Workshops *In no particular order

This workshop is designed to empower student interpreters by providing them with the tools to fully engage in mentorship relationships. Participants will explore the dynamics between mentors and mentees, focusing on communication, goal-setting, and self-advocacy. Recognizing that seasoned interpreters may not always be familiar with current terminology or industry shifts, the workshop will equip mentees with guiding questions they can use to facilitate productive conversations with their mentors. These questions will help mentees seek targeted feedback, address skill gaps, and collaborate effectively with their mentors to support their growth. By the end of the workshop, participants will be prepared to partner with mentors for ongoing skill development and professional success.

*PARID is approved by the RID CMP to sponsor Continuing Education Activities. This program is offered for 0.3 CEUs in professional studies. Participants should have some knowledge of the topic. 

Target Audience: Novice*

The Big 5: Key Interpreting Performance Indicators is a dynamic workshop designed for interpreters eager to refine their interpreting skills in preparation for their certification journey. This workshop will explore key performance indicators: conceptual accuracy, articulation, cognitive processing/fluency, message accuracy, and message integrity. Each of these performance indicators will be defined and discussed while offering insight into the language patterns that are counterproductive to achieving these outcomes.

*PARID is approved by the RID CMP to sponsor Continuing Education Activities. This program is offered for 0.3 CEUs in professional studies. Participants should have some knowledge of the topic.  

Target Audience: Novice*

Receiving the results of an interpreting assessment can be disappointing for many reasons and on many levels. However, your professional interpreting life does not have to end after receiving unfavorable results. It's what you do with the feedback that matters. In this workshop, we will learn how to use the diagnostic feedback from the EIPA to craft a professional development plan that works toward improvement. Navigating these moments after receiving the results of an interpreting assessment can be challenging, often filled with mixed emotions and uncertainty about the next steps. "The Day After: Life After Test Results" is designed to transform this pivotal moment into an opportunity for growth and professional development. 

*PARID is approved by the RID CMP to sponsor Continuing Education Activities. This program is offered for 0.3 CEUs in professional studies. Participants should have some knowledge of the topic.  

Target Audience: Novice*

In the pre-covid world In-Person interpreting was the norm. Now, post-Covid, the world has adjusted to the virtual meeting platform and interpreters have adapted well. A little too well. Is VRI better? Is it worse? There are pro's and cons to each. The result? Deaf all around the states are suffering from a lack of interpreters willing to leave the virtual world and return to the in-person one as well as the inability of the staff to understand the ins and outs of VRI setup for a patient. When is VRI better? When is in-person better? As interpreters, what can we do to rectify this situation? How can we empower the d/Deaf to fight for their own rights to effective communication?

*PARID is approved by the RID CMP to sponsor Continuing Education Activities. This program is offered for 0.1 CEUs in general studies. Participants should have little/none knowledge of the topic.  

Target Audience: All categories: Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, and Expert*

Join us for an informative seminar on the Board for Evaluation of Interpreters (BEI), focusing on its comprehensive evaluation process. The seminar will delve into the current iteration of the BEI’s requirements, history, process, and evaluation. We will thoroughly review the Test of English Proficiency, including its structure and content. Attendees will gain insight into how the test evaluates skills in English. This workshop will also cover the performance evaluation, detailing the scenarios and contexts in which it is administered. Participants will learn about different interpreting skills - such as Expressive Interpreting & Transliterating, Receptive Interpreting & Transliterating, and Sight Translation.

*PARID is approved by the RID CMP to sponsor Continuing Education Activities. This program is offered for 0.3 CEUs in professional studies. Participants should have little/none knowledge of the topic. 

Target Audience: All categories: Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, and Expert*

Doing Sight Translation is an everyday occurrence for the sign language interpreter working in education, medical, legal and a variety of other settings. Even though this is a daily practice, many interpreters are at a loss of how to approach sight translations, different techniques, and are unaware in giving a translation with a time constraint. In this workshop, we will discuss a variety of techniques using Sight Translation, how to apply these techniques when testing for the Texas Board for Evaluation of Interpreters Basic and Advanced level tests, and dispel some myths about what Sight Translation is, when to use it, and who to use it with.

