I blame Snapchat filters and Carmen Scoggins. First of all, Snapchat filters are fun, and even with two teen wannabes at home, I wish I had more excuses to play with it. So what did Carmen do at our FLANC spring fling? Give me the excuses. The filters are kind Read more…
I have been without a kitchen table since before my son ate solid foods. I mean, I had one. It was in the shed because there wasn’t really enough room in my kitchen to sit even if we hadn’t left it in storage. We’re not fully moved into my new Read more…
I’m moving. It’s the first time in nine years, but the third time since I started teaching. I used to keep a lot of stuff in file cabinets, first in my classrooms, then in my shed when I started at the early college. I dug up some of my Raisin Read more…
Once upon a time I went too fast. It was long ago, too long for most to remember: let’s call it last Wednesday. It was week 2 of Spanish I, you see, and I had been watching eyes and noting attitudes, making gestures–going despacito. Everyone seemed to be with me, Read more…
My thinking was that video portfolios would be nice polished products to wrap up students two years of Spanish exploration. I was thinking that they would be a nice simple way to combine everything into an orderly presentation where they could easily and elegantly show their progression. I gave them Read more…
I could hear Dave Burgess scolding me every second I wasted that first week. I should have had the map handouts printed and copied, waiting on tables with the necessary number of markers for the activity with nice, neat SMARTboard pages with complete maps (sorry, Uruguay–you weren’t in the clipart) Read more…
A motivational speaker once stood up and told all of our entire student body that they will have to cut some people loose if they want to succeed, that they need to separate themselves from certain friends who are bringing them down. While I cannot deny the truth–or urgency–of his Read more…
How the tables have turned! A few short years ago, I was in grad school, devouring every single word published on Musicuentos, treading water and questioning every move I made. I struggled to break away from the way I was taught and to begin to teach the way I was starting to Read more…
Interactive Notebooks were a disaster my first year. It was mostly because I jumped in feet first and just made it up as I went. And that’s okay. As Thomas Sauer is fond of saying, no one ever died of bad language instruction. But with more anticipation, planning, and having Read more…
I’ve had a very good year. Students who used to hate, HATE Spanish class–MY Spanish class–are begging for Spanish III. Every single one of my students improved in at least two of the communication skills, and over half reached intermediate levels on reading, writing, AND speaking on the final IPA (My more Read more…