ends in November. Since the conference happens towards the end of the fall semester, there is ongoing research, resources, and implementations that can refresh us educators for the rest of the school year.
- Be present. There are thousands of people attending the conference with hundreds of sessions--many of which are concurrent--and not only people to meet up with, but a wonderful city to enjoy. At ACTFL, I was able to meet new people and discover different parts of New Orleans, a city I had never been to.