*PARID is approved by the RID CMP to sponsor Continuing Education Activities. This program is offered for 0.1 CEUs in professional studies. Participants should have little/none knowledge of the topic. 

Target Audience: All categories: Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, and Expert*

There’s no business like show business! Theatrical interpreting can be both simpler – and much more complex – than other interpreting assignments. This workshop will introduce you to theatrical terminology, venue structure and policies, and strategies for preparing for an interpreted performance such as script analysis, interactions with production staff, and teaming with your fellow interpreter(s). Our focus will be on interpreting for Deaf audiences at both touring shows and locally produced theatre. Workshop will include lecture, discussion, and hands-on activities.

*PARID is approved by the RID CMP to sponsor Continuing Education Activities. This program is offered for 0.1 CEUs in professional studies. Participants should have little/none knowledge of the topic. 

Target Audience: Intermediate and Advanced*

Are you preparing for, or thinking about taking the Educational Interpreter Performance Assessment®? Join this interactive session to become familiar with the assessment, how to prepare, registration procedures and understand the scoring process. Sue Ann will also discuss skill areas which may provide you the greatest score impact regardless if you are taking it for the first time, or retaking it for a higher score. Resources for preparation will be shared as well.

*PARID is approved by the RID CMP to sponsor Continuing Education Activities. This program is offered for 0.1 CEUs in professional studies. Participants should have little/none knowledge of the topic. 

Target Audience: Novice

This Sports in ASL Workshop is an educational and interactive session to instruct participants on effectively communicating about sports using American Sign Language. This workshop emphasizes introducing and practicing sports-related vocabulary, classifiers, and culturally pertinent elements of sports within the Deaf community. These sessions are typically crafted for a diverse audience, including Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals, ASL learners, interpreters, and others seeking to enhance their ASL communication proficiency in a sports context.

*PARID is approved by the RID CMP to sponsor Continuing Education Activities. This program is offered for 0.1 CEUs in professional studies. Participants should have little/no knowledge of the topic. 

Target Audience: All categories: Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, and Expert*

This workshop will explore various collaborative models between hearing interpreters and certified deaf interpreters (CDIs). Participants will gain insight into the decision-making processes that contribute to successful teamwork in interpreting. The session will focus on how hearing interpreters and CDIs can effectively collaborate, enhancing their ability to meet the unique needs of the deaf community. Attendees will leave with a deeper understanding of how collaboration between interpreters can increase the success and quality of the interpreting process.

*PARID is approved by the RID CMP to sponsor Continuing Education Activities. This program is offered for 0.15 CEUs in professional studies. Participants should have some knowledge of the topic. 

Target Audience: Novice

Have you ever considered legal interpreting, but were too afraid? Legal interpreting does pose challenges, but so does every setting. In this training we will talk about the basics of legal interpreting, what you need to know, where to get more training resources to become competent to work in the legal setting and the advantages of court certification.

*PARID is approved by the RID CMP to sponsor Continuing Education Activities. This program is offered for 0.2 CEUs in professional studies. Participants should have little/no knowledge of the topic. 

Target Audience: All categories: Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, and Expert*

The “Religious Interpreting within the Christian Faith” is an informative and skill enriching workshop. It has been created to provide its participants with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to interpret in various Christian denominational settings. This workshop will explore the abundant lineage of Christian denominations and how to prepare and interpret within any given denomination. There will be extensive practice with specific vocabulary and finger spelling of old and new testament dialogue. 
 This unique experience will also include an expressive and receptive training session. It is designed to enhance the participants skill and confidence, while interpreting in various religious events. In addition, we will touch upon interpreting music within the religious setting. Most religious events contain some kind of musical stimulation. The workshop will provide exposure to traditional worship music, as well as contemporary Christian songs.  The expectation of this presentation will hopefully inspire the attendees to pursue more religious interpreting in their future endeavors.
 Thank you for considering this unprecedented presentation of “Religious Interpreting within the Christian Faith”, for your event.

*PARID is approved by the RID CMP to sponsor Continuing Education Activities. This program is offered for 0.25 CEUs in professional studies. Participants should have little/no knowledge of the topic. 

