IHLA's commitment to professional development

    How do you move beyond pen and paper activities in your classes? Do you want them to  be actively engaged in their learning? How do you use all of your senses when learning? How do you develop your lessons in a way that each student gets the information that they  need? In this session you will learn about multimodal learning. Pictures, texts, speeches,  stories, dance, song, drama and expressions are great ways to make lessons interactive for all learners in a heritage language class. 

   Students learn best through direct, hands-on experiences and the best place to do this is outside! In the first session, we will explore ideas on how to take your language learning outside through simple ideas that can be done in any environment, from a forest to the streets. You will then have an opportunity to try some of the ideas before our second session where we will see how you did and address any questions or challenges you may have. You will come away from these sessions with new ideas to bring language to life for your students.  

   This PD session builds on the findings and ideas from my PhD research at the University of Iceland, called School Experience of Plurilingual Students: A Multiple Case Study from Iceland. Plurilingual students in heritage language schools possess unique linguistic repertoires that are both a part of their linguistic identities, and a valuable, rich linguistic resource. In this workshop, the participants will learn how to utilize their students ́ and their own linguistic resources to strengthen the plurilingual identities of their students, to scaffold HL learning, and to teach towards a better language awareness and transfer of language skills. At the end of the workshop, the participants will have a good understanding of the concept of linguistic resources and will have learned a few methods to utilize them for HL instruction. 
 

  Using theatre games, speech exercises, movement and text, this hands-on workshop will focus on implementing drama activities into the second language classroom and enhancing Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies and more. This session will address the cognitive and social benefits in incorporating drama in second language lessons and will spark lots of creative ideas for your classroom.
 

 Eliana Aloisio (BA, BEd, Member of Institute of Child Psychology) Kathryn Babowal (BA, BEd and Owner of Les Petits Soleils French Immersion Out of School/Preschool
Eliana and Kathryn will be sharing tips and techniques of how to create positive and engaging experiences for our students and how we, as teachers can implement emotional “re patterning” to help ourselves, as teachers, working within the current climate of restrictions and unwanted feelings into more positive, supportive and freeing emotions that will enhance and create a more dynamic language learning environment in the classroom and online. 

During this PD session teachers will learn the basics of assessment. This includes learning about  assessment for learning, assessment as learning, and assessment of learning. Teachers can use  multiple tools to look at their students’ learning beyond tests and quizzes. Some of these include  journals, blogs, notes, concept maps, rubrics, self-assessments, and presentations. Teachers will learn  how to triangulate assessments by looking at the products students produce, conversations that they  have with students, and observations of their students’ learning. These all come together to give an  accurate picture of students’ progress. Dr. Bilash will share ways to collect this information for  presenting to parents.

Simon Bird shares his knowledge of Indigenous Languages and culture along with methods that he uses to teach and inspire others. 

In this video Liliya Sukhy teaches us how to use Nearpod- an extension for Google. This  add-on allows teachers to create interactive lessons by including polls, games, videos, and more. This helps to keep students on track during lessons and supports teachers with assessments as well.

In this video Dr. Olenka Bilash explains the importance of teaching students to have a global perspective in a heritage language school while at the same time teaching students to focus on personal commitment and local community development.

In this video our presenters Sofia Eigueta Duplancic & Zuzana Buchanan shared with us tips and tricks they have used to make exciting and entertaining presentations that inspire and engage students in their language teaching. 

In this workshop Dr. Aga Palalas shares her expertise about heritage language learning and mobile apps. She describes how students can benefit from using technology during heritage language classes.

In this video Maria Lekkos-Carrozza of the St. George's Hellenic Language School explains different games and techniques teachers can use when teaching online.