1 week down, 35 more to go…

This year was difficult to get back in the routine, maybe because there was no routine to get back to. New classroom, new prep, and new strategies I’m trying to implement after reading A Natural Approach to the Year by Tina Hargaden and Ben Slavic.

After an exhausting 7 first days with students, I went out with some colleagues on Friday afternoon and sighed in relief, “Today was finally the first day I was able to think ‘Hey, I’m a good teacher'”. I suppose I share that to say to all of you just starting out this week…don’t sweat it, you will get there.

I’m still too tired to give you a play-by-play, but here’s the highlight reel of some of my favorite activities with students this week!

Spanish 1

After lots and lots of Calendar and Card Talk, we started our first StoryAsking on Friday. So far they have come up with: Hay un muchacho. El muchacho se llama Shoe. Shoe es simpático. Shoe tiene un amigo. (There is a boy. The boy calls himself Shoe. Shoe is nice. Shoe has a friend.)

Y’all, they were on the edge of their seats to find out who Shoe’s friend is. Several students exclaimed that they can’t wait to finish the story on Monday. And that’s the beautiful thing about Spanish 1: It’s all so new and exciting that I am keeping them engaged and learning with THAT SIMPLE, SILLY story!

Spanish 2

It’s a little bit harder to impress these kids now that they have a semester under their belts. As Carol Gaab says, the brain craves novelty. So really, thank goodness for Kara Jacobs. Her “Soy yo” unit was a hit this week, and rather than an assessment at the end we topped it all off with an energizing game of Running Dictation.

Spanish 3

Ahh, returning to old friends. It’s been awhile since I’ve taught Spanish 3, and I found myself really stumbling with them this week. Still, we had such fun with Persona especial based on summer vacation followed up by an epic showdown of The Marker Game!

I spent the last 3 minutes of each class on Friday collecting their feedback via a self-assessment of the weekly learning targets on Google Forms, and was pleasantly surprised to encounter that students overwhelmingly enjoyed the week and felt that they had acquired some language with confidence and accuracy!

Here’s to Week 2 being even better than Week 1, and wishing all the best to all of you starting this week!