In MacIntyre's article, Languages Joining Forces For Language Instructors Retreat, we follow the first retreat at Dalhousie University connecting approximately 30 language instructors. Magali Dam-Mazzi, a fellow Spanish instructor at the college, was encouraged to facilitate the professional development retreat when, even after several years, she did not know every language instructor at the college.
The retreat’s goals were to “collaborate and forge connections across the university” (MacIntyre). This skill is essential when working in any learning environment…networking and collaboration allows educators to bounce ideas around with one another and develop stronger curriculum for all students. The professional development, which was conducted by Scott Douglas, went over his discoveries in principles and strategies of vocabulary teaching and learning. Thoughts on the retreat were well liked. Talk has been discussed to make this conference an annual retreat to foster continued networking and collaboration.
I’m very impressed that Magali took the initiative to establish this conference. Often times many people won’t take the next step in fixing an issue. However, she took it and ran with it and as a result, many language educators were able to meet and learn from one another.
Resources:
MacIntyre, G. (2018, June 18). Languages joining forces for Language Instructors Retreat. Retrieved June 19, 2018, from https://www.dal.ca/news/2018/06/18/languages-joining-forces-for-language-instructors-retreat.html
Collaboration is one of the 7 Cs of 21st-century learning, a goal that we as teachers have for all of our students; however, the importance of educator collaboration is equally important. Collaboration is integral in the reflection and improvement of current teaching methodologies. We can learn from each other!
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