Target Audience: Intermediate and Advanced

ODHH will give a high level overview of ACT 57 and the requirements graduates of ASLEI programs need to be aware of. We will give an overview of the law, provisional registration requirements, do's and dont's and State Registration requirements.

*PARID is approved by the RID CMP to sponsor Continuing Education Activities. This program is offered for 0.2 CEUs in professional studies. Participants should have some knowledge of the topic. 

Target Audience: Intermediate

ODHH will give a high level overview of ACT 57 and the requirements graduates of ASLEI programs need to be aware of. We will give an overview of the law, provisional registration requirements, do's and dont's and State Registration requirements.

*PARID is approved by the RID CMP to sponsor Continuing Education Activities. This program is offered for 0.15 CEUs in professional studies. Participants should have some knowledge of the topic. 

Target Audience: Intermediate

Join us for a dynamic workshop that covers all aspects of working with a sign language interpreting agency. We will discuss expectations for applications, the screening process, bidding for work, professional standards, and invoicing. Come learn many of the professional skills new interpreters often feel are missing from their skill set upon graduation.

*PARID is approved by the RID CMP to sponsor Continuing Education Activities. This program is offered for 0.1 CEUs in professional studies. Participants should have little/no knowledge of the topic. 

Target Audience: Novice*

This session will focus on the customer service side of being a professional ASL Interpreter. While having the technical skill of interpretation and/or transliteration is important, the soft skills of an interpreter’s daily interactions with their clients and consumers are how they build trust within the community. This workshop will touch on the etiquette behind interpreting that helps interpreters build relationships, gain trust and problem-solve.

*PARID is approved by the RID CMP to sponsor Continuing Education Activities. This program is offered for 0.1 CEUs inprofessional studies. Participants should have little/no knowledge of the topic. 

Target Audience: Novice*

Participants will learn about the various approaches to mentoring and why it is important to discuss with your mentor how you envision the relationship to function. Historically, mentoring is seen as a seasoned interpreter bestowing their knowledge, experience, and observations to a newer interpreter. While this can be helpful, it is often more important to support newer interpreter in finding their professional footing and supporting them to be able to self-identify solutions, issues, controls, and demands that exist in our work. Mentees should be leading the discussions, identifying the goals, and driving the ship with the mentor in place to guide and course-correct if needed.

*PARID is approved by the RID CMP to sponsor Continuing Education Activities. This program is offered for 0.15 CEUs in professional studies. Participants should have some knowledge of the topic.

Target Audience: Intermediate*

We will begin by exploring the roles of emotional intelligence and the affective filter in the interpreting profession and how these factors influence our ability to communicate openly and effectively with interpreting colleagues. Through a detailed discussion of the glows and grows methodology, we will highlight the benefits of providing balanced, constructive feedback that acknowledges interpreting work that is effective (glows) as well as interpreting work that has opportunities for improvement (grows). This practical, hands-on workshop will include opportunities for participants to observe their colleagues’ work and practice giving as well as receiving feedback, allowing us to foster an environment of support and understanding. By enhancing collaboration and building stronger teams, we can ultimately elevate the quality of our interpreting work. Join us to discover practical strategies that promote growth and strengthen professional relationships!

*PARID is approved by the RID CMP to sponsor Continuing Education Activities. This program is offered for 0.15 CEUs in professional studies. Participants should have some knowledge of the topic. 

Target Audience: Intermediate and Advanced*

This workshop is an in-depth analysis into anxiety and self confidence issues brought on by interpreting situations. Through risk taking exercises and discussions participants learn about each other’s vulnerabilities and the importance of trust as it relates to teaming and consumers. Finally participants will learn about themselves and how to separate the human from the interpreter.

*PARID is approved by the RID CMP to sponsor Continuing Education Activities. This program is offered for 0.1 CEUs in professional studies. Participants should have little/no knowledge of the topic. 

