Reflecting on 2025: A Year of Connection, Growth, and Community
As the final days of 2025 unfold, all of us at Idioma find ourselves looking back with immense gratitude. This year has been a testament to the resilience and passion of the world language teaching community. From the exciting convention halls of the ACTFL Convention & Expo New Orleans to the quiet moments of inspiration in our monthly newsletters, 2025 was a year defined by proficiency, partnership, and professional growth.
Before we turn the page to 2026, let’s take a moment to celebrate the milestones we reached together.
On the Road: Meeting You Where Connection Happens
There is nothing quite like the energy of a conference full of language educators! This year, we took Idioma on the road to connect with you face-to-face:
ACTFL Convention & Expo (New Orleans): Meeting so many of you at booth #1207 was a true highlight. Between the jazz, the beignets, and the inspiring sessions, the spirit of "The Big Easy" fueled our mission.
National Strength: We were honored to present and learn alongside you at AATSP, the AI Summit with Lologramos, DECTFL, FLAVA, NHAWLT, RIFLA, MAFLA, and TFLA. These national association, state and regional conferences remind us that while our languages may differ, our goals for our students and our own professional growth are the same.
Advocacy in Action: Idioma at the Capitol: Our President and Founder, Mellissia Walles, joined language advocates from across the country to meet directly with policymakers at the JNCL-NCLIS Language Advocacy Days.
Idioma’s President & Founder, Mellissia Walles
Empowering the Educator: Credits and Careers
We know that your professional development is an investment in your future. In 2025, we focused on making that path smoother:
Graduate Pathways: We expanded our partnership programs by partnering with ACTFL for Convention & Expo credit, OWLA and NHAWLT for membership benefits for world language teachers in Ohio and New Hampshire, and Montana teachers can now earn state-approved PDUs through our online courses, helping more teachers than ever earn graduate-level credits for salary advancement and certification.
Research & Advocacy: Our President, Mellissia Walles, contributed vital research to the NECTFL Review on teacher recruitment and retention, ensuring that the voices of world language educators are heard at the highest levels of academia and policy. Read more here!
Alternate Routes to Licensure: Idioma is a New Jersey Department of Education approved alternate route provider for world language teachers seeking certification in the state of New Jersey. We are very proud to share that four of our candidates completed the program in 2025! Congratulations to these candidates as they transition to their Standard Certificate! We are excited to continue our support for the current candidates in the program, and we are always welcoming new candidates. Learn more about the program here!
Idioma’s Director of Professional Learning & Marketing, Elisa Kirschhoffer with participants from the Shrewsbury Proficiency Bootcamp
In the Classroom: Strategies for Engagement & Authentic Communication
At our core, we want to provide tools that make your Monday mornings easier and more impactful. This year, Idioma’s workshop facilitators visited departments in-person and virtually to share instructional strategies that work for the proficiency-based classroom. We shared some of those strategies in our Idioma News posts as well!
Proficiency 101: Our Shrewsbury Proficiency Bootcamp helped educators move beyond "checking boxes" to design tasks that promote real-world communication and learner agency. Read more about Idioma in Shrewsbury here!
Unifying and Spiraling the Curriculum: Idioma continues to work with school districts in Massachusetts to unify and spiral world language curriculum across the department. Learn more about bringing Idioma to your district here!
Making the Most of the Modes: Sharing research-based strategies you can use in your classroom immediately is one of our favorite things to do, and we were lucky enough to give workshops on using all three modes of communication, empowering students to take the lead on their own learning, routine strategies to support all learners, and effective feedback and grading practices that make teaching easier and maximize our prep time. Learn more about bringing Idioma to your district here!
The Pre-Break Survival Strategies: We shared acquisition-driven strategies to channel pre-break restlessness into learning. From holiday-themed "ClipChats" to "Music Madness" brackets and "Write, Draw, Pass," we focused on maintaining 90% target language use through high-interest, low-prep activities. Read the post here!
A Heartfelt Thank You
To our community of teachers: You are the architects of global empathy. Every time you help a student communicate their thoughts or understand a cultural nuance, you are building a bridge in a world that needs them more than ever.
Thank you for choosing Idioma as your partner in this journey. Whether you took a course with us, stopped by our booth at a conference, or simply read our emails, you are part of our story.
Wishing you a restful holiday season and a brilliant start to 2026.
Keep the momentum going!
