By Yingying Gao
On June 15, the Chinese Language Teachers Association of Washington (CLTA-WA) held its Annual General Meeting, bringing together educators from across the country, both in person and online, to reflect on the past year, share updates, and look ahead to future initiatives.
Following the meeting, we were honored to host a professional development workshop led by Ms. Kei Tsukamaki, ACTFL Teacher of the Year 2025. Her session, Creating a Positive Classroom Environment, was both energizing and deeply practical, offering tools and insights to help educators design classrooms where students thrive emotionally, socially, and academically.
The interactive workshop engaged participants through hands-on games and collaborative discussions using Padlet. Ms. Tsukamaki guided us through four key components:
- Imagining the Ideal Classroom – What does a positive learning environment look, sound, and feel like?
- Backward Planning – Aligning classroom culture and activities with long-term learning goals.
- Sharing and Caring – Leveraging the power of our community by building strong connections among students, families, and colleagues to support a nurturing environment.
- Turning Vision into Action – Helping participants create actionable steps to implement their ideas in the coming school year.
To wrap up, each participant wrote an email to themselves summarizing their goals and plans, scheduled to be delivered at the start of the next school year—serving as a personal reminder and source of motivation.
Thank you to all who attended and contributed to the success of this event. Special thanks to Ms. Tsukamaki for her wisdom, warmth, and inspiration!