Life is too short to spend it in a career that doesn't make you happy.

Prompted by a recent comment, I have decided that it is time to let my readers know where I am at this year.

Last week marks the first year that school started without me.

As last year progressed, I realized that teaching was not something I would stay in forever and that instead I wanted to go to law school. At the time I had expected to teach another year since I missed the deadline to apply for fall 2009 law school. But things changed in July when my husband was offered a job to work with the federal government in the area where we are both from (he has always had a strong desire to return closer to home and it has always been his dream to work with the government). So needless to say we could not pass up this offer even though it meant another move and me leaving my position.

Unfortunately with the state of the economy, jobs are very hard to come by. There were not many Spanish teacher openings and I did not even get an interview for the few I applied for. Additionally, my focus has been more towards the direction of a law career and so I have been also looking at legal assistant/paralegal positions as well.

This may seem like a sudden change because of all the enthusiasm I put into the last year but really it has been a thought in the back of my head for a long time and last year was really a chance for me to see if my frustrations were specific to my previous school or if they applied to a new school (last year was my first year at a VERY different school than the one I taught at the three years before).

My biggest frustrations were with the lack of learning that occurs. It always felt like a battle trying to keep expectations high while colleagues had very low expectations, parents only wanted their kids to have good grades (regardless if they learned anything), and administrators expected us to appease the parents. At my last school you add in the fact that I was in competition with all the elective teachers since the school was so small. And kids choose based on how fun the class is and not whether the class will help them in the future.

And that is not to say all kids don't want to learn and that all parents only care about grades. I did have the time of my life with my small Spanish I class this past year. But it's those kids and those parents who aren't focused on learning and being successful in the future who speak the loudest, convince the adminstration the best, and in the end all but dictate what goes on in the classroom.

Well, this will likely be my last post. Good luck to all of you! And if you would like to continue to follow my journey, I have started a blog entitled "Changing careers - Educator to Attorney".

Grammar

The role of grammar in language instruction is a highly debated topic among world language teachers. Recently this topic was brought up on Teachers.net (click here to see thread). Here are my thoughts:



1. One of our main goals as language teachers is to get our kids communicating comprehensibly and to be understood by native speakers there needs to be a certain degree of accuracy in their communication. To obtain that accuracy, grammar is essential. But we can't lose sight of the goal of communication and so it is key to obtain a good balance so their your kids are learning to communicate accurately.



2. Kids don't know grammar terms or even their English grammar but can still communicate accurately in English. So it is important in this discussion to separate the study about a language with the study of meaning. Both of which require some focus on grammar or structure at least.



3. Concepts click better with kids when they are used in meaningful contexts. So grammar should never be isolated from communication. It needs to be a part of communication. And communication needs to be rich in the structures being presented at the time so that students get ample input.



4. With no understanding of grammar terms in English, I personally doubt the importance of them (at least in the lower levels as we are trying to get kids communicating) and actually have seen how terms like "indirect object pronouns" can further confuse kids. Instead I think we should be focusing more on meaning. Understanding that "le" means to him/her/you(formal) makes far more sense than realizing that "le" is an indirect object pronoun. If I understand the meaning, I can apply it. If I understand only the grammar term for it, there is very little chance of me being able to apply it.



5. Again, I really feel that balance is key. I still do drills and conjugation games with my students because I feel that they better ingrain the concepts in their heads. But on top of that we use them in many contexts and I have them do many more creative tasks to get them communicating with the next concepts.



6. More advanced grammar instruction can really benefit from more detailed English grammar instruction to the advanced student who is trying to perfect their skills (not develop them). The lower levels, on the other hand, are still trying to develop their skills and so expecting them to learn English grammar at the same time as the Spanish grammar can be very overwhelming to some students.



Let me give you an example of how I taught indirect objects to my Spanish I kids.



Students were writing a class story which inevitably included indirect objects. Individually I worked with students who were trying to express this concept in their story. Then as we went over the class, I pointed out some examples of indirect objects and talked about what they meant. At this point, there was no expectation of students mastering the concept. I just wanted to plant a bug in their head and show them multiple examples of them in their own writing.



