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Una Palabra

Published by SraSpanglish on

I had seen a few people picking their word for the year when my Super Pinner colleague suggested I take the project bilingual. So I made a Spanish version of Mique’s awesome resolution page. I’m looking forward to reinforcing our school-wide “One Word” campaign in the target language and maybe plastering my one allotted bulletin board with Spanish words that mean something significant to my students.

I also chose my One Word:

Whether it’s setting up and scaffolding a new project I want to inspire my Spanish classes, getting the week’s laundry sorted, or simply mentally and physically switching gears to attend fully to my six-year-old’s violin practice, I need to stop making excuses and start making ready. I need to anticipate the challenges and plan the necessary steps to meet them, getting myself and my environment in order to the best of my ability–even if it’s just putting down my phone and maintaining eye contact.

It’s my first day with a new crop of kids today, my first in a while with a Spanish 3 class–first ever with an honest-to-goodness combo class. It’s fair to say that I am not entirely prepared. However, what with a post a day every day so far this year, I think it’s also fair to say that I am preparing. I guess that’s why I went with the verb rather than the adjective: it’s a moving target.

I’m pretty pleased with my fancy new ThingLink infograph syllabi (though I need to add more links), but the semester is far from laid out. I’ve got an outline of plans for the coming week, though, and a standards-based  portfolio end game for my Spanish classes. I have strategies set up to avoid some of last semester’s pitfalls, my classroom set up, and contacts lined up for 2 of the 3 projects I’m planning on this semester.

I may not be prepared, but I’m ready to keep reminding myself: prepare.


SraSpanglish

Laura Sexton is a passion-driven, project-based language educator in Gastonia, North Carolina. She loves sharing Ideas for integrating Project-Based Learning in the world language classroom, including example projects, lessons, assessment tips, driving questions, and reflection.