The BEGINNER TRACK is designed for teachers that are new to teaching with methods that implement Comprehensible Input.  Generally, if teachers have been to less than 1 or 2 workshops, the Beginner Track is a perfect start. This workshop is for teachers who are new to TPR Storytelling® or for teachers who feel that they need to revisit and practice the fundamentals of the method. Develop TPRS® skills with step-by-step training. Be a student in a language classroom. Practice with an experienced team of coaches. 

LANGUAGE EXPERIENCE:
You will experience learning Mandarin as a student in a TPRS class. You will be amazed by how much language you will learn over our three days together! Having the opportunity to be a student and a teacher at the same time will allow you to experience first-hand the skills essential to this method. This track starts on Monday and ends on Wednesday with open sessions on Thursday and Friday.

The INTERMEDIATE TRACK is a three-day workshop that will highlight the following topics:

• managing the class during stories to maximize student engagement,
• taking suggestions and story details from students,
• moving beyond basic circling,
• adding variety to spice up your teaching,
• and finding your TPRS style in the classroom.

The Intermediate Track is designed for teachers that have been to a handful of workshops, are proficient in conducting lesson using storytelling strategies and have been a language teacher for more than 3 years. This track starts on Monday and ends on Wednesday with open sessions on Thursday and Friday. This year’s Intermediate Track will implement TPRS with Presenters Michelle Kindt and Craig Sheehy.

The ADVANCED TRACK is a three day workshop designed for teachers that have been Teaching with TPRS and CI methods for multiple years.  Teachers that have attended multiple workshops or conferences and are comfortable teaching novels, circling, triangling, personalization, and dramatization.

This track has a multiple presenters with varied topics to meet the advanced TPRS teachers’ needs! This workshop will consist of a cohort of experienced TPRS teachers who will reflect together and be coached in advanced TPRS skills: how to maximize personalization, spin highly personalized stories from creative student ideas and use TPRS techniques to engage in meaningful conversations with depth and complexity from beginning levels to AP.   Learn to better manage a highly interactive classroom by developing a positive classroom environment. Visit K-12 classrooms via videoclips to see TPRS strategies in action and how well they align with the ACTFL CORE Practices.

Some of these sessions will be presented by Blaine Ray, Amy Marshall, Grant Boulanger, Adriana Ramírez, Sabrina Sebban-Janczak, Karen Rowan and more.

The CHINESE TRACK is a three-day workshop taught in Mandarin Chinese. This is for teachers who teach Mandarin Chinese using TPRS.

Topics include:

1. Chinese Demo: Story-asking – Getting Started

The purpose of this demo is to offer all participants in the Chinese track an opportunity to observe how collaborative storytelling is done. Participants will observe how the 3 steps of TPRS can be finished in an hour. They will also witness the power of pinyin text and Cold Character Reading.

2. Story-Asking: Getting Started

Participants will look at backwards design concepts and how to intentionally select essential phrases for lessons and units. Working in small groups, participants will connect with the presenter and coaches as they design short story scripts. After designing scripts, participants will again work with the presenter and coaches via a number of hands-on practice activities, and practice the actual skill of story-asking with students.

3. Story-Asking: Additional Skills

After being exposed to the basic skills necessary for story-asking, the third day continues with adding skills that move a story plot, create natural opportunities for repetition, and increase the amount of Comprehensible Input and interaction per lesson. Working with the presenter, coaches and other participants, the participants will observe and practice the following: utilizing more than one location, creating a parallel character, creating a parallel story, and personalization.

Any K-8 teachers are welcome to join our cohort as various program models and age groups will be addressed throughout the ongoing workshop and all TPRS skill levels beginning, intermediate and advanced are welcome.

Michelle Kindt

Michelle Kindt has over 20 years of teaching experience at both the middle and high school levels in public education. A National Board Certified teacher, Michelle currently works as a French teacher (Levels 1-AP) at Hershey High School in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Michelle has had the privilege of developing all of the curriculum for the high school French program. Michelle works with language teachers all over the country touting the message of Comprehensible Input (CI) and its significance to language acquisition and happy classrooms! As a teacher-trainer and coach, Michelle works with small cohorts of teachers over the course of each school year, introducing the cohort members to CI strategies and facilitating its use in their classrooms. In addition to state and local venues Michelle has had the privilege of presenting Comprehensible Input theories and strategies at national conferences, such as IFLT, NTPRS & ACTFL. She has worked with other school districts to develop curriculum and train teachers. She very much enjoys working with World Language teachers, encouraging them to teach for proficiency outcomes via acquisition-driven language instruction. Michelle believes that working with the right CI coach will make all the difference in using CI in your classroom!