Then a couple of weeks later we were talking about what students did for their mother's on Mother's Day. We started the lesson by having students write on the board what they did for their own mothers. I then pointed out how many of their examples were things they did TO or FOR their mother. At that point, I picked one which I asked the class to translate. I left a blank where the IOP needed to go. Before we had even finished the sentence a student who had remembered what we had done in the story pointed out that we needed a "le" in the sentence. Again we talked about what that "le" meant. I asked them questions about where we put the "le" in the sentence, why we doubled up, what "a" or "para" meant. And then we did another example. At that point, I asked them to for homework translate their phrases. I was available to help them with any vocabulary they didn't know.



The next day we returned to it with them answering questions that required IOPs. And we did a few translations, English to Spanish. At this point I assigned homework which involved translating more sentences (many of which were taken directly from their own sentences about their mothers) English to Spanish. At no point did I ever talk about the fact that they were called indirect objects. Instead we focused on meaning. And not once did I see the usual confused faces when I talk about indirect objects. And as I walked around the room or checked their homework, I was finding that in a very short time kids were finding a lot of success with this concept. Which was refreshing after spending so much time with my Spanish II kids who still weren't getting it (I had taught them using a more traditional grammar focused approach).

New Favorite Song

I absolutely love this song I found recently. It is called "Qué vida la mía" by Reik. And my students are really enjoying it as well. I love to hear that they liked a song we did in class so much they downloaded it to their ipod. Click on the title of this post to see a live version of this song on YouTube.

Final Exams

What is the objective of final exams?

My thoughts in the past have always been that it is a way for students to put together all the knowledge and skills they have been acquiring. It really forced students to go back and review what they had learned. So in the past I have always put a lot of emphasis on the final exam and made it 20% of the semester grade.

My one issue with final exams in the past has been that grades have always been due so quickly after the exam so that doing an authentic assessment is really out of the question (due to lack of time to correct it) and so my exams have traditionally been MC, T/F, fill in the blank, matching (no more than a word per answer). I've overcome that frustration slightly by adding an authentic part to it completed the week or two before hand and worth at least half of the final exam grade.

But today I sit here thinking about my Spanish I class. Over the weekend I had already started to put together a traditional exam using old ones as a guide. But when I gave students a chance today to look through their files and look through how much they had accomplished and reflect on it, I started to realize that with this group, they already had been putting it all together. And much of what they had learned throughout the year was still at their fingertips because they had retained so much. I realized that over the past months they had already demonstrated to me their ability to put it all together. One student even voiced my exact thoughts when she asked why we needed a final exam with all this proof of what they had accomplished.

So what is the point of the final exam now? Do I really need to give them a test that tells me exactly what I already know?

Seniors

I've often been frustrated with my seniors this semester as they don't seem willing to do much work and are just not focused at all, more so than in other schools I've been in. And I now see exactly why they feel that way. They are not required to take any finals. They get out about 2 weeks earlier than the rest of the kids. They have so many field trips (senior class picture, senior class play, state and important events in their clubs, etc.) that most of them are only in classes about 3 days a week for the last month and a half. And this week is no exception. A huge chunk of them were gone for a field trip related to their childcare class on Tuesday and today none of them will be here because they have a dress rehearsal of their class play for the elementary kids. And yesterday was the Senior class picture so first hour I didn't see my seniors either.

I worry about how they are going to transition into college after a semester of completely goofing off (even more than your average senior who already takes as many sluff courses as possible).

Update on class story

We have finished the class story and you can read it by clicking on the title of this post. I am so proud of what my Spanish I class has written.

Then part of their assessment when we were done with the story was to write a summary (no more than 5 sentences) in Spanish of the story. Here are some examples (exactly as they wrote them) of students of varying abilities. They were allowed to use their notes, a dictionary, and the story. Again, I am absolutely amazed at what my Spanish I students can produce. In the past, my Spanish I classes have done very little creative writing.

"El cuento es de Ronald Trump, quien tenía una fobia de pollo y John quien es pie grande y pode teletransporta, y príncipe travestí. Ellos todos llega en una isla no es pode John teletransporta. Después de ellos son en la isla Ronald Trump y John son atacaron. Príncipe travestí buscó por Ronald Trump y John. Entonces Príncipe travestí fue atacado y el pollo vivo."

