Make Your Case for Attending MCTLC 2015
Making the case for participating in professional development and support for travel and other expenses to attend MCTLC's Fall Conference requires a solid understanding of the potential benefits to your school/institution, supervisor, and colleagues. You need to be able to communicate these benefits clearly—especially in times of tight budgets and reduced staff. Use the information that follows to help make your case.
Steps:
- Familiarize yourself with why attending the convention will be valuable to you as a language educator.
- Present the costs, showing how much you can save if you register and book travel and housing early.
- Study any preliminary information about the program that is available, identifying sessions and programs that fit with your school or institution’s priorities and could benefit you professionally.
- Share preliminary program information with your colleagues. Talk to your colleagues about how your attending could benefit them, what kind of information you could bring back to help them, and what sessions they’d like you to attend.
- Share program information with your supervisor and find out what sessions they think would be of greatest benefit.
- Review the list of Pre- and Post‐conference workshops to see if this extra day of intensive training would be beneficial to you and your colleagues.
- Put together a plan for how essential tasks, including your teaching responsibilities, will get done while you’re away, including how technology will keep you accessible and in touch as needed.
- Describe how you’ll share notes you take from attending sessions, roundtables, and electronic posters and useful information you gather from exhibitors and informal conversations with colleagues. State that a written report will be provided to your supervisor. Promise that you’ll focus on implementing one new idea that pays back many times the investment of time and money!
- Put your request in writing — use this sample memo below to help.
Sample Memo to Your Administrator or Staff Development Committee
To: Your Administrator
From: You
Re: Attendance at the 2015 Minnesota Council on the Teaching of Languages and Cultures (MCTLC) Fall Conference
Date: As early as possible
The 2015 Minnesota Council on the Teaching of Languages and Cultures (MCTLC) Fall Conference is being held Friday, October 23, and Saturday, October 24, in Brooklyn Center in north Minneapolis.
Everything from five pre- and post-conference workshops to over 35 sessions, meetings and events will be held during the conference -- all in one convenient location. CEUs will be available in Technology, Literacy, and Diverse Learners. CEU forms will be available on-site for convenience. The MCTLC Conference has the reputation for being a top educational and networking event for language educators across Minnesota . The educational sessions and the networking opportunities with colleagues from around the state have an outstanding track record for bringing long‐term professional benefits, including sharing ideas and best practices throughout the language education field. If I am supported to attend the MCTLC conference, here are some ways in which I will ensure that the investment pays dividends for our language program, and how I will make the most of the opportunity for professional development. I will attend the following programs, among others:
State the value of additional training you would receive by attending one of the Pre or Post‐conference workshops. Check them out the post-conference workshops at http://www.mctlc.org/postconf2015 and here is the Pre-Conference workshop:
5:00-8:00 pm, Thursday, October 22, 2015 Beginning Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS) & Comprehensible Input (CI)-Based Strategies Carol Gaab
How can teachers prevent students from exiting language study without ever attaining a measurable level of fluency? By creating a hybrid immersion experience in which students begin developing fluency from day ONE! This highly engaging workshop will demonstrate how to teach language through several powerful, yet simple instructional strategies that are effective for all learning styles and ability levels. Learn how to make input comprehensible, how to engage students and how to provide instruction that naturally facilitates language acquisition.
List 8‐10 educational sessions related to your work that you would like to attend and why they will help you do your job better. Check out the sessions at http://www.mctlc.org/Session-2015
I will plan on spending time in the exhibit hall to meet with exhibitors as appropriate, to build our professional relationships. I will focus on attending some of the exhibitor workshops to hear about new products and see demonstrations of the latest technologies looking for cost‐effective innovations and new products that would benefit our school. Here is the exhibitor list:
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ASTA Travel AMSCO/Perfection Learning APBI Barbette Restaurant Brave New Workshop CETA Tours CENGAGE National Geographic Concordia Language Villages Confucius Institute at the University of Minnesota Education at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts Education First - EF |
Ed-Ventures, Inc. EMC Publishing Illusion Theatre Intercultural Student Experiences, ISE Language and Friendship, Inc. SANS Inc. Sony Digital Labs Vista Higher Learning Minnesota Zoo Santillana USA TPRS Publishing Incorporated Vistas in Education |
List new products you’ve read or heard about and wish to see demos of (e.g., VHL texts on-line, Concordia Language Villages Master’s Program)
The networking at MCTLC Conferences is outstanding. I will seek to connect with people whose ideas and specializations can contribute to my professional development and education, making me increasingly effective in my position. I will network with people I meet while attending sessions and other events. After I return, I will take the following steps to ensure that what I learn benefits language education program:
Implement at least one new idea that makes us more efficient and/or effective.
Share notes on sessions
Share my list of action items and general ideas
Provide a written report
I will need one day away from school to attend, Friday October 23. The costs are as follows:
[provide a budget listing all anticipated expenses Mileage, Hotel, Substitute]
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Minnesota Council on the Teaching of Languages and Cultures PO Box 11926, St. Paul MN 55111
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