Craig Sheehy

Craig, a former high school student of Blaine’s, Craig learned TPRS as a student teacher in 2005 and, after seeing tremendous results, has been passionate about ever since. Craig became a National Presenter for TPRS books in 2009 and now works and presents full time to a nationwide audience. He taught in the Nampa School District in Nampa, Idaho from 2005 to 2017. Craig has a Bachelor’s Degree in Spanish with a Business Minor and a Master’s in Education: Curriculum and Instruction from Boise State University. He has taught all levels of Spanish and taught as an adjunct professor in the Modern Languages and Literatures Department at Boise State University from 2003 to 2017 and the College of Western Idaho from 2009 to 2017. Craig has also served as President of both IATLC (Idaho Association of Teachers of Languages and Cultures) and PNCFL (Pacific Northwest Council for Languages). Craig currently resides in Nampa with his wife and five children.

Blaine Ray

Blaine is the inventor of TPRS and author of several TPRS materials. Blaine developed and refined TPRS while teaching high school for over 20 years in Ontario, OR and Bakersfield, CA. During a 4-year period while teaching in CA, more of Blaine’s students passed the AP Spanish test than 13 other high schools in the district combined. Blaine is an experienced presenter and has given TPRS presentations in all 50 states and in many foreign countries in various settings. He currently resides with his family in Woods Cross, UT, where he continues to teach Spanish as a volunteer at a local high school and online on a regular basis. (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCttcQPNVdv043bjpRH5saww)

Adriana Ramírez

Adriana Ramirez works in Canada, in the province of British Columbia as a Spanish teacher. She has been a language teacher for more than 12 years. She is a well-known CI author and presenter. She has published several books with stories (in Spanish and French), to teach through storytelling and comprehensible input. She constantly presents at workshops in both Canada and the US. She trains and coaches teachers on applying CI techniques in the classroom, and welcomes guests to her classroom so they can see the power of TPRS first hand. You can watch a video of Adriana in her classroom on her youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsnrjR8QVCUD56gLPmycrug 

Amy Marshall

Amy has been teaching for 18 years at the college, high school and middle school levels. For the past 11 years she has been teaching Spanish to children in grades 6-8. Amy used to be a passionate grammar teacher, but once she discovered the world of TPRS and other comprehensible input teaching techniques, there was no denying the success she was seeing in her students and there was no turning back! She is on a journey to constantly question and challenge herself and to become the best that she can be at this craft. It is exciting to have this growing community of like-minded educators to share and work with and to learn from!

When Amy is not teaching, she is a mother of five amazing kids, wife to a great guy and zookeeper to two rabbits, 4 cats, 1 dog and a horse. If she’s not playing with her kids, she’s working with her horse or hiding somewhere reading a book.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZlv2kL41ogvJgGhuFXTDww

Pu-mei Leng

Pu-mei currently teaches high school Chinese at McDonogh School in Baltimore County. She has taught middle school at Hong Kong International School and middle school and high school at Montgomery Public School System since 2005. She has been teaching with the TPRS and Comprehensible Input methods for more than ten years and is a regular presenter and a coach at the annual National TPRS conference, the annual ACTFL national conference and several Chinese teachers associations. Pu-mei has mentored three Chinese teachers sponsored by the Council of International Education and the State Department and two student teachers from the University of Maryland. Her interest is in content-based curriculum development and writing. She has published ten leveled readers for Chinese language learners.

Jason Fritz

Jason Fritze has over 20 years of teaching experience at all levels (elementary, middle, high school, and university) in public (urban and suburban) as well as independent (private) education. A National Board Certified teacher, Jason currently develops curriculum and teaches in the elementary Spanish language program for Laguna Beach Unified schools in where he resides in Laguna Beach, CA. He works with language teachers around the globe in CI-based approaches, including TPRS & TPR, content-based instruction, reading strategies, reader’s theatre, etc. Jason also teaches intensive Spanish and French language classes to adult learners and is one of the cofounders of iFLT. Jason is a Nationally Board Certified Teacher (WLOE-Spanish). As a teacher trainer and coach he has worked with thousands of language teachers throughout the United States, Latin America, Europe and Asia. 

To be announced soon!

AIRPORTS NEARBY:

• MSP

TRANSPORTATION FROM THE AIRPORT TO THE HOTEL:

Monday Lunch (Keynote Luncheon) and Friday Lunch (Conference Closing Luncheon) will be provided.

Breakfast – Monday through Friday is available for $100

Lunch – Tuesday through Thursday is available for $100 (Lunch on Monday and Friday are included in the price of registration)