"John, Ronald y Principe Travesti encantarso en el cielo. Ellos buscaron refugio. Ronald y john fue atacar. Entonces principe travesti buscó John y Ronald entonces él fue atacar. Él pello vivió."

"Ronald´s avión explotó y él volaba muy alto en el cielo. John teletransportó a el cielo and él encontró John y Ronald. Ellos hablaron en el cielo y John despúes teletransportó los a la isla. En la isla ellos estar atacaron y ellos morieron."

"Ronald Trump, John y el príncipe travestí estuvieron cayeron en el ciel y sobre en isla. Al principio ellos es confundidos y John intentaba a teleransporto per recurso. Ellos empezaban buscar comida y rufugio y encontrar compraste. Pero ellos es atacaban y morían. Pero el príncipe travestí pollo es todavía vive."

"En el sustantivo los carácter son Ronald Trump, John, El príncipe travestí. Ronald Trump, John, el príncipe travestí saltaron en el cielo junto y econtrarse con cada otros. John intento teletransportar Ronald Trump y El príncipe travestí a su casa, pero es no su casa. John teletransportar en la isla. Mientras tanto Ronald Trump, John, y El príncipe tranvestí buscar los objetos para obrevivir, pero alguien atacó y muertos."

"El cuento es de tres personas, de Ronald Trump, John, y del príncipe travestí. Ellos tienen los problemas diferentes con sus avións y con teletransportar para que todos terminan y se encuentran en el cielo. Ahí ellos hablan y deciden teletransportar a la casa de Ronald pero no llegan a su casa, ellos llegan en una isla. John no puede teletransportar. Ahí ellos buscan refugio y intentan sobrevivir. Ellos recogen la comida. Pero en el final ellos mueren porque alguien atacó a ellos y el pollo vive."

Our future is in the kids' hands

I just had a conversation with a kid in my study hall about shoplifting. He told me that one time while he was at Walmart he stole some batteries (because his sister encouraged him to and she was taking some keychains and such). He then went on to tell me that it is a great thing that he has only stole once. And so I asked him how this could be a good thing. And I went on teling him how shoplifting effects stores and prices overall. And he seemed to see nothing wrong with what he did and told me that if he were to go back in time he would still do exactly what he did.

If this were to be just an isolated conversation, I would just be frustrated with this one kid. But it is not. So many of these kids I work with just don't seem to have a conscience and don't see anything wrong with what they do and no matter what you tell them they still don't see it.

What will our country be like in 20 years? For me it is kind of scary to think about.

Short term memory

So I re-introduced direct object pronouns this week (we have already worked with them in previous chapters). And yesterday we were going through tons of examples and practice answering questions, simplifiying sentences, etc. I was calling students up individually to complete them (it is a class of only 5 so that meant students coming up multiple times) and was really impressed with how much they were catching on.

Then today I put on the board several questions, just like the ones we did yesterday. And my first hour kids looked at it as if I had written Greek on the board. They couldn't understand what the questions meant. They couldn't even pick out more than couple of words. And then when they went to try and answer it they didn't know how to use pronouns or anything. It was like they had never seen it before.

And then I asked them to get their homework out and asked them to put their answers on the board and some of them didn't even remember doing the worksheet (although they had it done) and couldn't really explain what they had done. And I know they did the worksheet themself because I watched them complete at least the first half of it in class yesterday.

And this wasn't a first. With the exception of my Spanish I group (I need to figure out what is different with this group), none of my classes retain anything no matter what I do. And it is beyond just not remember all the specifics of something. When things show up again (and again and again) they claim they have never even seen it before.

I know some of it has to do with their cramming before tests and not ever looking at the material other times. And I've talked with my students about the need to study a little each day but even my college bound seniors in Advanced Spanish just ignore me. But it has to be more than that. Because it is typical of students to cram.

I don't know what to do about it. I recycle old material constantly. I try and put everything I can into a context and get them some good comprehensible input. I hold them accountable for current AND all previous material. I use a huge variety in how we practice concepts. I don't know what to do to get them to remember something longer than 5 minutes.

