"How I Spent My Summer Vacation" by Erin Gibbons, Part 2: Mlle G. goes to La Louisiane

As some of my readers know (because that's how you became my readers!), I gave my first presentation to a national audience of French teachers this summer at the AATF Annual Convention. One week after returning from France, and I was off to La Nouvelle Orléans!

Those who are interested in the presentation itself can refer to my blog page created just for that reason.
This was a great experience for me, personally as well as professionally.

Safe space...right, Internet? I'm kind of a professional development junkie.  I have gone to more French teaching workshops than would probably be considered normal.  And it's not a chore to me.  I love it.  I've presented at ICTFL twice now, and I was able to test out my flipped class presentation on my classmates at the CAVILAM earlier in the summer, but this summer's AATF convention was the big show.

The feedback on my presentation was great.  I've discovered that I really get a lot out of helping other teachers to realize their abilities, problem-solve, and incorporate technology and other nouveautés in meaningful ways.  It's something I enjoy and hope to continue doing for the rest of my career.  I just really love to teach, whether I'm teaching my students or colleagues.

Some of my favorite topics/workshops/encounters at the 2014 Convention were:

• Sarah Smith's presentation "First, You Start With a Roux" on teaching Cajun culture and really any of the presentations I attended on French in North America.
• Alicia Gonzalez's take on reviewing passé composé and imparfait.  That was one of the first things I put into practice this year!
• Deanna Scheffer's workshop on this year's AP French exam results.  So helpful!
• I was honestly pleased with and impressed by every session I attended.  Just like my CAVILAM experience, though, I'm probably looking forward to a lot of extra-long work days just because I can't NOT use these great new ideas. #frenchteacherproblems
• Meeting up with Julie Baker from the University of Richmond (VA) (Ha! It's funny because I teach in Richmond, too. That's why it's funny.)  She shared with me some great approaches to culture: not just Products-Practice-Perspectives, but also Describe-Interpret-DON'T Evaluate.
• Having food and fun with some old and new French teacher friends. Emeril's restaurant NOLA is totally worth a visit.  Basically, the tour de food did not stop.  But I didn't get around to crawfish étouffée.
• The walking tour was pretty neat.  Rather than the "Here's a building. This is why it's interesting." model, we learned about one particular well-to-do family while exploring the French Quarter.  Pretty neat.