Time

Event

Presenter

10:00 am (15 mins)

Open Conference

(Live)

Luis Deocares

GWATFL President

10:15 am to 11:00 am (30 mins) (15 min)

Many Languages: Keynote & Keynote Q&A

(Live)

Can-Do Learning:  A Blueprint for Reaching Higher

Paul Sandrock

11:00 am to 11:15 am (15 mins)

Music

(Pre-recorded)

Tim Young

Pianist, Composer & Educator

11:15 am to 11:45 am

(30 mins)

Many Students:

Session 1 (Pre - recorded)

Learning Variability 

Jessica Jackson

11:45 am to 12:30 pm

(45 mins)

Many Students:

Global Citizenship Panel and Q&A

(Live)

Learning is co-designing with the students

Rola Tibshirani*

Veronica Boix-Mansilla

Connie Rensink

Barbara Anna Zielonka

12:30 pm to 1:00 pm

(30 mins)

GWATFL STAT

(Live)

Social Time Away-Together

Glenda de Hoyos

1:00 pm - 1:15 pm

(15 mins)

Many Ways:

Session 2.1

(Pre-recorded)

Play in the target language. Engage with Curiosity. Connect with students!

Amanda Hsiung-Blodgett

1:15 pm - 1:30 pm

(15 mins)

Many Ways: Session 2.2 (Pre-recorded)

Many Ways to Organize for Many Students

Meredith White

1:30 pm - 2:15 pm

(45 mins)

Many Ways:

EdTech Panel and Q&A

(Live)

Engaging Learners with Tech Tools Across the Modes

Heidi Trude*

Maris Hawkins

Edwige Simon

Nathalie Ettzevoglou

2:15 pm - 3:00 pm

(45 mins)

Many Students: Social Justice Panel and Q&A

(Live)

Having 2020 Vision: Courageously Seeing Our World Language Students

Sheena Jordan*

Abelardo Almazán-Vázquez

Simon Ponce

Sandra Sachar

3:00 pm - 3:15 pm

(15 mins)

Award Ceremony & Closing

(Live)

GWATFL Awards

Luis Deocares

GWATFL Teacher of the Year

Best of GWATFL

LifeTime Recognition Award

Paul Sandrock, Director of Education at ACTFL, directs this organization’s professional development and initiatives around standards, curriculum, instruction, and performance assessment.  While at ACTFL, Paul has facilitated the revision of the national World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages and the NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements, and before that was a member of the original Integrated Performance Assessment development team. Previously, Paul was Assistant Director of Content and Learning at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI), coordinating the areas of English language arts, mathematics, international education, and world languages. He earlier served as the Wisconsin DPI state-wide consultant for world languages. Paul taught Spanish for 16 years in middle school and high school and authored The Keys to Assessing Language Performance as well as Planning Curriculum for Learning World Languages.

Jessica Jackson is Practitioner Partnerships Director at the Learner Variability Project. Jessica comes to Digital Promise with 19 years of experience in turn-around school work and a passion for innovative education that addresses the whole child.  Previously as Director of Academic Achievement, she designed instructional systems and professional development to scale for a network of schools at Capstone Education Group.  She was a founding principal of an integrated arts elementary school where she created a pathways program designed to allow students to pursue their own passions. She served as a New Leader Resident and a Relay National Principal Institute Fellow. She also taught third- and fourth-grade in Memphis, TN, and Brooklyn, NY.  She has her Masters in Education from Pace University in New York and her undergraduate degree from the University of Richmond.

Rola Tibshirani a middle school French immersion teacher with the Ottawa Catholic School Board. Passionate about students taking ownership of their learning and applying Integrative Thinking and Design Thinking processes when embracing challenges. Connecting students ​to make a difference in solving ​real-world problems ​and making a difference in their communities locally and globally. A co-learner with and from the students by encouraging reflections on all learning tasks.

Barbara Anna Zielonka has worked as an English teacher, educational technology specialist and teacher trainer at Nannestad High School for the past 12 years. In 2007, she earned her master’s degree from the University of Silesia, Poland. During the past seven years, she has participated in post-secondary learning programmes in Norway and abroad on a regular basis. In 2012, she was one of the teachers representing Norway in the Teachers SummerInstitute 2012 in Amherst (Massachusetts) sponsored by the United States Department of State under the Fulbright Program. In 2014, she co-authored an English textbook for vocational students. In May 2017, Barbara received ”Gullepleprisen 2017” from the Norwegian Educational Data Society (NPeD). This prestigious prize is awarded once a year to an educator who has used ICT in teaching in an innovative way.