Field Trips

I can't believe the field trips at this school district!  Every day I get notice of more.  I was just looking at my calander and there are weeks where field trips are set for 3 or 4 days of the week!  How do they expect me to teach?

 

Maybe this is a difference between a small school and a large school?????  I don't know.

 

The number of field trips right now that are scheduled at my school for April and May far exceed the number of field trips that my last school had for the entire school year.  And thinking back to high school, I can't come up with even one field trip I went on (I'm probably forgeting something but if I can't come up with ANY than it couldn't have been many).  And where I student taught, I don't remember a single field trip the entire fall semester.

Class story and use of popular music

As you read in my last post, Spanish I is writing their own story using the imperfect and preterit.

They were given a one page handout which was a summary of the present, preterit, imperfect, and future tenses. For each tense, it listed regular verb conjugation, a list of common irregulars, and a general description of when the tense is used. We spent two days going over how verbs were conjugated in each tense and the general difference between the preterit and imperfect and they had one homework assignment on conjugating verbs. I told them that in Spanish I, I would not require them to memorize endings or individual verbs for the preterit, imperfect, and future tenses but I did expect that they would learn to use the summary sheet I gave them to start applying them. I am not expecting any mastery this year. I just want them to start getting comfortable using the different tenses. And I want them to be able to talk and write in more than just the present tense.

From there my goal was for them to gain a clearer understanding of when to use each tense through the creation of the story. And I am amazed at how well this is working. They are discussing which verb tense to use and asking excellent questions. And 9 times out of 10 they are coming up with the right verb ON THEIR OWN!!! And they are completely OK with the general distinction between the two.

I really think that I have been doing it all wrong before by introducing the preterit and imperfect by giving them a list of rules of when to use the preterit and when to use the imperfect.

Anyway, you can see their story by clicking on the title of this post. It is a published Google Doc and so automatically updates within seconds of it being altered or added to. And yes, this is a Spanish I class. And I have done very little to direct them in terms of vocabulary and grammar or even correct them. On occasion I will point things out but for the most part is all them.

We started with a general description of each character (split up into 3 groups to do that). Then I mixed them up and they edited one of the general descriptions. Now they are in 3 different groups (I'm trying to mix them up each time so they work with different people) writing the beginning for each character who they plan to all have meet in mid air. There are 11 students in the class.

Now, the second thing I wanted to share with you is how you can use popular music in class.

I have many times done cloze activities with music by having students listen for certain words for example they have to fill in all the verbs of a certain verb tense. And for they typically really enjoy that. So I thought I would take it one step further and get them to focus on an entire song.

My Spanish I students are listening to "Después de ti ¿qué?" by Nicho Hinojosa. It is a nice clear fairly simple song. Each day we focus on 2 lines. They transcribe the words while I play the section as many times as necessary (I write on the board while they share what they heard and we add to it bit by bit). Then we translate the lines literally and talk about what the artist might mean by the lines. The song has allowed me to point out how object pronouns working in Spanish (although I didn´t call them object pronouns), as well as double negatives, the use of infinitives after prepositions, etc.

So students are picking up new vocabulary and being exposed to different grammar structures all while enjoying a popular song. Some of my students say that this is their favorite part of the whole day. One girl was so crushed yesterday when I told her that we wouldn't have time to work on our song. It's clear that I'm going to have to find another song when we are done with this one.

My Spanish I classes don't look like your traditional classroom between the song and the story. And honestly I'm not sure that kids realize that they are even learning (shhh, don't tell them) because they are having so much fun!

Making Spanish relevant

Two things that I have really strived for this year is to incorporate more comprehensible input in every class as well as personalizing what we are learning to make it more relevant. As a result my Spanish I students are more excited about Spanish than I have ever seen before in a group and they can produce so much more language. It has been absolutely amazing. Here are some specifics of what I have done:

PQA - almost daily as a class we sit down and I just ask them questions in Spanish about their life (I have a class of only 11 making this very doable). This gets them hearing things over and over again as well as gives them opportunity to talk about themself. As a result, students have picked up on how I answer follow up questions or ask similar questions to other students and have started asking each questions as well. It's amazing how I am no longer the sole person keeping the conversation going.

