Ted Talk

Rita Pierson is so inspirational in her Ted talk.  She speaks about the value and importance of human connection.  Teaching is about seeing the positive in each child and expecting positive results.  I hope this talk encourages you the way it did me.

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Speaking Using the Usted Form

Students who are learning Spanish need to learn the difference between the formal form and informal form.  This can be difficult because the only time it is used within the class is when speaking to the teacher.  I make several other students "ustedes" by giving them a paper crown.  These students are then addressed in the formal form throughout the class period.  It seems to me, the boys love to wear the pink and purple crowns the most!

Leyendas

This was a video project I created, enjoy:

End of the Trimester Evaluations

At the end of each trimester I have students fill out a survey asking them to evaluate how their experience was in my classroom.  I find that it helps me to identify strategies that have worked well for students and those that haven't.  I also find a few surveys enlightening and insightful.  After a difficult experience in a particular class of Spanish I students, most of which qualified as "at-risk" learners, I was surprised to read the above statement.  A student wrote, "Sorry I was so rude I've just been having a lot of problems outside of school."

This made me think.  How many students that frustrate me are simply so frustrated with their situation outside of school.  By treating this student well, despite his rude behavior, the student recognized an apology was needed.  I keep this little piece of the survey on my desk to remember that every student has a story and I may be the only positive adult in his/her life.  I must show kindness even when a student treats me in a way that is disrespectful.  I don't know what he or she is dealing with.

Mid-Michigan Migrant Reflection

After a few months of thinking, I can't get over how thankful I am for my summer job.  This summer I worked with Mid-Michigan Migrant program, at their St. Johns location, to teach kindergarten through 2nd grade.  I learned so much.

About myself:
1.  Kindergarten is HARD, but it is so rewarding.  These beautiful children were so eager to please and so helpful and kind.  They made me laugh and the touched my heart.

2.  Learning how to teach Kindergarten has made me a better HS teacher.  I think it really breaks you down to the basics of being a good teacher: classroom management, individualization of lesson plans, and holding student attention.  I find that I'm much more patient with my HS students and much more critical of my addition to the chaos within my classroom

3.  I did it.  I felt so proud of myself when my GVSU professor complimented me on my last evaluation.  She was floored at my newly found skills and amazed at the progress I had made from the first evaluation.  She asked for my portfolio as an example to show and eluded to the fact that she didn't think very many HS teachers could cut it in Kindergarten, but I could.

About Spanish:
1. Hearing the language spoken daily by younger children tuned my ear to detailed specifics and extended my vocabulary.

2.  I was able to experience living, breathing Mexican-American culture minutes from my front door.  I learned so much about the family unit and how to help parents become more involved in their children's education.

About teaching:
1.  Spending a summer teaching is exhausting, but teaching students who really needed and deserved my time was so refreshing.  I felt physically tired and emotionally spent, but felt my love of teaching be reborn and deepen.

Remind

I can't tell you how helpful it has been to use Remind.com in my HS Spanish classroom.  Students have NO excuses as to not getting their homework done, not knowing about a test, or not having access to resources used within the class when they get a text or email reminder from me each night.  It also works so well for extended parent communication and for giving Special Education staff and update for what students should be doing during Academic Success class.  The number you give students is assigned to you via Remind and then you can use the handy app to send out your texts once your students sign up.  Check it out!  You'll love it!

https://www.remind.com/

Pam Muñoz Ryan: Great Author for Latino Culture

This is a quick Prezi I created to present Pam Munoz Ryan as well as to work with her books in the classroom: 

Diversity and Mulitcultural Literature

This summer I am taking another graduate class toward my elementary certification.  My class, taught at Grand Valley by Liz Storey (a fantastic teacher by the way) is called "Children's Literature."  My first thought is: how can I incorporate what I'm learning in this class to help my students to be more well-rounded and effective readers?  Part of my duty as a "specials" teacher is to bring in materials that help gen-ed teachers move students along.  My second duty, which is self-given, is to be an ambassador of culture to my students. 

