Beginnings

Looks like a teacher weekend to me.

 

 I am a list person, so to start this blog I will start with a list. This September marks a few things:

• My seventh first-day-of-school as a teacher 
• My fourth new school
• My first California September (still waiting for the palm trees to turn orange and lose their leaves)
• On a related note - my first early dismissal due to heat, rather than snow
• My first school year without my K-2 niños (but I've still caught glimpses of those first-week-of-kinder tears)
• My first school year where I might have time to blog (with the exception of my Fulbright in Spain)

After five years teaching K-8 Spanish in Detroit and one year in Spain, I am beginning a new job teaching 3rd-8th Spanish in a charter school in San Diego. Even though starting at a new school is a lot of work and energy, I already can feel the relief of actually having some prep time (and even a lunch break!) after driving at least two hours a day and planning for 30+ separate lessons each week. Although I already have a collection of successful strategies and lessons, I am looking forward for the chance to improve myself as a teacher.

How did teachers get new ideas before the internet? Did they just open a book, give students a page number, and start reading? (Sometimes.) Did they travel around to different classrooms, peek in doorways, steal extra copies of particularly intriguing lessons, and pull aside a teacher during prep to chat about what worked during the morning lessons? (Sometimes.) The great thing about living in a digital age is how much easier it is to share information and ideas. Foreign Language teachers got high-tech pretty early on with the Ñandutí listserv, which is still alive and well. Classroom websites (mine is here) and social networking sites like Edmodo and Twitter allow teachers to share resources with students, parents, and colleagues alike.

I use all the above, but wanted to create another space to share resources. That's why I started this blog. I'm going to challenge myself to update it at least once weekly, as a way to force myself to take a break from the never ending list of necessary but tedious tasks (grading, tracking attendance, emailing, wrestling with copy machines) and actually develop myself as a teacher. I want to search for great resources and share successful ideas. Please stay tuned if you'd like.

What are your favorite resources for professional development? Do you have a language teaching blog or website I can share here?