2024 SIOP® Virtual Conference

Daily Conference Schedule

Tuesday, July 9-Thursday, July 11
12:00-5:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET)
Plus: On-Demand Access to All Sessions for 90 Days

Cost: $280 per person

The 2024 SIOP® Virtual Conference is designed to provide educators with essential tools to support English Learners and multilingual learners. The conference is packed with interactive sessions that feature teaching strategies to improve your everyday classroom practices. Use this letter to support building a case to persuade those in authority to permit and/or endorse your participation in the 2024 SIOP® Virtual Conference.

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The 2024 SIOP® Virtual Conference affords you an exclusive opportunity to interact with the SIOP® Model Authors. Participate in keynotes and breakout sessions featuring Jana Echevarría, MaryEllen Vogt, Deborah Short and Katie Toppel – Authors of the SIOP® Model. Explore key topics, stay up to date with the latest research, and engage with the SIOP® Authors.

Efraín Tovar

Newcomer/ELD Teacher

Experience

Efraín Tovar, a native of Texas who grew up in Kingsburg, California, is a highly regarded educator known for his passionate advocacy of plurilingualism and pluriculturalism. Currently, he serves as the Chair of the English Language Development (ELD) Department in the Selma Unified School District, where he specializes in guiding 7th and 8th grade Newcomers/Long-Term English Learners (LTELs), drawing on his extensive two-decade teaching career. Widely respected as a speaker, Tovar is frequently invited to share his expertise at local, state, national, and international conferences. He is the driving force behind the California Newcomer Network, a platform that connects and empowers educational leaders working with newcomers across California and beyond.

Noteworthy accomplishments include his selection as one of two U.S. educators for the Google for Education Certified Innovator Program in Mexico City in 2016 and his participation in Stanford University's dSchool summer institute for design thinking in 2019. Tovar was honored as the Teacher of the Year for the Selma Unified School District in 2019 and continues to innovate, earning distinctions such as the MetaMetrics Lexile & Quantile Educator Ambassador program in 2022. In 2023, his pioneering teaching methods were showcased on Edutopia, and he received the prestigious CUE Outstanding Educator of the Year award. PBS also featured his innovative approaches in an upcoming segment on PBS KVIE-Inside California Education, highlighting his significant contributions to the field of newcomer education.

The research-based SIOP® (Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol) Model is the only scientifically validated model of sheltered instruction and a proven framework for teaching both academic content and language skills in ways that are more effective for English learners.

As a framework for organizing instruction, the SIOP® Model includes features that are characteristic of high-quality instruction for all students, such as cooperative learning, reading comprehension strategy instruction, and differentiated instruction.

Savvas is the only organization endorsed by SIOP® Authors, working in direct collaboration with them to offer educators the best professional learning experiences and ensure our offerings reflect fidelity to the SIOP® Model.

July 9-11, 2024, from Noon - 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time, each day.

This year’s conference will be held virtually. Approximately two weeks in advance of the event, the week of June 16/23rd, an email will be sent out with directions on logging into the system and accessing the conference.

The 2024 SIOP® Virtual Conference theme is “Time to Shine: Empowering Multilingual Learners.” The conference theme serves as a compelling call to illuminate the path toward student success. The metaphor of "Time to Shine" underscores our pivotal role as educators. It encourages educators to shine brightly as beacons of inspiration, elevating their approaches, and enlightening through innovative teaching practices. Concurrently, the conference theme challenges participants to collectively empower students to shine. It emphasizes fostering inclusive environments that celebrate and build upon students’ linguistic and cultural assets, ensuring that every student's brilliance shines brightly in our interconnected world. Together as educators, we are invited to embrace this transformative journey with the shared commitment to empowering multilingual learners - where both teachers and students shine.

• Develop a stronger knowledge base with access to cutting-edge research and best practices.
• Network with other educators and experts in the field.
• Learn impactful teaching ideas through keynotes, panel discussions and sessions.
• Be inspired by thought leaders, including the SIOP® Authors.
• Attend 30+ engaging sessions and/or watch the recordings available for 90 days after the conference.
• Participate in a variety of session topics to support Long Term English Learners (LTELs), Multilingual learners/ English speakers, Newcomers and more.
• Access classroom resources and tools to support language development.
• Option to earn up to 4 graduate credit hours through the University of the Pacific.
• No travel necessary, attend from anywhere.
• Have fun while learning and growing as an educator.

Participants include K-12 content area teachers, classroom teachers, ESL/ENL teachers, district content coordinators, EL coaches, school administrators, paraprofessionals, and more.

Specific instructions will be sent via email approximately two weeks before our event start date regarding how to log in and attend the conference. This will ensure you have plenty of time to get comfortable with the platform and have the best experience possible. No special devices are required to attend the event, and session recordings will be available on the same platform for 90 days post-conference.

School districts commonly leverage funding sources to invest in student learning by sending educators to the conference. For more information on the types of funding, please refer to this resource.

2024 SIOP® Virtual Conference participants will receive a certificate of participation.

2024 SIOP® Virtual Conference participants may opt in to earn graduate level credits from the University of the Pacific. Educators in the State of Washington can also qualify to receive WA State Clock Hours by attending this conference.

The conference session recordings will be available through the online platform for up to 90 days or on Monday, October 7. Past attendees share that they find it helpful to rewatch recordings of sessions to fine-tune takeaways from the event and also find it convenient to watch recordings of sessions that they were not able to attend.

Questions? Contact the Savvas SIOP® team.