It's.... Spring!

Happy Spring MALT Members!  I hope all of you are enjoying some warmer weather and the opportunity to be outdoors enjoying a little sunshine.  After such a cold and snowy February, I am definitely looking forward to balmier days ahead.
It is hard to believe, but our Spring Conference is less than three weeks away.  Our presenter, Tina Hargaden, will be sharing strategies to provide more interaction and communication in your language classrooms.  In addition she will be sharing literacy strategies and ideas for teaching grammar in context. As a result, you should have some new information you can take back to your classrooms and implement on Monday!   If you have not yet registered, the deadline for early registration is this Friday, March 29th. You can download a registration form here.  This is very important if you want to guarantee that we have a lunch for you.  We will be on the campus at University of Montana-Western, and they are taking care of the catering, so we need a final number for their planning purposes.  At this point we have more than 50 members who are planning to attend! Our schedule will be as follows:


Friday April 12th Schedule of Events
7:30 to 8:00- Registration at UMW Lewis & Clark Room in Mathews Hall (see map)
8:00 to 12:00- Conference with Tina Hargaden
12:00 to 1:00- Lunch catered by UMW
1:00 to 4:00- Conference with Tina Hargaden
4:30 to 7:00- Happy Hour with EF Tours at The Den


Saturday April 13th Schedule of Events
8:00 to 9:00- MALT Members Meeting & Coffee
9:00 to 10:00- Book Club Discussion led by Elisa de los Rios
10:00 to 12:00- Coursework and/or collaboration workshop led by MALT Board Members.

This conference will be an historical moment for MALT.  For the first time our members will have the opportunity to earn one college credit in addition to the OPI Renewal Units that we always offer.  To receive the college credit, you must register before April 12th using the following form for UM-Western: credit.  On Saturday our group discussions will be divided into two so that anyone who is seeking the credit option will be partnered with another instructor who is also seeking credit.  Most of the requirements will be presented to the group on Friday and Saturday, but it is very important that you read the book,  While We Are On the Topic:  BVP on Language, Acquisition, and Classroom Practice by Bill Van Patten, and attend the book club discussion Saturday morning at 9:00 AM.  Our Vice-President, Blakely Edgington,  put together a really nice outline of the requirements, if you would like to click on this link.  Rest assured, there will be great opportunities for professional dialogue whether you are seeking the college credit or not.
Those of you who attended the Spring Conference last year will notice that we have moved the business meeting to 8:00 AM on Saturday.  We hope we will have many of you join us, as we do have some important ideas we would like to discuss, and we want your input. Both the college credit and the different time for the business meeting came from suggestions from members after the meeting in Great Falls.   At the end of this conference, we will also be soliciting your input about future professional development, so please think about ideas that will help to improve your conference experience.
I would like to end with some more great news.  Our scholarship winner this year is Ms. Sarah Hamburg,  who currently teaches in Victor. She is very excited to be joining us at Dillon, and I know all of you will give her a warm welcome.  Our presenter at the Fall MFPE Conference in Belgrade in October will be Laura Terrill, who co-authored The Keys to Planning for Learning: Effective Curriculum, Unit, and Lesson Design.  Laura also served a term as our ACTFL President, and we are so excited to have her come to Montana in the fall.  We will finalize our plans for her fall presentation based on the feedback we receive from all of you at the Spring Conference.  I personally am looking forward to seeing each one of you in Dillon. Safe travels, and hasta pronto!

​- Alice Nation, MALT President