In June 2017, Barbara became one of the winners of the Great Global Project Challenge Grant for one of her global projects called "The Universe is Made of Tiny Stories".In her teaching of English Barbara focuses on the power of international projects,pedagogical use of ICT tools, sustainable development goals, learner empowerment and connections-based learning. Several of her global and collaborative projects have been recognized internationally and have received the European Quality Labels. In March 2018, Barbara became one of the top 10 finalists of the Global Teacher Prize. In May 2018, Barbara became the laureate of the “Outstanding Pole in Norway” contest. She published "Keys to Educational Success: The Teaching Methods of a Top 10 Finalist of the Global Teacher Prize" in May 2019. She also serves as an ambassador in the following organizations -eTwinning, HundrED and Varkey Foundation.

Connie Rensink is the Director of Global Education and Outreach at iEARN-USA. As a global education specialist with 12 years of experience in the classroom, Connie is dedicated to helping teachers and schools integrate global competency into existing curriculum. In her role at iEARN, Connie is responsible for developing and implementing strategy to offer high-quality, engaging global learning opportunities for K-12 youth while growing the number of U.S. students engaging in iEARN projects and gaining global competence.

Veronica Boix-Mansilla, Ed. D. Harvard University, is a Senior Principal Investigator at Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Director of Research at Re-imagining Migration and Senior Fellow in Museum Practice at the Smithsonian Institution.  An international expert on global competence education, her research examines conditions that enable individuals to understand and take action on the most pressing issues of our times (e.g. migration, globalization, climate change) through quality disciplinary and interdisciplinary work and develop the dispositions necessary to live harmoniously in increasingly diverse societies.

Her research and publications address the development and assessment of global competence among students, signature pedagogies in global education; as well as cultural re-interpretations of global competence in China, Japan, Vietnam, Argentina and the USA.  Boix-Mansilla has co-led the conceptual development of key global competence frameworks at the OECD-PISA, International Baccalaureate, Project Zero, Asia Society and the Council of Chief State School Officers. She works nationally and internationally to advance research-based education innovations for an interconnected world on the move.

Her most recent initiative Re-imagining Migration examines the importance of nurturing integrated global competence dispositions among immigrant-origin and receiving youth preparing them to build more inclusive and democratic societies.    

Glenda De Hoyos is a passionate educator with 15 years of experience. Throughout her career, she has been committed to create inspiring, meaningful and joyous activities that motivate students to thrive and become life-long learners. She teaches Spanish in grades preschool through 2nd grade and is the World Languages Department Chair at The Langley School in McLean, Virginia. Glenda received her B.A. in Humanities with a concentration in Modern Languages from the University of Puerto Rico and her M.A. in Curriculum and Education from the Metropolitan University in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She has been a presenter at ACTFL, NNELL and GWATFL conferences, and she is always looking for ways to learn, grow, and be challenged. Besides education, Glenda loves reading, exercising, cooking, collecting quotes, dancing, music, and spending quality time with family and friends. Follow Glenda on Twitter @glendadehoyos.

Amanda Hsiung-Blodgett is an experienced language educator, the creator of “Miss Panda Chinese,” a popular online resource for parents and educators, and the host of the “PLAYFUL CHINESE” podcast. She has taught ESL and Chinese language to non-native speakers on four continents. Amanda is the Chinese language consultant for The Jim Henson Company’s Word Party Season 4 on Netflix. She is the author of "Let's Learn Mandarin Chinese with Miss Panda!" audio album and "First Mandarin Sounds: an awesome Chinese word book."

Meredith White earned her B.A., B.S., M.Ed., and Ed.S. all in World Language Education from the University of Georgia. Her focus on novice learners works to ingrain proficiency, authentic resources, genuine tasks, student-guided thematic units, and making language learning enjoyable. When she isn't at PRHS teaching Spanish, she's at Georgia State University teaching educational methods classes or presenting/attending state, regional, and national workshops. Passionate about sharing and collaborating with other teachers, she blogs, moderates the PLN #langchat, and serves on the GGC College of Education Advisory and SEALLT Executive Boards.

Heidi Trude is a French teacher at Loudoun Valley High School in Purcellville, Virginia. She has 13 years of experience teaching every level of French from French I through AP French. She created an international partnership between her school and Lycée-Bazin in Charleville-Mézières, France, to engage her students with the French language and culture. Furthermore, she possesses multiple educational technology certifications and she is a master at integrating technology meaningfully into the world language curriculum. Heidi serves as the President Elect of FLAVA (Foreign Language Association of Virginia), serves as a member of the SCOLT (Southern Conference on Language Teaching) Board of Directors, and serves as a member of the executive board of the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF) Virginia chapter. Heidi is the 2017 Region IV Virginia Teacher of the Year; the 2017 FLAVA David Cox World Language Teacher of the Year; the 2018 SCOLT World Language Teacher of the Year and a 2019 ACTFL Language Teacher of the Year finalist.

