La Misma Luna: Resources for the Spanish Classroom

Oh hey! Remember me?

I fell off the blogging bandwagon because I got too devoured by teaching to do much reflecting or sharing. (I still have managed to reflect on the end of my teaching at the end of each year, however... year 10 is in the bag!)

After teaching Spanish for years, I've transitioned into a new role at a new school, so this blog may adapt with me.

For now, however, I wanted to share some resources for the movie La Misma Luna, since some teachers were asking for resources on Facebook.

I love this movie. A student recommended it to me years ago in Detroit and ever since I've watched it with a wide range of 5th-8th grade students. I haven't had a single student not like it. Even the grumpy ones. More than that, it personally has held up to many, many viewings. I still enjoy watching it with my students and still cry every time. It's become even more meaningful since moving to a border community, with border and immigration issues prominent in the news.

Bonus: Want some easy sub plans that would work for almost any grade level and language level? Use this movie. If you need a last minute solution, here's a pretty generic packet that should last two class periods... because we've all been there. If you are not in the desperation stage of throwing together sub plans while deathly ill, keep reading and customize this for your particular students and program.

(Not quite) Spoiler Alert: This scene elicits screams every single time.
It's also at a perfect cliffhanger spot to stop. Soy cruel. ;)

Stats:

1 hour and 49 minutes. If you have hour long classes you can squeeze it into two. I almost always use 3 or 4 class periods. so we have time to talk about the movie, do follow up with vocab, and so on.

Access to the movie:

This movie was on Netflix for a while but as of this post it is not. You can buy the DVD on Amazon (if you use that link, I'll get a few cents) or borrow it from your library. Personally I think it's worth having a copy. I've used that DVD more than any other over the years. I strongly suggest not buying the video streaming via Amazon, as you don't have the same language controls. 

(If Amazon fixes this or you know of a way to adjust language settings on Amazon streaming, let me know!)

Parental concerns:

The movie is rated PG-13. For students younger than 13 I send home something like this. I've only had one parent ever not want their kid watching the movie. (I have a collection of alternative materials, in case.) Here's more info from Common Sense Media.

Activities:

In the olden days I used to have students answer comprehension questions, but eventually I found that I didn't need comprehension questions to keep students focused on the movie. I preferred to target language and culture, so switched to doing activities that connected to specific language objectives and needs for each class. Here's a bunch of activities that I've used. Usually I just print out relevant pages for a packet, or print out a variety of combinations for less homogenous levels. (For example, for a description of scenes and characters have several different versions for different levels, marked by chili peppers depending on how "spicy" they are.) Use whatever works for you!

The alternate endings is the newest addition to this collection of activities and has been the most fun, because it allowed students to use the energy and outrage that is always generated by the ending of the movie (no spoilers!) Even the most beginner students could use the language to get creepy and weird. (¡Carlitos y Rosario se casan! Rosario trabaja para la migra!) You could definitely adapt this to grammar structures your students are using.

More resources:

• Superman es ilegal - Follow up activity with a song by Los Hermanos Ortiz from the movie. 
• A las tres - Activity with another song by Los Enanitos Verdes (with a related theme of family and immigration.) 
• A few different Quizlet sets related to the movie (I like playing a quick Quizlet Live as a way to review or preview vocabulary. 
• Practice test for the questions asked in a naturalization interview. Can you and your students pass?
• If you have PearDeck, use it for students to describe characters.

We're loving @PearDeck pro features that let us draw favorite scenes of La Misma Luna (along with character descriptions!)🍐🌛@UrbanDiscoveryA pic.twitter.com/HEUzZV5URc

— Sara Kennedy (@profe_sara) April 5, 2017

Soy Yo

At this year's most recent middle school dance, I asked the DJ to play this song. When it came on, the kids screamed and started flailing around. (As much or even more so than for the previous Whip/Nae Nae, if I might say with a fair amount of pride.) Seeing the kids dance and sing along in Spanish was one of my high points as a middle school teacher. 

Here are some resources I have used with this song:

• Reading Activity (adapted from this article about Sarai, the girl in the video)
• Lyrics Training activity using Soy Yo (to sing karaoke or do a listening activity)
• Lyrics activity from Zachary Jones from his ebook, Cancionero 2015 - I use many of his activities (both free and purchased) and any of his ebooks have been well worth the money.
• Speaking of Zachary Jones, he has a great series of interviews called ¿Cómo eres? None with little Sarai yet, but one can hope. I used these as a somewhat independent listening activity and students liked them so much that I added it as an option to our monthly homework options.
• Another related song was Como soy by Manu Manzo, who does have a ¿Cómo eres? interview.

