The Challenge of Change

Change is scary.

I have been teaching for over a decade. I know what works in my classroom to get my students to be successful on their big exams. I know how to keep them engaged and minimize discipline problems. I know which types of projects to avoid with my population. I know enough to be comfortable.

But comfortable isn't going to push my students to the next level. Comfortable isn't going to help my students learn an intrinsic value to what I teach. Comfortable isn't going to be enough for most of them to achieve high enough to earn a Seal of Biliteracy once Ohio figures out what that looks like. And honestly, too comfortable leaves me feeling stagnant.

Oh, I want a degree of comfortable. I don't want to feel unsure every morning of how my lessons are going to, if the kids will connect to the material, if an idea will fall completely unsalvageable. But I want to be able to grow from that base of comfort.

I spent about 1 1/2 hours this morning working on my second revision of my Spanish I curriculum in as many years. Last summer I took a big step forward in trying to organize my material into larger units so that information was a bit more cohesive, not as fragmented. Today I tried to figure out how to fit my move towards incorporating my own mix of CI, TPRS, and technology in with those units.

I swear I spent ten minutes at one point just flipping papers and staring at words. Meshing two different ideas is not easy, possibly impossible I even wondered at one point. However, I finally started to come up with a plan. It still needs tweaking and fleshing out but I feel like I am making solid progress now.

For me the catalyst was when I finally told myself that it was okay not to expect the kids to have all the vocabulary at the same moments as they did this past year. Things are going to look different and that is okay.

P.S. I also found a video in Spanish about the 10 most intelligent animals that I am totally going to use to expand upon our first day bingo activity!

Ser Paciente

I was so blessed to be able to attend the OFLA state conference this year. I walked away with new ideas and an eagerness to try some of them out. Some things worked, some things need tweaked, some just didn't fit what I wanted. However, I didn't have major changes to my classroom (It was musical and track season and the final quarter of the year!).

Now that I'm on summer break, I have time to think more deeply about where I want my classroom to go. I started this journey with a few baby steps last summer. This summer I need to take some bigger ones.

And this is where being patient comes into play. As much as I want to just start tearing about old units and turning them into something new and better, I have to take more time. I need to read more about TPRS, PQA, and CI. I need to consider IPA's. I need to look at where the ACTFL standards want me to take my students. I need to keep up with Ohio's plans for the Seal of Biliteracy.

I need to be patient enough to learn what will work best for the type of learners my students are and the type of teacher I am. I firmly believe that what works in one classroom may not succeed in another one and this is where I have to be patient.

If I am patient and take the time to develop my ideas and plans, my students will reap the benefits come next school year.

100+ Lights

My heart is heavy this evening as I write. The terrorist bombing in Manchester, England sickens me. Moving forward when there can be so much darkness seems hard but I remember the 100+ lights that glimmer every day within the walls of my classroom.

These children are hope. I can't see the future. I don't know what will come for me, for them, for us. But I do know that I can work on being a positive influence in their lives. I can build them up. I can give them good moments. I can't control the future but I can chose to fill it with light rather than darkness.

Resouce Retrieving Win

Six years ago I had a great evening at the Baldi Hot Springs Resort in Costa Rica. Since I focus on the Central American country for the second half of Spanish II, I like to have the kids spend a day exploring the hot springs and learning a little bit about the nearby volcano. Two years ago I designed a simple Quia quiz that had them go to a website and look at the resort to get the right answers. That website stopped working by last year--as it happens--so I re-did the Quia quiz with two other websites.

Sadly I could not find a map of the resort anywhere online to compliment the activity. I had my morning Spanish II class work with what I had which included a fun video of the water slides. Then, during my plan, as I Googled "Baldi Hot Springs Map" one more time, I found myself on the official site for the resort again, my eyes falling on the Contact icon.

"Why don't you e-mail them?" I suddenly asked myself. So I did. I introduced myself and my role as a teacher. I mentioned my past visit and then explained my fruitless search for a map. I then requested an electronic copy of the facility if they had one.

Four hours later, they replied. With a bilingual map. And a short promo video!

I have rarely requested resources from sites in Spanish-speaking countries. Moreover, this was the first time that I asked for something from somewhere that wasn't offering educational materials specifically. The fact that they replied so quickly and in the affirmative has me so excited!!

I know this is a little thing but it is so encouraging to have another authentic resource for my students. What successes have you had in hunting down authentic resources for your students?

Quizizz Collaboration Moment

We used Quizizz activities to review direct and indirect object pronouns in Spanish II today. We used the same program for other topics in Spanish I and III this week as well and while I like the instant feedback of right or wrong, I didn't feel as though the students were really paying that much attention to the correct answer on the ones they missed.

So today I copied the Quizizz into a word document that my students downloaded before beginning the activity. I made sure to keep the questions in the same order but forgot about keeping the questions in order as well...

The idea was that students would mark the right answer in the document after trying the question on Quizizz. However, watching first period, I noticed that it was hard for kids to switch between the program and the document (I know there is a way to have two windows next to each other on a computer screen but that is something that I do by trial-and-error not a quick two-second fix to teach them at this time).

Because of this, for my other Spanish II class, I let them work with a partner, one with the document on their screen, the other with Quizizz.

This worked great! Plus since the entire question was in the word document, that student was still working through the question not just waiting on the Quizizz partner to make a choice. I was so excited when I walked past one pair and heard them talking through the four options for the answer. I love it when I hear students working their way to a correct choice!

Another Graduating Class

I just finished my slideshow for the seniors. 71 slides this year with double or triple photos on many of them. I hope the kids enjoy our trip down memory lane tomorrow; I know I have enjoyed looking back on moments from our four years.

(don't mind me sniffing back a few tears...)

Navigating Old San Juan--AKA a more creative way of learning how to follow navigational directions

 At the end of class on Friday, one of my students paused before leaving and commented on the activity we had just done "That was fun."
He was referring to an online activity that had students tracing directions along a map of Old San Juan. They were given a starting point and then had to pick the correct final destination. If they were right, they advanced. If wrong, the activity kicked them out and they had to start over again.

I created the game using Sporcle (which if you use it to make something for your own classroom, I recommend mentioning that in the directions since it can be made available to the general public). I have ten questions on it right now but one or two of them are trickier than I would like and I may be editing over the summer.
I was excited to hear that my student had enjoyed the game, not just because he had a good time but because I knew he had been using our new vocabulary (how to give directions) in a more-meaningful context that also incorporated realia.