Why might you find me at a Learning Support conference?  Excited to be joining professionals from the Japan Learning Support Network for my talk "Neurodiversity and Multilingual Identities: An Ecosystem Approach" on October 28th at St. Mary's International School in Tokyo, Japan. I am also proud that this conference is offering hybrid options to accommodate access needs.

Like so many others, the pandemic shifted my practices of teaching and learning.  As a teacher, I had to figure out ways to ensure students had meaningful, engaging, and interactive learning that nurtured their continued content learning, language acquisition, and connection. As a professional learning facilitator, I had to design for adult learning that was also meaningful, engaging, and interactive-with educators who were equally tired of screens and burning the candles at both ends.  I adapted. I had to.  It was my mission to make online professional learning workshops rich in discussion and resources, while also making it joyful and relationship driven. 

All that being said, it was such a delight to be back in person facilitating in-person professional learning workshops this past month.  It was exciting to dust off some discussion strategies that could not transfer to online spaces. It was equally exciting to integrate new learning from online tools into the in-person spaces.  

Additionally, there are increasing opportunities for hybrid learning, I have a few upcoming this semester. Hybrid professional learning creates access in new and exciting ways. 

How do I juggle the needs of the different spaces? Different learning spaces often need tailored strategies. What is the common thread?  Joyful learning. Laughter.  Reflection and collaborative conversations through cognitive dissonance and growth.  Serving multilingual students is joyful.  Transforming our practices and systems can be too.