7th grade in particular has been a little obsessed with this song (I've caught kids singing it in the halls, and heard rumors that kids brought it up during some recent restorative circles in morning meetings.) I'm using some of that energy to kick off our 2nd trimester project about language & identity, connected with a skills unit on descriptions. More to come on that, hopefully.

Related resources bumping around in my files:

• Eres by Café Tacvba is another song I've used to introduce or review the conjugation of ser. Not quite as catchy as this one, but the kids still mention "that creepy black and white song.") 
• A few years ago (in my first dabblings in PBL) I had students find a song of their choice and use the lyrics to search for targeted grammatical structures. Here's my first attempt at that mini-project, which I may revisit.

Big Picture: Grammar & music

I'm still struggling to balance PBL and proficiency, especially when it comes to grammar & conjugation, but using music is one thing that has been consistent through my evolution as a teacher. Songs were what kept our heads above water during my early years of treading water in Detroit, as I gathered a collection of songs that drove my K-2 curriculum and used music (including the only alphabet song I can stomach) to engage some of my most challenging middle school classes. As I learn more about project based learning and how to let students learn by doing, music has been a great resource for experiencing verbs in their natural habitat. If a song is catchy enough the grammar structures will stick in students' heads, and if it is repetitive enough it can allow for some "DIY" grammar rules based on observations of repeated patterns in a song.

Finally, anything that makes students spontaneously yell things in Spanish I'll count as a success in the complicated, often-grumpy land of middle school language teaching.

Culture in 3 Acts: Semana Santa

I started rethinking some of my cultural lessons after a colleague presented about Three Act Mathematical Stories. After getting back from break I applied the concept to a cultural lesson about Semana Santa.

My main goal was to create a very student-driven exploration of culture. The ACTFL standards ask students to explore the connections between products, practices, and perspectives of the target culture, but it's often up to the teacher to select which products, practices, and perspectives to focus on. With a large range of options, how do we choose which are most relevant and important to share with our students? One option is to let students direct the focus of those explorations. Here's how that worked out in my classes this week.

Here's a copy of the guided notes I used with my class during this assignment.

El Carnaval: A resource pile

President's Day, the Lunar New Year, and Carnival were all jumbled together at the beginning of this week.

El Carnaval en Alicante, España.

My middle school classes have been working hard on other projects, so I wanted to create a somewhat independant exploration for students who were done with their projects, or for extra credit in some classes. Our schedule is a little messy right now after a 4 day weekend, so this was a fun "filler" to help get all the classes caught up.

Carnival/Carnaval/Mardis Gras is a truly multicultural topic of exploration, and there are so many great examples of colonized cultures combining (or disguising) their beliefs with newer Catholic traditions. It's also a good example of some traditions that are fun enough on their own, even without the complex historical background behind them!

This might be belated for this year, but I wanted to share some of the resources I used this year related to El Carnaval! Here is a leveled list separated by learning style, with resources in both English and Spanish.



I gave this list to my students directly, along with this paper. They could choose which resources they used to find the answers to the questions, according to their language level, learning style, and interests.

(I went paperless with some classes by creating a Google Form of these questions, too - I can share the template with you if you wish. Feel free to contact me!)

Do you have any more great resources related to Carnival? I am especially interested in expanding my knowledge of celebrations in Latin America - my only personal experience is from Spain and my own Catholic childhood.

El Flamenco

Flamenco en Granada

On the last day before Thanksgiving break, the 7th graders had dance performances during their morning P.E. class. Our P.E. teacher had students work in groups of 3 or 4 to research a specific style of dance, choose a song, prepare a dance, and practice it to perform. I got to watch a few of these, and it seems like an amazing project.

Three girls researched and performed a flamenco dance. I really wanted to see it, but I was teaching 5th grade and just barely missed the girls' performance, and caught them as they were clicking and swishing to their next class (in very clicky heels and very swishy skirts.) They offered to perform for Spanish class that afternoon, which seemed like a great way to spend the last hour before break. (Not always a time for strenuous academic effort.)

