MIDTESOL Conference 2014

One of my favorite events of the year is a conference run by MIDTESOL (MidAmerica Teachers of Speakers to Other Languages). The conference is on a Friday night and Saturday, but I had to attend a work session with the board on Thursday night. I am the K-12 interest section leader on the board. So, after teaching all day on Thursday, I made the drive down to Warrensburg, MO to University of Central Missouri. I arrived just in time to attend our work session at 7:00 p.m. I was not able to really contribute much from Uganda last year, so I was really looking forward to this time with other freaks like me. The meeting went well and I feel like we accomplished a lot.

Comfort Inn - Lees Summit

Comfort Inn - Lees Summit

Day 1 - Friday 
I woke up early to make the trek from my hotel to UCM. Our board meeting started at 9, so I left about 8 and made it on time. I love board meetings because I get to learn about the inner workings of the organization. We discussed the budget, various reports, and the next conference for 2015. This is a rich time for me to talk with colleagues from Kansas, Iowa, and Missouri. I definitely need to do a better job reporting on K-12 from all perspectives, versus just Missouri.

After our meeting we had delicious food for lunch. I forget how much food we eat here and I enjoyed every minute of a luxurious lunch.

The first session I attended was called "What should they read? Motivation and readability for ELLs in the common core." The person presenting had a lot of great research about readability and offered several text analyzing tools. This session gave me some time to collaborate with my colleagues and discuss the challenges of common core and reading with ELLs. I know this is trivial, but the presented sounded like Kermit the Frog, which was a bit distracting to me. It really reminded me of when one of my best friends had her tonsils taken out and sounded the same way. Ahh, memories.

After that long workshop, I headed to the plenary for short business meeting and a session entitled "Good Readers Are Fluent Readers: Giving Reading Fluency the Attention it Deserves" by Fredricka Stoller. She was phenomenal. She was really inspiring and helped us to really focus on reading fluency.

There was a happy hour after the plenary, but Megan and I headed to Heros to have dinner. The lines at the MIDTESOL were just too long and we were starving. I ordered a martini and a cheesy barbecue burger and it was delicious. I ate the whole thing.

We headed back to the hotel and crashed. I knew I had to get up at 6 a.m. the next day to prepare for my presentation.

Another fun thing about parking on a university campus is parking tickets. I guess I didn't park in the correct place and got a ticket for $50. Apparently, it goes down to $25, if I pay it by a certain date. I talked with the conference leader and she told me to appeal it and they will take it away. So, we will see.









Day 2 - Saturday
Day 2 started with an early wake up call at 6 so that I could get to the university in time for my presentation. The drive was incredibly foggy, so I was glad I left early. I was also glad that I arrived early because there were students taking an ACT examinations and a marching band competition that I had to fight in order to get a parking space. I arrived in my room in plenty of time and fidgeted with technology until everything was ready.

The presentation went well and I had about 10 participants. It seemed that they were quite interested in a fellowship and they asked a lot of intelligent questions. It definitely feels good to be on the other side of the fellowship and speaking from experience. I always feel a sense of pride when I see my favorite people or kids that I taught in Uganda. Feel free to check out my presentation via Prezi.


MIDTESOL Presentation 10.25.14


I also attended a session on Project Based Learning by the presenter from the plenary, which gave me a lot of ideas for projects. I attended a session about instructional coaching and sent an email to one of my district administrators because I feel like it is something that would enhance our understanding of ELL. I also attended a section about Twitter and I created an account. I hope to use it more in the future.

Then, we had lunch and I led an interest section on K-12. I was really interested to see what topics we would discussed. Most of our time was dealing with Kansas teachers because they are struggling and are responsible for many schools. So, we brainstormed ways to help them and also made connections. I love leading interest sections because it allows me to meet so many teachers who are also dealing with the same issues in other districts. This particular conference just focuses on Missouri, Kansas, and Iowa. We did have several other states attend too.

After lunch, I hosted a session with Dr. Song and she was talking about ELL literacy skills. She was a funny presenter and very entertaining. She is a teacher in elementary and teachers for Kansas State. I helped out with the technology piece and flipped slides for her.

The last session is called Keeping it Real for Kids: Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships to Make Dynamic Learning Experiences for Every Student by Dyane Swokorowski. She was incredibly energetic and inspiring. She is the Kansas teacher of the year and had a lot of good examples for keeping things relevant for kids. After the session, I drove back home and it was a gorgeous drive. I am not much for driving (I would rather fly), but it was a nice trip since we are at the peak of fall.