So, I am beginning my project on literature that promotes both culture and diversity (focused on Latinos/Spanish Speakers).  I have 34 books to read and am about half way there, here is my TBR list for this week.  So far I've read "Rules" which is a book I feel that EVERY child should read (3-8th) grade, to understand what students with a disability might be feeling. 

Conjugation Flip Book

One of my fellow teachers teaches special education math.  She made little flip books with her class using math terms, I was  inspired and created these for the verb "ir."  After my trimester II students LOVED them so much, I made an actual template with glue and paste instructions for the verb ser for trimester I students.

Connect Four!

Thanks to the Central State Conferences for some great ideas for vocabulary games.  The students have a connect four board and using a plastic sleeve they can mark using white board markers.  The students can get a chance to mark on the board if the correctly translate the Spanish word.  They enjoyed the change of pace. 

Sit and Spin for Vocabulary Review

I got this idea from another blogger and tested it out within my classroom.  It's a vocabulary review game where students use a spinner, land on a task, and receive points if they can complete the task.  Students enjoyed the new format and I was pleased at their ability to use the Spanish word within a complete sentence after having only a few weeks of Spanish.

Spanish III Students

I've been so impressed by the students I have taking trimester III of Spanish.  They have put so much work into learning the information and practicing at home.  It's amazing what these middle schoolers are accomplishing!  I love hearing them say, "Mrs. Smith you'd be so impressed, we went to the restaurant Cancun, and I ordered my meal in Spanish, the waiter said 'Muy bien.'"

Miwila

I cannot believe how many new great ideas I was taught!  It is so inspiring to hear how other world language teachers conduct their classrooms.  I think I will now dive into the world of Moodle!  Thank you so much to the teachers who gave their time to present.

Spanish part 3

This year is my first teaching Spanish part 3 (we teach Spanish I in 3 trimesters over 6th, 7th, and 8th grade).  I am trying a new technique:  Real Language Right Away.  It's a program that gets students speaking Spanish by memorizing "sound bites" in actual conversations.  My students LOVE it, and so do I.  I have found myself looking forward to Spanish 3 all morning.  Yesterday we had our first Spanish only day, I was so impressed.  Students were able to communicate what they were wearing, how they were feeling, what problems they might have, what others looked like, their personality, it was a truly magical moment (and I'm not being hokey).  They spoke for nearly an hour WITHOUT ANY ENGLISH!  One student even answered the phone and responded in Spanish.  I realized that I am finding the magic formula which I knew all along.  Be happy when students speak Spanish, quietly correct errors by repeating their phrase in the third person, reward students for their success, and make it fun.  I am really going to miss these students, their enthusiasm and excitement are contagious.

New idea: conjugating verbs

I love using the ipods to get on conjuguemos.com for the students to practice with verbs, but I've also found some other unique and fun ways to practice:

1.  movable verbs:  cut off ending (ar/er/ir) and match to movable pieces of paper with for example o,as,a, amos, áis, or an.

2.  Let's Conjugate Some Verbs, song by Magia Escolar.

3.  Conjugations Back, song by Sr. Mara spanish

4.  Conjugation dice (dice with pronouns and verb, roll them, and conjugate)

5.  New:  Plastic Easter Eggs, have the stem on one side and twist to form the correct verb (see pictures)

These are just a few ideas, but I've found they work so well for my students!

Final Exam Results and Continued work with ipods

The ease of using an ipod vs having the students record and send a movie was drastic.  For the Spanish I final exam, students answered 14 questions in Spanish and then voice recorded their answers on the ipods and I could download them onto my computer.  This saved valued class time as well as freed me from my computer to grade the voice recordings.  I simply downloaded them onto one of the 30 ipods as "songs" and listened to them in the evening at home.  It is also really neat because I save these files on my computer and I can look back and listen to the improvement from Spanish I to Spanish II (and next year to Spanish III!)