Used stuff they bring in - One kid had a song in Spanish he just wanted to share so I asked him to write down the name and artist and then I looked it up on my own time to make sure it was school appropriate and it definitely was - so we listened to a little heavy metal in Spanish. Another kid told me about a SNL skit "La Poicia Mexicana" which I previewed and then will show tomorrow.

Used students names and lives in assingments and assessments - they love seeing their name in something.

During lectures when we got off topic (but still VERY relevant to learning Spanish) I followed their interests. So what if we learn things in a different order.

Create a class story - Just today we started this but the idea has been tossing around in my head for a while. My kids have the present tense down well so I have showed them the preterit and imperfect with a basic difference between the two. Now to reinforce that our next unit is going to be a class story all in Spanish using the two. They have picked a few characters and scene for their story to take place in as well as the basic concept for their story. Tomorrow we will do some character development. They were a little apprehensive as I first introduced the idea but by the end of the hour they couldn't stop throwing ideas back and forth. The basically covered my board with ideas. I will post more as we progress but I'm really excited about the progress we made today.

Class discussions, personalized questios, and spiraing

My teaching in my Spanish I class has evolved significantly over the past year at least partly because of how much more I can do with smaller classes and also partly because of some great discussions on this board. So I wanted to reflect for all of you some things that have really been working and some thoughts about spiraling concepts.

The biggest change I have done is find time almost every single class period (even for just 5 minutes) to just sit with my class and talk in Spanish. I use this time to ask them personalized questions relating to what we are studying and to tell them little tidbits about myself using the vocabulary we are studying.

Since I have started doing this, the students are picking things up so much faster, are able to produce more, and are so much more motivated because they know that they will get this chance regularly to show off what they have learned and what they can do. It has gotten to the point that in my Spanish I class, I may start the conversation, but my students continue it by asking each other questions as well.

And this carries over into other things we do. My Spanish I students just presented about 10 of their family members and the students listening to the presentation were asked to draw the person presenting's family tree. I told them that after each presentation they would have time to ask questions in Spanish to clarify relationships and such. And I was amazed at the questions and how many questions even went beyond just the assignment of drawing the family tree. These kids wanted to know about each other and they wanted to use their Spanish to do so!

And I also use this discussion to throw in a future concept. For example I have been asking questions using mi and mis for months now and a couple of weeks ago I started adding tu, tus, su, and sus to the mix. Then yesterday, I officially introduced possessive adjectives. And my students looked at me and said, "haven't we learned this already?" And the concept was so simple for them to understand. I've never had a class pick up this concept just like that and I strongly believe it is completely due to the fact that the students had been exposed to it so much already.

So then this brought me to something that has been in the back of my mind for quite some time, the concept of spiraling. So often in the past, I would introduce a grammar concept, drill it to death, and expect mastery of the concept within a fairly short period of time, not always with a lot of success. If we were to take the time to expose them to things before expecting any mastery first and then return to it at a later time, the kids would probably pick it up so much faster because it wouldn't be such a brand new strange concept but one that they are already familiar with.

"Spanish II is the toughest year"

The topic of discussion on forums has been how tough Spanish II is and how much fun Spanish I is. And every one just states that as fact. And the reason why is because of all the grammar packed into it.

I have never noticed that quite as much but then I have always pushed to talk about the preterit in Spanish I so that the students have a foundation of one of the toughest verb tenses before even going into Spanish II.

Instead of just making a statement like the one above as fact, we really need to look at why AND look at how we can change that. My solution: teach more in Spanish I (the kids are more than capable) so that Spanish II isn't so packed full.

So I'm going to be trying something new this year. After we finish this unit and all students pass the present tense competency test (I have 1-3 students left depending on who passed last night after school), I am going to introduce the preterit, imperfect, and future.

Before you think I'm crazy, let me explain. Ideally we should be doing more spiraling with content instead of requiring mastery the first time it is introduce. If students were exposed to a concept, then revisited it and started applying it with resources (verb charts and explanations), and only then asked to internalize it (all this happening over several years), I think that students would be more successful.

