I teach language: high school English and lower level Spanish. Communication is my business. And grades are communication. It is my goal to help students understand and be understood, but for that to happen, they have to understand me, right? They have to understand my expectations. It’s the very driving Read more…
I’m ready for my next trip to Peru! I mean, I don’t have anything packed yet, and I’m reasonably sure where my passport is. But I’ve got everything ready to go to store and sort the photos and videos I will take while I’m down there! And that’s what really matters, Read more…
I’ve been on a bit of a CI roller coaster since iFLT last summer. I kicked off the year with some kickin’ PQA that kids really seemed to get into, a little of the ol’ “persona especial“–which they got into less–but which still had some positive effects. Then I was Read more…
So throwing a bunch of ideas into Common Curriculum and then sorting them out as I went, it worked super well today! I managed to connect grammar, music, and project goals as if I weren’t kind of mentally checked out before Spring Break Part 2 already. I could have been a little Read more…
This year has been a year of growth, without a doubt. After the single most successful semester of my teaching career, I decided to start from scratch on almost everything. I blame iFLT. Since I’m also on an early college schedule, I only got a week or two to process Read more…
When I am planning my lessons for the week, there are several questions I try to ask myself–actually about 25. A part of me feels like I have to ask myself all of these questions every day to be connected, but that can’t be right. There simply aren’t hours in the Read more…
After iFLT this summer, I was ready to sprint back to the drawing board. I needed a good solid month to just sketch, doodle, redraw EVERYTYHING. I got a week. And two completely new preps complete with two completely new LMS platforms. So this year has been a bit of Read more…
I was just innocently searching for videos to give my students a feel for Sainte Chapelle, one of the heroes’ destinations in Agentes Secretos, when I happened upon one of their favorite games! (The students’–not the protagonists’…) Pokemon or no, my babies this year are big into video games, and Read more…
I started playing Pokemon GO! for my students and now I can’t stop. That’s right. It’s for work. As I harnessed the power of the Netflix binge with the telenovela unit, I need to harness the power of Pokemon, or rather of gaming, to “catch ’em all” in class this Read more…
My grand experiment this year will be a semester-long personalized PBL passion project. Everything we do will lead up to the interdisciplinary marketing project that has become a keystone of the sophomore experience at our school. I have also been really excited about attempting to integrate a TPRS novel this Read more…