Spring 2016 Conference

"Moving from Performance 

to Proficiency”

Rose Egan was our presenter at the Spring Conference, 2016.  Ms. Egan is a Spanish Teacher at Cathedral High School, Indianapolis Indiana.  She has been teaching Spanish to pre-schoolers through adults since 1996.  She holds a BA in Education and Spanish from Denison University, as well as a MS in Second Language Education from Indiana University.  She was honored as the 2011 Indiana High School Spanish Teacher of the Year and the 2011 Indiana High School Foreign Language Teacher of the Year.  She is a past-president of IN-NELL and has presented at numerous local, state and regional conferences.  Among her most prized achievements are the students who come back to report how they are using Spanish in their post-secondary lives.  

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IN-NELL SPRING CONFERENCE 2015

“One-stop strategies shop: Tools for

using Technology and

Differentiation in your classroom”

For the 2015 Spring Conference, we had a wonderful dual presentation.  One by Ms. Deb Blaz, titled “Differentiation in your classroom”.  The second presentation was about tools for using technology in the classroom, Dr. Angelia Ridgway, Ms. Rose Egan, and Ms. Sarah Schirripa.

Deborah Blaz, our feature presenter, is a French teacher at Angola High School in Angola, Indiana, is the author of six best-selling reference books, The Foreign Language Teacher’s Guide to Active Learning;  Teaching Foreign Languages in the Block; A Collection of Performance Tasks and Rubrics: Foreign Languages;  Bringing the Standards for Foreign Language Learning to Life; Differentiated Instruction: A Guide for Foreign Language Teachers, and Differentiated Assessment for Middle and High School Classrooms. She has frequently presented on successful teaching strategies at state, regional and national conferences, universities, and high schools. A recipient of the Project E Excellence in Education award in 2000, she was also named Indiana’s French Teacher of the Year by the Indiana chapter of the American Association of Teachers of French (IAATF) in 1996, and was named to the All-USA Teacher Team, Honorable Mention, by USA Today in 1996.

IN-NELL FALL-CONFERENCE 2014

Foreign Languages for Everyone!

For the 2014 Fall Conference, we had a wonderful presentation by Irene Brouwer Konyndyk, author of the book "Foreign Languages for Everyone: How I Learned to Teach Second Languages to Students with Learning Disabilities".

Irene believes that all students, even those with learning disabilities, can be successful language learners, if the pedagogical approach meets their needs. At-risk students need a learning environment that is multisensory, highly structured, and helps them understand how they learn best. That is what her book is about and she is delighted to share her ideas with you!

She continues to do presentations and workshops in Canada, the U.S. and Europe, at conferences such as ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages), the AATF (American Association of Teachers of French), the IDA (International Dyslexia Association), NACFLA (North American Christian Foreign Language Association), and at MIWLA (Michigan World Language Association).

Irene Brouwer Konyndyk recently retired from teaching French, German and Dutch at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI. During her 40-year teaching career (at all levels of instruction) she learned a lot - most importantly how to teach languages to students who struggle with language learning.

IN-NELL had a Great 2014 Spring Conference

"Technology for the 21^st Century World Language Teacher"

Presented by Matt Miller

The conference included presentations on the following topics:

• The Flat Classroom: Connecting your students to the world -- Thomas Friedman declared that the world is flat, that the communication walls that limited us before have been destroyed in today's digital age. Powerful resources to help students collaborate with native speakers of world languages are waiting to be harnessed. Learn how "it's a small (digital) world after all!"

   

• Being a connected educator -- Thousands of educators connect and share with each other every day, creating a powerful force for improving teaching and the field of education in general. Learn how you can create your own "personalized learning network" and transform your teaching in ways you never knew possible.

   

• Climbing the edtech ladder: Making the most of your educational technology -- The powerful digital tools found in schools have the potential to be more than what some experts call the $1,000 pencil. Learn how to turn your technology usage from simple substitution to experiences that redefine what education can do.

   

• The Lightning Round: 60 digital tools in 60 minutes -- Digital resources abound, and so many of them can be plugged into the world language classroom. Gather lots of new ideas for classroom technology in this fast-paced session.

Matt Miller is the one and only world language teacher at Turkey Run High School. He teaches all levels of Spanish classes (1, 2, 3 and AP). After trying to do the traditional "teach by the textbook" for a few years, he launched into a textbook-less path where learning activities are often custom-produced for his students and infused with technology. He likes the results a lot, and his students do too. He creates all the content for the Ditch That Textbook blog (DitchThatTextbook.com) and designed a website to help Hoosier teachers take control of their teacher evaluations (RISEAboveIndiana.com). Matt has been a presenter at IFLTA conferences, and his presentations have been very popular and well received.

CONGRATULATIONS to Kathleen Mick, for being nominated 2013 Teacher of the Year for IN-NELL.  Receiving award from Barbara de Gortari at the IFLTA Fall Conference in Indianapolis, October 2013.

In November 2012, Miss Jill Woerner was recognized  as a National Language Teacher of the Year finalist, during this year ACTFL confernce in Philadelphia.

Jill was the IN-NELL teacher of the year in 2010.



Julie Canady our IN-NELL nominee for 2012 wins the coveted K-8 division for the Indiana Foreign Language Teachers Association (IFLTA) World Language 2012 “Teacher of the Year” award.  When interviewed she said: “That was one of my goals when I began teaching 12 years ago, and this award is the result of hard work,” Julie explained. “I have been inspired and supported by many mentors along the way. Most importantly, my parents always have led by example while encouraging me to never be satisfied at the end of the day if I hadn’t given my best.”

Posing in the picture with Pam Gemmer