So I am going to create huge posters with charts of the verb endings for the preterit, imperfect, and future and a short explanation of each of them (plus maybe your most common irregulars) and teach students how to use the charts. I'm not going to expect them to memorize verbs (although some will start to internalize them). I won't test them this year at all on the differences between the preterit and the imperfect (although some will start to internalize the differences). This year I will only test them on their ability to form verbs using the charts. And we will have ample opportunities in class for them to use the verb charts in their writing and speaking.

I'm really hoping that this will open doors for students when it comes to communicating yet not push too much on them to memorize.

Encouragement and connecting with students

Last year I did something that I really feel was very successful and so I'm trying it again on Monday.

What I did was print out gradesheets for all of my students (well at my last school with classes of 40, I did a class or two at a time). Then I sat down at home one night and wrote comments on all of them. I started with some positive comments of encouragement. I pointed out their successes. Then I continued with one or two things that I felt they could work on. And ended by asking them a specific question, asking them what I could do to help, or telling them to keep up the great work.

Then I handed out all of these grade sheets and asked that all students respond to my comments. I told them that they could answer questions I had asked them or tell me anything they thought I should know about them or the class.

I got the best responses ever from different students. Some of them had excellent suggestions. Some of them told me that X and Y really helped them and that I should do more of X and Y. Some of them admitted their responsibility. And some even seriously made a plan to improve. The activity was probably one of the best things I could do in such large of classes to truly connect with each student.

Well, as we finish the semester (only 11 class periods left before finals), I want to give my students this year that encouragement and make sure that they know that I am there for them. I want to point out their successes and push them a little on what they need to improve. I'm really hoping for another excellent response to doing this.

I'll update when I start getting responses back.

Failure

I was just reading a post on teachers.net (click title for actual post) that really made me stop and think about students who don't study. One of this poster's students made the following comment when encouraged to study:

"You don't understand; if you don't study and fail,
it's because you didn't study. "But if you study and fail, it's
because you're stupid. "How would you rather feel?"


I've always had a hard time with the concept that students seem content to fail. Maybe it has nothing to do with being OK with an F but instead a fear of not being successful at something you try at.

Grades vs learning

At my last school I had a group of kids who were not only interested in getting good grades but were also interested in learning and seeing their progress. It was so rewarding to hear some of the questions they asked to help them better understand and to see them so focused on being able to apply what they learned.

This year I am not seeing that in most of my students. I have a few very high achievers who won't accept a grade less than a 100%. And I've come across parents who are so focused on their kids GPAs (although often times the kids of these parents could care less about their GPA).

This group of kids is quick to complain and blame when their grades are less than ideal but are not willing to do anything about it.

One example:
Part of every rubric for a writing or speaking project includes creativity, risk-taking, and variety. I have explained what this means. I have given very specific comments to individuals who are just handing in the very minimum and yet nothing changes yet they complain so loud when their grades are perfect. I have level 4 students who will hand in a paragraph of 5 sentences (which may have been the requirement) but all 5 sentences are nothing more than a subject and verb and maybe an object thrown in making it a VERY basic paragraph and something that I would expect of my Spanish I students.

Another example:
We had a test coming up in my Advanced class. They expected there to be a snow day the day of the test (a Friday) and so most of my students wasted the entire review hour the day before chatting and studying for their chemistry test because they figured they would have the weekend to study. It turned out that we did have the snow day and so their test got pushed to Tuesday and none of them started studying until Monday. Then when the same material shows up on the next test they will have completely forgotten it (because they crammed instead of learned it) and will complain.

Some days I wish we could take away grades and just focus on the learning and on what students accomplished. I think kids would learn and retain far more if our report cards looked more like checklists of skills needed to be acquired where we could just keep track of what they have or have not accomplished.

Homework completion corrolates to success

My Spanish II students took a test on the preterit on Friday. Every student who earned a C or higher (with most of those earning Bs and As), had completed the previous 4 assignments carefully (all 4 of those assignments directly related to this test). Every kid who failed, missed at least 1 assignment with most missing multiple assignments or did not complete carefully the assignments they did do.

When I shared this information with my first hour, they all just stared back at me like they could care less. It really is unfortunate.

Teaching kids to be independent

What can we do to teach kids to be more independent and responsible for the choices they make?