I am envisioning future Spanish-P.E. collaborations on this type of a project, especially for native speakers who could write reports in Spanish, and offer demonstrations that are kinesthetic enough for even more basic levels to understand.

Sacromonte, Granada, where many caves in the hillside hold homes, shops, and famous flamenco performances.

I've used flamenco as a quick cultural lesson before, so it was a good thing to throw together at the last minute. The girls performed their dance, and explained what they knew about the history of flamenco. (They had to write a paper about the dance as part of the project, and as a result were able to teach me a few things!) We talked about the roles in traditional flamenco, the dialect in Andalucía (cantador vs. cantaor) and the cajón, which is also the name of a main road in San Diego and of a city nearby.

I showed them one of my favorite videos - Tengo, by Macaco. They compared (using these guided notes) what they knew about traditional flamenco with this modern video.

Other Flamenco resources:

• Notes:
• Flamenco en España - A presentation with with some images and examples of the elements of traditional flamenco. (All slides were created using images found via google search, so these images do not belong to me.)
• Videos:
• Flamenco en una cueva - A performance in one of the caves in Granada, which many consider the birthplace of the dance.
• Flamenco en la calle - Street performers in Granada. This includes the use of el cajón, and a surprise halfway through.
• Albanico mágico - A performance in San Francisco. This is a larger-scale interpretation of flamenco, using fans. (The video is 6 minutes long, so I usually let kids watch it if they are working on their own fans.)
• Bailando - Enrique's popular song includes lots of dance styles, including flamenco.
• Crafts: Los Albanicos

Depending how much time I am filling with this lesson (and whether or not the classroom is unbearably warm at the time) I have also used flamenco as a connection to the tradition of fans, in the dance and in Spanish culture. For teenagers, this is a chance to learn about the use of fans as communication in the pre-twitter, pre-texting era. For young students, this is a chance to practice the fine motor skills needed to fold fans. (They will need more help than you think.) For everyone, it's an excuse to fold paper fans and have a dance party.

This is a good end-of-the-day, end-of-the-week activity, since it generally leads to kids of all ages wiggling their eyebrows at each other over paper fans for the rest of the day. (And on more than one occasion I've had to save teachers' stacks of homework and worksheets from becoming fans, once young students get the hang of folding.)

• 
  

Recordatorios Musicales: Music Cues

I've been trying to use music a lot more in my classes, especially with middle school. I've been structuring lessons, reviews, and assignments around music, as well as incorporating it into classroom management.

I was inspired by one of my coworkers, who is using music cues for math class. She uses popular theme music from television shows, played through this app. The app is nice because its designed for the classroom. (It doesn't automatically play the next song on a playlist, and you can set a specific time for the cue to begin.)

Here are the musical cues I've been using in my middle school classes, including links to the songs and the specific clips: Musical Cue Playlist. Most of these are from songs that students turned in as part of a project this past quarter, which helps with student buy-in.

• La Vida es un carnaval - Celia Cruz
•  Transition to groups. (20 seconds.)
•  Te extraño - Xtreme.
• End of class: Write down homework, get ready to be dismissed. (51 seconds.)
• La Tortura - Shakira.
• Get out homework, staple as needed, turn in to the correct folder. (1 minute, 22 seconds.)
• Pa' Bailar - Bajofondo y Julieta Venegas.
• Shut down computers and put away laptops according to our class procedure. (3 minutes, 36 seconds.)

Most of the lyrics are pretty carefully chosen, mostly because I think I'm hilarious. (Por supuesto, la tortura es la tarea... y no de excusas vivo yo.)

On that note, if anyone can rewrite La Totura to specifically be about lost homework, they will be my personal hero. (Fue una tortura.... perderte.) If I can get one of my students to take this on as a project, I will consider the year a success.

Technical tips:

I use Youtube and Dirpy to create clips from specific bits of the songs, but there are plenty of other similar tools out there, for all platforms. If you do use Dirpy, make sure you use the correct buttons. It is a free and ad-supported site, so it's easy to accidentally click ads.

Numbers in Spanish: Some ready-to-use activities

I feel that I am always trying to sneak Spanish numbers into my curriculum. Numbers on their own are not very exciting, and I try to build my lessons on communicative (and hopefully engaging) objectives. If there is not an established and well articulated language curriculum, I often encounter students who are tired of going through several years of repetitive lessons: greetings, numbers, colors. The challenge is always finding interactive and quick ways to refine and review these skills, while still offering structure for the students who are starting with limited experience.

