Our talk is about how we can incorporate World Languages into the Creative Classroom (or grade-level homeroom) We have even started a blog that has some ideas and materials of what we've done together, incorporating grade-level curriculum into the language classroom, and incorporating world languages into the contained classroom. Check out http://classroomconnections.tumblr.com and see what we've done so far!
Our first presentation was at FFLA. We had a friendly audience because many of my friends and colleagues (fellow Chinese teachers) were all in the "Chinese conference room" -- where all the Chinese related talks were given. However, it was also great to see many teachers of other languages come and listen to our talk, participate, and respond. Many, in fact, asked for copies of our PowerPoint afterward. I remember doing lots of flash drive swapping. Everyone was engaged, participated, and contributed ideas. It was a really energizing to hear people speak so positively about the talk and what they were able to learn af
Our second talk was at FKC. We started out customizing the talk for just Kindergarten teachers, but then included other grade levels in our talk when we realized that teachers of many grade levels all were in attendance at FKC. There weren't as many language teachers there, or if there were, the language teachers didn't end up attending our talk. The problem with conferences is there is often more than one talk that is of interest--at the same time. It must be a corollary to Murphy's law--if there are two talks that you want to attend, they will be scheduled at the same time. Any how, we had an interested and engaged audience, but there was only 4 in attendance. And they weren't quite as animated, so it definitely affected the energy level in the room. We ended up not asking for volunteers for our place value demonstration and so the talk, to me, rated "OK" but not "wow."
Then, yesterday, we gave our talk at FCIS. It was the largest overall audience we've presented to yet! There was standing room only and between 40 and 50 that were in attendance! We had a great audience, engaged, participating,and really gave a great energy to the room. It was definitely our best talk yet! I think we've definitely stumbled on something that is of interest to many teachers and administrators...how to encourage teachers to coordinate, communicate, and connect between classrooms. It's how we will be teaching in the future--we need to come out of our classrooms, talk to each other and collaborate to provide the best education for our students.