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Blog about teaching Spanish

Shake things up! Make language learning more engaging! My name is Megan Smith (just got married in July… Yeah!!) and this is my sixth year teaching Spanish in Louisville, Kentucky. I studied International Business and Spanish at Grand Valley State University in Michigan and am now finishing my master's in Education at Northern Kentucky University. I really love my job and what I get to do in the classroom. I'm lucky to have a school who gives me freedom to try new things, a friend and mentor (Kara) who challenges me as a teacher, and other hardworking teachers who are willing to collaborate with me! I am honored to have been the 2011 Kentucky New Teacher of the Year from the Kentucky World Language Association. In November 2013, Kara, Rachel, and I presented at ACTFL's national conference in Orlando. How awesome! And a big hello from me, Kara Parker! I'm the other collaborator on this blog. I'd say that I've been "around the block" when it comes to teaching. I've taught for 12 years total (6 at a private Catholic girls school, 2 at a large public school (with Megan), and now 4 years at an awesome alternative school). I have my National Board Certification in World Languages. I'm excited to share on this site. :) Hopefully you can take something from the ideas posted here to make your classroom better for your students and your workload a little lighter. Here's to sharing! If you'd like to reach us, send us an e-card, or invite us to your school… Here's an email both of us use! :) creativelanguageclass@gmail.com

Shake things up! Make language learning more engaging!

Ten Burning Questions Language teaching is as much an art as it is a science. Effective educators excel at the art of language teaching, and we at CASLS understand the science behind second language acquisition research. With help from practicing teachers, we have identified the top ten burning questions of those who matter the most: language teachers themselves. CASLS is leading a team of researchers to investigate these questions and then publish the results in a variety of formats.

If you've ever considered having students bring their own devices (BYOD) to class, you've probably worried…won't the kids text all day long? How do I keep them from taking inappropriate photos or posting on Facebook while I'm teaching? Aren't students' phones a huge distraction? Here to help is Kristy from the 2 Peas and a Dog blog. Kristy is a Canadian middle school teacher who is in her seventh year of teaching Grades 7 and 8′s. She has allowed students to bring their own technology into the classroom for a few years now, and is excited to share how BYOD works in her classroom.

Official Homepage of The Japan Exchange and Teaching Program

Emotion researcher Richard Davidson says that cognition and emotion work together in a seamless, integrated way to help us persevere in a task. Thus, to teach grit effectively, educators need to help students cultivate both cognitive and emotional skills. Here are some research-based ideas for doing both.

A teacher's Pinterest board with various winter-related activities.

"Building reading competence seems to be a bit more challenging these days. Maybe it's just me, but students seem quite reluctant or incapable of guessing while reading. We have to provide a comfortable environment to encourage guessing. Moreover, teachers need to find ways of attracting students to reading of any kind-for information [see http://flava2011.wikispaces.com%5D and for pleasure. I feel it's somehow related to our testing culture that demands 'the right answer.' So how can we build reading? -By following what good parents do with children as they grow. Read children's books to your students-in class or in a reading circle on the floor in the library. Let students read for fun without an assignment attached. Or, read with a fun assignment. Read song lyrics and use them for a variety of reading steps: pick out words you can guess, pick out verbs that look similar to ones you've seen recently, which activities refer to a future event?, which phrases use an object pronoun? Which words go along with our area of study [Earth Day for example] Look at a related website and repeat the steps above. When does the song change from lyrics in one language to another? Link reading to a visual and show the visual first-a personal video, a tourism clip, a feature film. I used to think this was the reward after the reading, but so many topics can be enhanced if you teach about them saying: remember when you saw… [A previous student's video about daily routines, the advertisement for the Col Vert campground, Petit Nicolas, The Phantom of the Opera are such examples worth a preview."

Frameworks are intended to be models for articulating desired results, assessment processes, and teaching-learning activities that can maximize student achievement relative to the Georgia Performance Standards. They may provide Enduring Understandings, Essential Questions, tasks/activities, culminating tasks, rubrics, and resources for the units.

Telling our story is an essential part of our humanness. It allows us to feel part of the community that knows our story, and it fosters empathy for those that surround us. Story is a powerful force in shaping mental models, motivating and persuading others, and teaching the lessons of life. Telling story extends back to a time when oral history dominated the tools of communication. And now the flood of technology tools that allow for instant communication has spun us back into a golden age where story again dominates the media landscape.

AAPPL Measures and IPAS I think tests are stupid. A test can't tell you how well I do my job or live my life--or anything you really need to know about me. Now, I'm really good at taking tests, and if you were to look at various test scores I've accumulated in my life, I daresay you'd be impressed with me. But do you know how much bearing the ACT, SAT, or GRE has had on any of my roles since college or grad school application time? Do you know how much impact that Issues in Teaching Foreign Languages or  Masterpieces of Hispanic Art and Literature exam has had on me as a teacher, mother, wife, or friend--or even as a speaker of Spanish?

As most of you know, the uber gods of PBL are BIE. I was first introduced to the BIE PBL 'model' from mate Dean Groom who handed me over what I still refer to as my 'PBL Bible' - a ring-binder full of the BIE Freebies that help teachers plan effective projects and keep students on track as they move through the different phases of each project. The cool thing is that you can use as much or as little as you want … PBL is a very personal process that (like all good teaching) should be tailored to the expertise and needs of the teacher and students. However, there are 8 Elements of Project Based Learning that can be called the 'essential elements' of PBL … keeping an eye on these and 'testing' your project design based on them can help you determine if what you're creating isn't just a 'project'. I really like this statement from BIE contrasting PBL and traditional 'projects':

A typical unit with a "project" add-on begins by presenting students with knowledge and concepts and then, once gained, giving students the opportunity to apply them. Project Based Learning begins with the vision of an end product or presentation. This creates a context and reason to learn and understand the information and concepts.

At any given moment, the disciplines represent the most well-honed efforts of human beings to approach questions and concerns of importance in a systematic and reliable way. (Howard Gardner, The Disciplined Mind, p. 144)

What they never tell you is that when you're eleven, you're also ten, and nine, and eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four and three, and two, and one. (Sandra Cisneros, "Eleven," from The House on Mango Street)

You know the hardest thing about teaching with project-based learning? Explaining it to someone. It seems to me that whenever I asked someone the definition of PBL, the description was always so complicated that my eyes would begin to glaze over immediately. So to help you in your own musings, I've devised an elevator speech to help you clearly see what's it all about.

"Traditional American classrooms tend to fit a particular mold: Students face the front of the class where teachers lecture. Students take notes, finish assignments at home, and hope to memorize enough information just long enough to pass a test. Engagement and passion are often in short supply - among students and teachers. The system does not necessarily accommodate all learning styles, and even those who fair well may be missing out on other important work-life lessons, like how to creatively solve problems, stay focused, work as part of a team, and organize their thoughts in a way others will understand. This is where project-based learning enters the equation."

"The NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements are self-assessment checklists used by language learners to assess what they "can do" with language in the Interpersonal, Interpretive, and Presentational modes of communication. These modes of communication are defined in the National Standards for 21st Century Language Learning and organized in the checklist into the following categories: Interpersonal (Person-to-Person) Communication Presentational Speaking (Spoken Production) Presentational Writing (Written Production) Interpretive Listening Interpretive Reading Click within each cell to display the benchmark and the associated Can Do Statement PDF. Or, click on a Level/Mode row or column to expand the entire level or mode."

French & German Music, Videos, teaching ideas