Uno was always my review card game of choice - until I discovered the magic and ease of ¡Pesca!

Out of everything I have tried over the years, here are a few resources and activities that have been successful to review and practice the numbers in Spanish. These are ready-to-go activities that you can use this week if you'd like... or today in the next class period, if you are quick on your feet. (You probably are, if you are a teacher.) These are things I have used successfully in classes with a wide range of levels and experience: from students fluent in Spanish to students who are in the first Spanish class of their life.

Día de los Muertos: Resources

This is one of my favorite seasons with my students, and I have a feeling that this year I will be learning even more than I teach. As a newcomer to San Diego, I am excited to see some local celebrations, and to get input from my students who have celebrated this holiday with their families.

Here are some of the things I have done with my students in the past, and some things that will be included in my lesson plans for this week.

Let students explore some of the sights and sounds of the holiday.



I love the opportunity to hook students with something mysterious. As a traveling elementary teacher, in past years I have put together a mini portable altar in a wooden cigar box, with a picture of Frida Kahlo (a favorite figure that most of my students learn about at some point in their time with me.) I light the "altar" with battery operated candles, and the flicker of yellow light from inside a closed box gets everyone's attention. Usually I extend the suspense and leave the box closed until we have explored some resources together, and then I will invite students to gather around and look at what is inside the box (photos, candles, flowers, sugar skulls... all things they just saw in a book or video.)

Digital Tools for the Language Classroom

It's Saturday morning, which is generally pretty predictable in a few ways. I was up fairly early, partially because I passed out early (sometimes on the couch, if I was pretending I could stay up past 8 on a Friday.)

Today I want to share two digital resources that I have found to be very useful in my teaching. These are not big-picture resources (like social networking platforms, file systems, or grading platforms) but just a few digital tricks to have up your sleeve - or perhaps new ideas to use resources you are already familiar with.

Screenshots 

My teaching is pretty image-heavy, and I frequently use screenshots as a very fast way to capture what I need and integrate it into what I'm creating, whether that is a lesson plan, a student assignment, or an example of an assignment on the board.

I've been using Jing for this purpose. One of several products from TechSmith*, Jing allows you to quickly capture and share what's on your screen, both images and videos. I like to structure my lessons in middle school through a powerpoint each day, and it's helpful to take quick snapshots of an assignment we are doing in class and put it right into a powerpoint, rather than switching between files or switching to the document camera.

(You can also take a quick example snapshot of your example snapshot, and then blog about it!)

I have also used the video capture feature to record and share quick how-to videos with my students (via screencast.com, another TechSmith product that is automatically available and linked to Jing.) Especially as I am using Edmodo more with middle school, it is an easy way to model exactly how to sign up, turn in assignments, or do other digital tasks. This means I don't need to spend as much class time walking students through the steps, and I have a quick tutorial to use in my responses to parent and student emails.

 Learn more about Jing and get the free download here.

Word Clouds

I use word clouds a lot in my teaching,  I often give word banks to students to help with spelling new Spanish words that we have mostly practiced orally, but I almost always use word clouds instead of lists. They look prettier and also force students to sift through words a bit, looking for the correct one.

They are also great for reading or listening activities. Before giving students a written text in Spanish, I give them a word cloud created by copying and pasting the entire text into a word cloud generator. This is handy for a few types of pre-reading and post-reading activities:

1. See if students can recognize any of the words out of context. Have them circle well-known words and underline slightly familiar words. After reading, return to the word cloud and see if they can recognize any more after seeing the words in context.
2. Ask students to predict the main ideas or themes of the text. Many word cloud engines change the size of words in the cloud based on frequency, and some give you the option to screen out specific high-frequency words.
3. For more well-known vocabulary, give students a few minutes to sort words from the cloud into specific categories: nouns, verbs, adjectives sorted by gender and number, etc.

Until recently I always used the Wordle website to make word clouds. However, the website does require Java. Since my current school laptop is running an outdated and unsupported operating system, I am trying to take safety precautions, which includes avoiding Java.

Luckily, there are lots of other options. Here are a few that I have used, with examples using text from this blog. (Most of the sites offer various options for saving and sharing the word clouds, but I usually just capture them with a Jing screenshot. It's quicker and more straightforward.)