Target Audience: All categories: Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, and Expert*

Have you ever thought - "I'm not good enough", "I will never be as good as THAT interpreter", or "Did I pick the right field to work in?" or even "I will never be good enough for... that...". You are not alone. Self-talk, especially negative self-talk, is something we all experience at some point in our lives. However, self-talk, especially negative self-talk is not always a bad thing. It is how we respond and what we do to leverage those self-doubts. 

This workshop will walk you through how our negative messages impact us both physically and through our work. It will also discuss how we utilize our self-talk to capitalize on the way we approach all aspects of our lives (our work, our relationships, and most importantly, ourselves). This workshop will allow you to self-reflect, as well as engage in group discussions on how we respond to various stimuli. Finally, we will create tools to help us re-center ourselves when we start to allow those negative thoughts to impede our daily lives.

*PARID is approved by the RID CMP to sponsor Continuing Education Activities. This program is offered for 0.1 CEUs in professional studies. Participants should have little/no knowledge of the topic. 

Target Audience: Novice and Intermediate*

This workshop is an introduction to RID (Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf), the professional membership organization. This workshop will introduce participants to the organization, to the Headquarters staff and to the board of directors. We will show how to become a member and how to transition from a student member to an associate member. We will explain what the quorum is and how voting works within the organization. Welcome to the profession, we are here to demystify the process!

*PARID is approved by the RID CMP to sponsor Continuing Education Activities. This program is offered for 0.3 CEUs in professional studies. Participants should have little/no knowledge of the topic. 

Target Audience: All categories: Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, and Expert*

Special Issues on Visual Analytics and Visual Semantics Language teachers / persons must also bring together ingredients. Since ASL is a visual language, naturally those ingredients will be visual. Are there secret ingredients for success? Our visual ingredients include Facial Expressions, Gestures, Mouthings, Classifiers, Surrogates, ASL structures (Depicting-nouns & Verbs), Body Shift, Space, Vocabulary, Fingerspelling and The five C’s of Foreign Language Education (Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons and Communities). Video shows language in use, helps students with Contextual clues based on facial expressions, gestures and provides fascinating Cultural information about places, things and people where the languages we teach are signed. Review the effect of limited exposure to language and the impact it has on development of a first or native language; Discuss matching/meeting the individual communication needs of students; Practice and explore combining “ingredients” for increasing visual access to classroom interpretations

*PARID is approved by the RID CMP to sponsor Continuing Education Activities. This program is offered for 0.15 CEUs in professional studies. Participants should have some knowledge of the topic. 

Target Audience: All categories: Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, and Expert*

YOU.SLEEP.STAY is a new feature documentary that uplifts the story of a deaf, intellectually and developmentally disabled elder as he prepares to move after living in the Polk State Center for over 70 years. Exploring his distinct experiences, the film is a moving story of home and family, language and communication, responsibility and community. We propose a film screening followed by a discussion.

*PARID is approved by the RID CMP to sponsor Continuing Education Activities. This program is offered for 0.2 CEUs in professional studies Participants should have little/no knowledge of the topic. 

Target Audience: All categories: Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, and Expert*

Believe it or not, one person CAN make a difference. The field of ASL interpreting, part of the larger Language Services industry – an industry larger than the global music industry – needs your voice to ensure its future is successful. Without dedicated professionals, language service providers, the industry is at risk of stagnation. The communities we serve are at risk of their access being mandated by people who don’t get it. This workshop is designed to inspire you and provide food for thought about how YOU can make a difference. The workshop will focus on the impacts the presenter has had on the field and her experiences at the national level. The goal here is to have you leaving understanding how important your voice is!

*PARID is approved by the RID CMP to sponsor Continuing Education Activities. This program is offered for 0.1 CEUs in professional studies. Participants should have little/no knowledge of the topic. 

Target Audience: All categories: Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, and Expert*

Watch demonstrated differences in communication vs. straight interpreting. Practice communicating “outside the box” to adapt to a deaf person’s level of understanding and communication. Master a basic understanding of the developmental impact of language deprivation. 

*PARID is approved by the RID CMP to sponsor Continuing Education Activities. This program is offered for 0.15 CEUs in professional studies. Participants should have some knowledge of the topic. 

Target Audience: All categories: Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, and Expert*