I over planned my first two weeks at my new school. You would think that over planning meant I was also over prepared, ready to handle anything they threw at me. In reality, though, it ended up being quite the opposite. It was only when I scaled WAAAAY the heck Read more…
Establishing trust and purpose the first day of Spanish class at a new school
How and why are still probably the most important questions to answer for learning a language, but I forgot a very important question last year. There is one burning question that every novice language learner needs answered before they can even begin to explore purposes and strategies. And it’s a question that no one Read more…
I don’t think anyone would call me a TPRS teacher, though I’ve certainly dabbled in comprehensible input for years, and I will gladly sip some CI Kool-Aid when offered a fresh serving, whether through organized national conferences or a workshop conveniently passing through my home state. I recently got the Read more…
Blogging is just the beginning. It gives students a starting point, a place to hash out what they can–and want to–say about their goals and progress. Their compañeros can check in on them too. But you may have noticed in your own learning experience: real collaboration doesn’t happen in the comment Read more…
The level of confidence I saw in the final round of assessments last semester–after the tearful season mid-semester–it completely convinced me that this is how I want to assess going forward: with small groups with prepared cues with student choice Preparation Students have 2 days to A) choose a relevant topic Read more…
There is ZERO room for confusion in online courses. Even if I could answer every email immediately, their emails are the ONLY cue I have if they are confused. Forget about checking for comprehension–much less compensating with compensating with circumlocution or figuring out when it’s time to switch back to Read more…
So my master plan to improve listening through music and the coros bellringer pretty much fizzled. Music is still THE number one way to hook students right off, but it kind of loses its magic if I do it every day of every week, ALL. SEMESTER. LONG. As I’ve been going through this Read more…
My kids know everything they could ever want to know about each other walking into my Spanish 2 class. They’ve been playing human bingo and going on photo scavenger hunts with the exact same kids for 2 1/2 years. Yet there is still ice to be broken, to make it Read more…
I panicked. Tuesday night, after an hour and no fewer than 68 repetitions of the target structure, all I could get was something like Hatshepsut capisce kaput. I still remembered Shto eta? from Camp Musicuentos and could name blue and green balls. But NOTHING new from an hour’s worth of comprehensible Read more…