• Worditout is pretty straightforward and visually simple. It highlights frequent words by increasing their size. You can customize the range of word sizes, the colors, the margins, and more.

• Tagcrowd is simpler and doesn't offer much in the way of visual tweaking, but does offer the option to set the number of words shown, and the minimum frequency for words to appear in a text.

• Tagul is very visually appealing, with lots of custom shapes and color options . It does require a login, though registration is free. You have to type in each word individually, but you can manually set the size for each word. It could be used for short vocabulary lists or to highlight certain terms, but doesn't have the same appeal as other sites where you can dump in a block of text.

*I am not receiving any compensation from any of the websites mentioned for the promotion of their products. (Then again, I haven't been offered any.)

Have you been to Edcamp yet?

Yesterday I spent the day at Edcamp San Diego. I went to my first Edcamp this past Spring, in Detroit, and loved it. I have been to my share of conferences, and I almost always find something useful - even if it's just the time and space to brainstorm, rather than trying to come up with stellar ideas in between the daily logistics of teaching. I've attended several MiWLA conferences back in Michigan, and I always come home inspired (and refreshed by the chance to collaborate with other teachers.) However, the Edcamp model is by far my favorite.

• It's free. (A teacher's favorite four-letter word.) You still sign up, but it's completely free, with no need to plead for district funds. Edcamps are free and run by volunteers, with venues and other resources donated by local districts and businesses. 
• It's run by educators. The schedule is formed on the day of the conference, based on participant's needs. You can sign up to lead a session on a specific topic, or put up a question or a request for something you would like to learn about. The organizers shuffle these topics around into the available rooms and share the schedule.
• The format is clearly designed for educators. There's an hour lunch break and ten minute passing periods. (Teachers are way chattier than middle schoolers.) Nobody cares if you are multitasking wildly during every session. (I was drafting emails to my administration and sketching out unit plans on the spot, based on ideas shared.)
• You only attend what works for you. Organizers stress the "Two Feet" principle - if a session isn't what you were looking for, you leave and find another.
• It's the perfect format for a digital age. Participants view the schedule and updates through a specific Edcamp app. During sessions, many of the participants share resources live via twitter, using session-specific hashtags. Yesterday a group of other language teachers and I brainstormed and shared resources using padlet. 

I am already trying to brainstorm how I can use a similar model for in-class brainstorming. (The power of people learning about what they are passionate about is always incredible.)

Find an edcamp near you!

Columbus Day Alternatives: Jigsaw Reading Activity

Yes, Stephen Colbert, you called me out. Columbus Day is under attack. Seattle has decided to celebrate Indigenous People instead, and many schools (including my own) don't even have tomorrow off.

I'm one of the teachers who would rather use this as an educational opportunity, rather than mark this day with a day off. It's a positive step to shift the focus - to celebrate Native Peoples Day, Explorers Day, Día de la Raza, and beyond - but as a language teacher I feel the obligation to directly address some of the myths and traditions attached to Columbus, that even when innocuous are connected to much bigger issues.

Several years ago I put together a jigsaw reading activity for my middle school students related to this theme. I collected a variety of articles and resources and had students work in groups to read, discuss, and share opinions.

Because of limited time this week and the need to play catch-up with nearly half my class (we've had lots of absences recently) I am going to select just a few of the resources and use this as an extension activity for the students who are already finished with our other assignments. I have adjusted it a bit to include some resources in Spanish and some current articles, and I thought I would share it in case it could be useful to anyone else.  All the materials are in this shared Dropbox Folder, with some more details below.

Use this List of Resources for grouping and planning.

I summarized the resources I found in this chart, categorized by topic, format, learning style, and reading level (including some appropriate for heritage Spanish speakers, and ELL.) I am hoping to give each group a laptop and a folder of printed materials so that they can select the information that fits with their level and learning style. I wanted an easy "database" of resources to find exactly what my students need, or to help them to choose resources for themselves. (Click the preview below for the entire list as a PDF.)

Share links to digital resources, or print out appropriate texts for your students.

Brainpop videos listed above do require a subscription. For the other articles and resources, I have a few PDFs that I put together to print. 

• Printable resources - Reading
• Maps (hopefully to print in color)
• Comics

I'm hoping that the maps and comics will be particularly good to assign to low readers and visual learners.