Dr. Simon holds a PhD from the Atlas Institute at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where she wrote her dissertation on The Coming of Age of the Virtual Teacher. She holds an M.S. in Educational Technology from Indiana University in Bloomington. Dr. Simon was the Founding Director of the Graduate Certificate in Teaching with Technology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where for five years she designed and managed one of CU’s first fully online program. Prior to that she served at CU Boulder as the Educational Technology Consultant for ten years, where she designed and managed a non-credit professional development program for University faculty.

Dr. Simon has authored numerous publications and participated in and on many panels, talks, and workshops. She is the Founder and Editor of the FLTMAG, a quarterly online magazine on technology integration in the language classroom. She received the ACTFL Award for Excellence in Technology Integration in Language Education at the ACTFL Conference in November of 2019.

Dr. Simon currently works for the International Center for Language Studies (Washington DC) as Instructional Technology and Online Learning Director.

Maris Hawkins is a lower and middle school Spanish teacher at Capitol Hill Day School in Washington, DC. She has a BA in Spanish and art history and a MT in Teaching Foreign Language from the University of Virginia. She is interested in proficiency based foreign language teaching, and has taught Spanish at all levels from elementary school through high school. She has presented at VAIS Technology conference and has talked about arts integration in the classroom through the Kennedy’s Center VSA program. In addition, she has presented about technology tools to use in a proficiency based foreign language classroom at NECTFL and GWATFL.  Maris volunteers on the podcast We Teach Languages.

Nathalie Ettzevoglou is currently a French teacher at Alpharetta High School in Alpharetta, GA. Prior to joining Fulton County Schools in 2014, Nathalie served as Department Chair and Middle School French Teacher at Stratford Academy for three years. During graduate studies at UCONN, Nathalie began to develop her passion for educational technology in regards to 21st century world language skills. She has since then presented at national conferences such as ACTFL, IALLT, FLAG, and SCOLT. She is currently serving as IALLT's K-12 representative and co-chair of the 2020 ACTFL Cengage Postsecondary Award. Nathalie loves learning and sharing with other educators. Nathalie also has a graduate certificate from the University of Colorado at Boulder in Language Teaching and Technology. 

Sheena Jordan has been edifying young minds in foreign language for over 20 years.  Sheena earned her BA from James Madison University in Spanish and holds a Master of Arts in Intercultural Communication from the University of Maryland in Baltimore County.  In 2017 Sheena was selected as the GWATFL Teacher of the Year and went on to become a finalist for Northeast Conference for Teachers of Foreign Language (NECTFL)Teacher of the Year in 2018.  The following year, in 2019 at the NECTFL conference Ms. Jordan proudly served as a mentor for new teachers in the world language profession.   Sheena is currently the Director of Diversity at Glenelg Country School in Ellicott City, Maryland and is passionately committed to increasing social justice awareness in the world language arena and beyond.  Sheena has served on the GWATFL board since 2018.

Abelardo Almazán-Vázquez is in his 10th year teaching Spanish, coaching an all-gender soccer team, and teaching Latin Dance at The Putney School. He pursued his Licenciatura in Teaching Spanish as a Second Language at Universidad Internacional UNINTER, and his Master's degree in Latin American Studies at Cleveland State University. Abelardo has been here as an immigrant for 18 years. Native from the beautiful “City of the Eternal Spring”, Cuernavaca Mexico, He is truly devoted to continuing building bridges these days -not walls- and always finding rooms for meaningful and positive dialogues across the divide.

Sandra Sachar likes to challenge status quo, break barriers, and empower students and colleagues to discover their purpose and take action. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, she grew up feeling the pull of diverse cultures and languages - Taino, Basque; English and Spanish. In college she met her husband, born in India but raised in the USA from childhood. She welcomed another culture and language into her life, raising three children with the awareness of all of them. She started her career as a counselor but for the past 21 years has been an educator. She started teaching in public school but for the past 17 years has taught at Calvert School, and independent school in Baltimore City, Maryland. Here she has held several leadership roles: Director of Global Outreach, Middle School Diversity Club Proctor and World Languages Department Coordinator. Open minded, creative, energetic and a good listener, Sandra often engages in courageous conversations with students and colleagues. She believes the world is our community, and equity and inclusion our goal. Therefore, it is crucial to provide students with opportunities to thrive where they can authentically learn about the world and its people and gain the skills needed to understand themselves and their place in the world, accept and respect others, and feel that they belong and can take positive action for all.

Simon Ponce: I am a visionary educator committed to the education of the whole student. With over 10 years of experience in independent schools, my main focus  has been to help people unleash their inner potential and individual vision for a better future, whether through Spanish, History, Politics, or even rowing. I am committed to equity and inclusion and stand in awe of all the diverse ways in which humanity presents itself. I served as Director for Inclusive Community at SP for the last four years and now I am consulting educational institutions. I am a global citizen committed to making a local impact in all of my intentional communities; born in Venezuela and currently residing in Baltimore.