Training middle schoolers to “do” CI is hard. They’re sooooo bouncy and excited, which is GREAT for having an interesting stream of conversation and story ideas, but it also creates a challenge when asking them to look and listen without shouting out!!! Last year, I started using a daily rubric to help them learn the behaviors…
I’m a HUGE proponent of nonfiction/news/cultural topics in CI classrooms (here’s a blog post of mine about it). I LOVE to share these with students because they are super high interest and are exciting to me. A few of my faves relate to Koshik the talking elephant and Peru (including the 4,000 varieties of potatoes that are native to Peru…
The leadership class at my school puts together these sweet messages for teachers. I thought this one should be shared. Students knowing the objective of a Comprehensible Input classroom… PRICELESS! 🙂
I’m working on my Locura de marzo stuff for the week and had the most amazing discovery. I stumbled across the music video for El Mismo Sol (Alvaro Soler), and it reminded me of one of my favorite music videos of all time Latinoamérica (Calle 13). Both videos show scene after scene of culture from their respective regions!…
Another year, another GREAT spring conference! I love connecting with language teachers! I’m lucky to have access to great professional development in my district (when they don’t cancel it, that is), and CCFLT gives me a chance to add to my knowledge base with access to presenters from across Colorado and the country! I picked…
I wrote this article for CCFLT’s (Colorado Congress of Foreign Language Teachers) Winter Newsletter, and I wanted to share it here as well. Kids are like Puppies Last year, I had the pleasure of attending Connie Navarro’s presentation entitled “Kids are like Cows.” (Of course there is a story to this title, but for that, you’ll have to…
If you haven’t seen today’s Google Doodle, it’s ADORABLE! AND, it was created by a 2nd grader named Sarah Gomez-Lane (with a little help from the fine folks at Google)!!!!! I’m going to use this for a super fun, interactive MovieTalk/PictureTalk activity! I always pre-plan Movie or PictureTalk so that I’m ready for any out-of-bounds vocabulary…
Happy 2019! As a new semester is upon me, I’m thinking of all the things I need to do next week. The biggest one for me is continuing to build relationships with students since I have year-long classes and already know my kids! Relationships with students are the key to teaching success especially when teaching…
Every teacher has his or her own take on the first few weeks. In fact, when you Google it, just a *few* results come up. How to begin the year in a CI class is something that I am asked about constantly. It is so challenging to know what you are “supposed” to do. I’ll…
Year ago, I learned about this End of Year Project from a colleague of mine. She had her students turn the class stories that she had written all year into books for her classroom library!!! BRILLIANT! The majority of the work is finished. You just have to print off the stories in larger font and…
I absolutely adore routines, procedures, and systems! I know that all students (and all kids) need structure and in my experience, middle schoolers DESPERATELY need it! I once heard a tale, I think in a teacher-prep class, about a teacher who missed one of their classes, but no one realized that she wasn’t in the…
Objectives are hard. Well, knowing your goal or what you’re teaching usually isn’t that hard, but writing it in the way that fits your district while being student friendly (and not letting it take over your life) can be hard. I remember a conversation with my sister-in-law (high school English teacher) during my first year…
