Day 9 - Rachel

What upcoming professional development are you excited about?

I am super excited about ACTFL's Annual Convention and Expo. It's going to be in New Orleans this year, so that's exciting just on its own, and of course ACTFL itself always has the potential to be crazy rich professionally, whether in terms of professional connections or sessions, or amazingly powerful conversations about educational methodology with colleagues whom you just met. I'm excited to see old friends and meet people I only know online and learn as much as I can about what is current in Latin and language teaching. I am especially excited because I joined ACTFL's Critical and Social Justice SIG (Special Interest Group) this year and I am hoping to find a lot of other members of the SIG there this year. AND we at Stepping Into CI have joined a publishing co-op to share a table at the Expo so we'll actually be offering some of our books! Which is kind of crazy to me because ACTFL has about 7000-8000 people.
I am also, on the other end of the year, super excited about the American Classical League's Centennial Institute this year in New York City. I admit to being biased, as ACL's treasurer, but the energy at Institute was really good this year--it was quite possibly one of the best Institutes I have attended--and I am really excited to see us carry that on with our celebration in New York. Our vice-president, John Gruber-Miller, has worked really hard to change the format of the conference into something more modern, and I think the result was a more dynamic, connected, and positive experience for everyone. So I'm ready to see what we put together for New York and how we celebrate this first century of the ACL.
I also know of a BUNCH of online training initiatives coming up, some via the ACL, some via Miriam and myself, some via ACTFL, and I'm really excited that we're all taking advantage of the technology at our fingertips!