Brain breaks have been on my wishlist for years. I read, I watched videos, and…I ran away. Finally I broke down and went to a Maestra Loca workshop in April, and I left ready to try a couple. I am leaving #iFLT with five MORE I feel I could totally Read more…
Novices can read signs. They are some of the most accessible and potentially relevant “authentic texts” that language learners will encounter. Also, they happen to be the sort of thing that an assessment like the STAMP or AAPPL might throw at them to demonstrate their proficiency. So now when I Read more…
At my last school, I had this theory that my students could keep up their Spanish for the 12 months between level 1 and 2 by following me on Instagram. The good news is that the kids at my new school generally only have to go like 3 months between Read more…
I have had to redefine how I see myself on SO many levels: as a blogger, a teacher, a professional, and a person. A lot–a LOT–of things that I thought were fundamental to my teaching and my identity simply had to be abandoned.
One of the many, MANY important things I learned from attending my first Maestra Loca workshop is that you have to keep things moving: https://twitter.com/SraSpanglish/status/1124757088700334085?s=19 I applied this principle for some intense STAMP test prep (I know, I know, I miss my AAPPL, but if my new) district wants to Read more…
To be honest, I generally avoid social justice and culture-oriented sessions. I feel like they all sound lovely and fun during the conference high, but somehow, I leave knowing they’ll never work their way into my lesson rotation. I took a chance, though, and stacked my Saturday morning at SCOLT Read more…
It wasn’t just that Paul Sandrock successfully flipped his hot seat session so WE were on the hot seat. It wasn’t just that he ever-so-gently structured the session so that it would be perfectly tailored to our precise needs by starting with Laura Terrill’s philosophy of leading with the “Why” Read more…
Teenagers need immediate feedback–it’s just a neurological fact. I had been at a loss for how to make that happen with 30+ students, since Nearpod cut me off at 30 and I can only take hearing “You forgot to stamp MY paper!” 20 times a day, max. Fortunately, I have Read more…
How do you keep your Spanish up? I may have read a handful of TL novels since grad school, but most of my textual input is online, and mostly on Facebook. There are even some great ideas in some of the posts for my kiddos from time to time! I Read more…
My colleagues told me the vocabulary was too low-frequency, that I should not waste my time on regional words they had never even seen, like chapulín. But I had five goals that have only a little to do with learning particular vocabulary words: Reinforce essential verbs soy and me gusta Practice Read more…