Have students work together with a variety of resources to gather information. 

I have this response sheet for my students to use in groups. Depending on the level and the time constraints, you could have each group only focus on one section, or you could have groups focus on resources for different sections, and then regroup to share findings.

This is not an activity I have tested extensively yet, but I wanted to share it now since it is seasonally relevant for this week (and since I was already gathering and categorizing the resources, maybe it can save you a little time!)

Do you have any other resources I could add to my collection?

Clear Expectations

As a new teacher, I had to come to the realization that student behavior is almost always tied to my expectations and their clarity in both my mind and the minds of my students. If I'm not exactly sure what I want students to be doing, there's a good chance they won't know. If students don't know exactly what they are supposed to be doing, they will decide on something - and chaos is a popular choice, rather than intentional and structured learning. Refining my expectations and making them clear to my students has been a huge part of developing good classroom management.

At my last school we all were trained using the CHAMPS system, using this book:

There's a lot of good advice in the book related to overarching strategies for "proactive and positive" classroom management. Especially when the whole school had the same training, it helped to have consistent expectations and language. Something that I especially appreciated were the "CHAMPS" posted in each classroom, which were a way to give students very specific and clear expectations for each activity: Who students could have conversations with and at what voice level, what students should do if they needed help, what activity or objective the class was working on, what movement was appropriate, what participation should look and sound like, ultimately all adding up to success.

Most teachers had specific sets of CHAMPS for specific activities or procedures: bellwork, transitions into group time, assessments, etc. I liked this because it forced me to really clarify my directions and expectations, and was a way to have consistent and visual reminders for students.

While this is not a program in place at my new school, I have modified the CHAMPS for my own language class. (This is one of the things I did during the very long drive from Michigan to California... thanks to a husband willing to drive a moving truck, and a laptop power converter plugged into the truck's lighter.) I played around with the categories a lot and tried to make a snappy acronym, to no avail. If you are better at acronyms, maybe you have a suggestion. Snappy acronyms aside, here is what I came up with:

Stress-free assessments: Two strategies

I'm not a fan of quizzes and tests. They are boring to create, boring to take, boring to grade, and often not an ideal way to assess students' language skills. In the current American educational climate, standardized tests are very much in the spotlight. They are the measuring stick used to measure students, teachers, lessons, and schools.

I have plenty of opinions about high-stakes standardized tests... but those are rants for another time. 

Among all these tests, I try my best to teach and assess through projects and communicative practice. I do use vocabulary quizzes on occasion to check student mastery of the words we have been studying. I try to make them quick, focused, and never worth more points than communicate and project-based assessments. At the very least quizzes are an opportunity to teach kids how to take assessments, especially when it comes to managing test-taking anxiety.

I always introduce the first quiz with a short cultural snapshot. I ask kids about good-luck tricks, and show them some pictures from Salamanca, Spain.

At the Universidad de Salamanca, one of the oldest in Europe, students have a tradition of searching for la rana hidden somewhere in the intricate decorations on this building. Finding the frog is supposed to bring good luck on exams and in life. I let my students give it a try - with a slightly zoomed in picture, because trying to find it on a small version projected on a screen is even harder than in real life!

Can you find it?

Una pista: La rana está en una calavera.

We talk briefly about good luck and whether it exists, and I remind them that being relaxed and calm before a test is important - maybe even just as important as preparing and studying beforehand. We share tips and ideas for how to reduce anxiety before testing.

Any cultural lessons about good luck charms are a good opportunity for addressing anxiety with students of any age (for example, my favorite lesson on worry dolls, or the chanchitos in Chile.) Superstitions aside, feeling calmer and more confident is always beneficial.

Another strategy I've used for years is to give students something to color after they finish. My quizzes are usually only one page, so I always put something on the back. (Middle school kids sometimes love coloring even more than the little ones.) At first I did this to reduce boredom, not anxiety, but as it turns out, there has been some research on using mandalas to reduce testing anxiety.

I usually allow students to choose an image from the stack of tests, which also helps randomize my selection of quizzes a little more. I use mandalas, or sometimes images from this book of Mexican Folk Art.

(This is also something colorful to display at home, if the grade itself isn't quite fridge-worthy.)

Gracias a mis alumnos por sus colores.

Any other ideas to combat test anxiety?

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?