Current student Haley Rooney, a Spanish teacher in Williamston, Michigan, reflects on presenting at Michigan’s state conference for language teachers in October 2024.
I attended and presented at the Michigan World Language Association annual conference in Lansing, Michigan. I’ve attended this conference multiple times in the past, but this was my first ever time presenting at this or any conference. While discussing plans for my Experiential Module project, Dr. Lanier suggested that my project fit in well with this year’s conference theme of “Work Smarter, Not Harder,” and that I should present it there.
While my EM project had multiple components, including various teacher modules, the core of the project had to do with using what we’re calling interchangeable blocks to plan for what you have to do, what you need to do, and what you want to do, all while keeping in mind that the unexpected happens in any classroom. My presentation was called “Unblocking Lesson Planning: How to Use Interchangeable Blocks and Routines to Plan for Proficiency.”
In this presentation, Dr. Lanier and I use a meal planning metaphor to explain the steps teachers can take to plan efficiently, including organizing what has to be done (we call these “given”), what needs to be done (“guiding”), and what we want to do to add interest and engagement (“gourmet”). Participants saw how a “given” block such as a required formative assessment every week, can be moved around the schedule or even changed out for a “gourmet” block that uses a more engaging assessment technique, like asking students to physically act out a statement instead of translating it or matching it to a picture.
Download the slides:
My presentation was attended by about 10 participants, which felt like a good number for my first talk! (Enough that I felt like my message was welcome, not too many that it felt overwhelming). While I was a bit nervous with the experience being brand new to me, it felt very similar to getting up and teaching a class of my students. Presenting seems very alike to teaching – give some information, ask for some interaction, take some ideas, throw those ideas back into your bigger picture for the lesson, and give students/participants a chance to try a new skill with guidance. The talk seemed to be well received, and Dr. Lanier reported that many of the participants made a point afterward to tell her how impressed they were with the session and with me as a presenter!
Having this experience under my belt, I feel incredibly prepared to do more presentations in the future.
In hindsight, there are a handful of things I would have changed about the information I presented and how I presented it in the moment, but I feel pretty good overall about how it went. Having this experience under my belt, I feel incredibly prepared to do more presentations in the future. I got to talking to another teacher during one of the social events of the conference, and we discussed an idea about a future presentation. My wheels have been spinning constantly thinking about that, and I’m very excited at the prospect of maybe turning that into a future talk at this conference or even a different one. I now feel confident about the steps I’ll need to take to make that happen!
Explore Haley’s Experiential Module Project
Access Haley’s full EM project with additional guides and resources here:
https://rooneyedu.wordpress.com
If you are in the Michigan area you should consider submitting a proposal to present at the MIWLA Conference in 2025:
More from MIWLA 2024 –>
MIWLA 2025 “Looking Ahead: The Future of World Languages”
