I don’t know how I lucked out rooming with such an awesome dual immersion Pre-K teacher on my recent trip to Peru! It was so exciting to learn from her and absorb her strategies! Even though she teaches littles who are adjusting to their new context first and foremost, there 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…
I wish I could infograph all day. Reading infographs, analyzing infographs, creating infographs–and it doesn’t matter the topic. From eyeliner to Einstein, ancient artifacts, augmented reality, or syllabuses: infographs my idea of a supercool hobby. (Note: this is probably why I myself will never actually be supercool.) Fortunately a good chunk Read more…
You know, if you can’t make it to ACTFL, CSCTFL is definitely a solid substitute. So many of the brightest minds in language education were there to talk with and learn from, that I almost couldn’t tell it wasn’t the national conference! Not that all of us SCOLT, SWCOLT, and Read more…
The problem I have had with the the Language Festival unit in the past is keeping it communication-based and in the target language. I mean, sure, we can win first place at a competition based exclusively on the presentational mode if we discuss and plan and research in English. And Read more…
Each week in January I’ve featured insights on the blog from some ladies with great ideas from my PLN. This week, I chatted with Wendy Farabaugh, (@MmeFarab) who had “A rough start” to her school year, but a lot of the problems she’s facing as a young world language teacher Read more…
Would you look at that? The majority of my babies performed at Novice High or BETTER at the end of Spanish II! Except listening. Ouch. What you see is a graph of the results based on the personalized Genius Hour IPAs Spanish II completed during the week before exams (reading Read more…
Groups of 10-15 students had positive, productive conversations before break, conversations lasting fifteen minutes or more in the target language. What’s more is the conversations affirmed good feelings among collaborators and kept the conversation positive and the energy controlled and calm. I had been out sick most of the week before Read more…
I’m not really happy with the jigsaw model for Project-Based Learning that I instituted for our festival project and school supply drive last yer. It did not really fit those kiddos–who are now in my Spanish II classes. In retrospect, I don’t think it really fit the projects, either. So instead, I think Read more…
One of my classes achieved OVER 90% in the target language during group work today! And all I did was watch! Well, watch and poke their monsters. With a Project-Based Learning approach, you have to build in times for small groups to collaborate, and there’s not a whole lot of Read more…