I've been working at creating a fun and meaningful "I'm finished, what do I do now," activity with Careers.  I stumbled upon an app that is a game using wikipedia.  You have to get from one term to another with the least amount of clicks possible.  We'll see, but I think this might be a good activity for students to learn random facts, work on finding key answers, improve study skills, all in place of that time in-between some finishing and some still working.

Next week were are also working on podcasts for Careers.  With the students who really shine in this activity, I'm thinking I can even download these podcasts and have next trimester's class watch them and gain ideas and learn more about various Careers.

Final Exam Spanish

I am so excited to see how my Spanish II final exam goes.  I am having the students create a powerpoint using 14 photographs of their daily life.  We have been reading "Las Adventuras de Isabel" and this was my inspiration.  In the novella, Isabel photographs her life and the story progresses through her pictures.  The students will use their 14 pictures to answer 14 essential Spanish II questions.  The students seem receptive and hopefully they will enjoy the project.

Gabits

I cannot wait to see all of my students' "Gabits."  Gabits are avatars that you can design and make to speak.  The students wrote a paragraph telling what they do on the weekends and then created a Gabit and voice recorded where their "Gabit" went on the weekend. The students felt very comfortable "speaking" in front of the class because they were able to record their voice and self-correct until they got the desired recording.  One can also lower or raise the voice of the Gabit.  They then presented them to the class using a borrowed document cam and connected the speaker jack to their ipod.  We had a lot of Spanish fun listening to and watching the students' projects.  After each student has presented I will sinc the ipods and post a few on our class blog so the Spanish I students can see them.  (purpleinksenora.blogspot.com).

New Uses

Last week we used the ipods to read some really informative articles in my careers class about young entrepreneurs.  The students then commented on our class blog about what they found inspiring/unique with the products produced or services provided.  It was interesting to see their point of view and allow them to read one-another's words.  I continue to find that some of my students are actually "more themselves" when hidden behind the keyboard of a computer or touch pad of an ipod.

I have also noticed that my Spanish I students have scored VASTLY higher than last years students on the numbers portion of our test.  I couldn't figure out why, well, DUH, it wasn't me, it was the help of Mindsnacks, an ipod application.  Many of my students have even added it to their personal ipods, which is really neat, and are working on learning numbers at home (without me assigning it or having to grade extra papers).

More to follow!  I am attending a conference this week and one of the workshops is using ipod touches in the Spanish classroom (pretty pumped!)

**Ipod usage**

Thanks to my school district, my students are able to use ipod touches (30 for my class in total).  They are so excited about using them.  During open house, parents remarked, "Wow, this is right up her alley," or "this looks like a lot of fun," or "where could we download that app for his personal ipod."  These remarks really excite me.  Why?  Well, because that was my biggest hope and goal, that students would begin to see their ipod not just as a toy, but a learning device.

Besides thinking we have the "coolest class ever" because we have the ipods, the students have really enjoyed using them to brush up on or being learning numbers in Spanish.  They even have downloaded the app on the personal device for at home.  It's weird, but you really don't feel like you're doing school work when you're playing.  I played the game for about 20 minutes and had to stop myself, I was having so much fun.

The careers class also used them to do a bit of research on Gardner and his 8 learning styles.  They found the internet easy to navigate (which is amazing because of how small the buttons are to type, but they're used to it) and quickly found an accurate website.

The students love the Spanish music on the ipods and it makes me so happy to see them writing down these artists names and wanting to buy the music for themselves.  Can you imagine how much extra Spanish they would hear if even a 1/3 of the time they are listening to their ipod they are hearing Spanish jams?

Anyway, so far so good.  Set up was a little tricky and downloading and set up took me a few days of summer, but WORTH IT for excited students.  I also have created ipod commandments so students really understand what's expected of them, I think that is helping with the classroom management side.