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Moving On - Shedding the teacher I was
I'm moving. It's the first time in nine years, but the third time since I started teaching. I used to keep a lot of stuff in file cabinets, first in my classrooms, then in my shed when I started at the...
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Every Little Thing
I have been without a kitchen table since before my son ate solid foods. I mean, I had one. It was in the shed because there wasn't really enough room in my kitchen to sit even if we hadn't left it in...
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10 Songs for Spanish Class for 2018
Music is the magic bullet for all language learning. Whether it's my daughter's endless loop of counting and color and Christmas songs from her bilingual kindergarten classes or Sr. Wooly songs that...
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Mascota Especial
I've failed at Persona Especial. I can think of nothing more admirable and relevant and beneficial than making your students your curriculum. But as I have failed at becoming Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell in...
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Flipgrid for Self-Improvement
My dream is coming true! I cannot TELL you how pumped I was to see this post on the iFLT/NTPRS/CI Teaching Facebook group about joining my self-improvement project--which I presented at ACTFL and we...
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Music, Maestro! Student song of the week
I don't feel like keeping up with coros or listening practice this year, but I do want to keep the weekly infusion of energy from learning a new song. What's more, I want to tap into the message from...
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Everybody On Board - Teacher Proficiency Paths
I asked Meredith Clark if her session was really for people like me. I'm not from a very large district, and I'm only an "LOTE leader" there because they're no longer paying anyone to fill any such...
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AAPPL Writing Topics
I WANT that Seal of Biliteracy on my students' diplomas! But since our school schedules are set up in such a way that kids basically have to beg for even Spanish III to be squeezed in between college...
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#FlipgridFever! Language Connections
Did you know that Flipgrid has a place for you to find and share connections?? There are so many ways you can learn and share with other languages! So not only did I take it upon myself to post my...
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Strategies for Reading and Self-Improvement
I had a choice.In theory my students have been working on one self-improvement goal since the snow days in January. In practice not so much. The cool thing is that they can totally express to me in...
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Cheating in Spanish Class
It's a little rush of adrenaline when you catch a cheater. We language teachers, we can spot a translator sentence just skimming. That rush, though, it's always a teeny tiny tempest of emotions: a...
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What PBL Is and Is NOT in Language Classes [SECONDARY SPANISH SPACE]
Projects are not Project-Based Learning.My amigas at Secondary Spanish Space invited me to contribute a post about what PBL is--and is not--in language classes. Here's a sample:Posters and videos and...
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#LANGCHAT 3/15 - COMMUNITY
The surest way to make language learners SEE the value of a language is to give them real opportunities to USE the language. That's why I think the 5th C is probably the single most essential C....
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Novel Groups - Robo en la noche & Bianca Nieves
I ordered 50 books from Fluency Matters in anticipation of my Spanish 2 animals unit. The thinking was that these would build students', well, fluency, as well as their contextual vocabulary and...
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Flipgrid for Managing "Puedos" Starters
I start my class with "Puedos" almost every single day. It makes for an active start to class that also gives me a little time to take attendance and get situated while making sure students can do some...
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#Snapthoughts - Video Reflection
I blame Snapchat filters and Carmen Scoggins. First of all, Snapchat filters are fun, and even with two teen wannabes at home, I wish I had more excuses to play with it. So what did Carmen do at our...
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NO MORE BAD RUBRICS!
It was me and two other English teachers. We about had a knock-down-drag-out with a teaching guru visiting our district who told us in no uncertain terms:RUBRICS ARE BAD.We were told that the rubrics...
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Intercultural Attraction - Tianguis style advertising
Saturday is the day! We're taking the Just Plain Dog Show by bilingual storm! Parks & Rec has agreed to provide us with some tables and chairs, and groups have been preparing materials on a variety...
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Braggin' Rights - AAPPL scores and seals
"What did you do to these kids this year??"Kimberly was an amazing student last year. She's one of my THREE Spanish 3 kiddos this year (woohoo! record for non-native speakers!), and, based on her AAPPL...
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GUEST POST: Empathy in the Language Classroom
If you spend your days reading teaching blogs and connecting with other teachers on Twitter, I’m sure you can relate to my total and utter Spanish student nerdiness. I would spend hours on my bed...
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The Truth Is...Why I'm not at the protests
The truth is my protest unit failed. When I couldn't get my seniors to read or write anything else, I had hoped controversial topics would hook them, make them question things, make them stand up and...
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How Your Students See You
I was so frustrated with all of my failure this year. I honestly felt like I peaked two years ago, and it was all going to be downhill from there. There were no more competition trophies to put in the...
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Videos in English for Spanish Class
Tim McGraw perfectly captured why language learning is essential for everyone.When I started teaching Spanish, did I ever anticipate seeing the words "Tim McGraw" and "language learning" in the same...
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New AAPPL Style Listening Task!
I feel pretty good about my DIY AAPPL tasks for reading! It's not too hard to get text to do what you want on Google Slides, so making tasks that look like the real thing is totally doable! HOWEVER,...
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Community Partners in PBL Projects
Community Partners are pretty much the whole point of PBL in language classes: you WANT students interacting and using the language outside of your classroom! What makes a project authentic is actually...
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