We have had a quite a few kids ineligible since the quarter ended and they are always so quick to blame the teachers who "gave" them the Fs.

I tell kids about a vocabulary quiz coming up, write it on the board, put it on my website, remind them daily, and the day the quiz comes and they bomb it they are so quick to turn the blame around to someone or something else. "I had a game last night." "I didn't know there was a quiz today." "I didn't know what was going to be on the quiz."

I give kids an assignment (that should be very self explanatory if they would just read the directions) and so many kids come to class the next day with it not complete and say, "I didn't know how to do it so I didn't do it." And my response always is, "Did you stop by my room afterschool, during lunch or before school this morning to ask for help? Did you find a classmate and ask them?" There response always is a blank stare.

I give kids an in class assignment for them to work on independently while I circulate the room and kids stop me to tell me they don't get it. So I always ask them "What part don't you get?" And they just repeat "I just don't get it." So I say, "well, think aobut it and call me over when you figure out what part you need help on."

Or a student asks me a specific question. So instead of just giving them the answer, I usually respond with a question to get them thinking about it and continue with follow up questions to guide them to the answer. And too often they refuse to think about it and refuse to answer my questions. They tell me "it's your job to tell me the answer." Too many kids just aren't willing to try things on their own and need to be spoon fed.

I want to get kids to think independently. I want them to try things on their own first and then if they still don't get it, to be able to think through it well enough to ask good questions. I want kids to take responsibility for their own learning and realize that their successes and failures are directly because of what they put into it. I want kids to learn to keep track of deadlines and manage their workload effectively. These are all skills they so desperately will need when they leave our four walls.

How can we teach them these skills?

The beauty of being a department of one

So this week I was doing some planning ahead for my Spanish I class since today we finished a chapter. So I looked at the next chapter in out textbook and the topic is school which really made me yawn. Buen Viaje works with school related vocabulary for 3 whole chapters and this would be the third chapter. I am bored to death with talking about school. Now before I plunged ahead and started planning the next chapter I had a thought. I am a department of one. What I teach effects no other teachers or future levels because I am the one who teaches the future levels and being the only teacher I will not have kids switching classes (from/to another teacher) at semester time. And so there is absolutely no reason why I need to stick with the textbook. So this week I threw out the textbook. I will probably go back to it at least as a reference after break or maybe not until after the semester but for now it is sitting on a shelf.

So I took a few moments to sit down and think about what we could work on that would really give them more to work with and be able communicate more. I have settled on a unit on present tense verbs. How can we communicate without verbs?? So I put together a list of regular verbs, irregular verbs, stem-changing verbs, and spelling change verbs that are used very often and that could be used for students to talk about what they and people they know do. I added to the list some vocabulary that goes with those verbs to allow them to speak more completely.

By focusing on verbs together, I really feel that I can get kids communicating more and it will help them as we cover more topics so that they can speak more fully. I'm also hoping that it will allow me to spend more time on the past tense second semester.

In the future I want to get a hold of the textbook that introduces the present, past and future together. I hate being limited by the present tense in Spanish I.

Picking on others

I used to teach in a fairly large school and just this year have moved to a VERY small school. One of the biggest differences I have noticed is the increased amount of picking on that I see. In every school there is plenty of picking on but in my new school it is so constant you can never get away from it. It is a constant battle to try and stop it every second of my classes. It has become so accepted.

I expressed my frustration at this with my mentor a number of weeks ago and her response was that this is just how it is in a small school and that many of the kids act in a way that they are asking to be picked on. It really bothered me the way she just saw it as normal and instead felt the kids being picked on were to blame. I don't care what these kids are doing to provoke it is never OK for a kid to make fun of and pick on another kid. School should be a safe place for kids especially realizing that for many kids it may be the only safe place they have. I realize that we will never get rid of it completely. But if we pass it off as normal instead of stepping up to the plate to try and fix it then we are saying we don't care about these kids and providing that safe place for them.

Well we have now had some incidents seriously escalate and administration is scrambling to deal with it. I just wish someone would have realized how important it was to stop it years ago before it got all the way to the high school. Now that they are in high school it is so ingrained in them and so accepted even in the classroom that I fear we are fighting an uphill battle to stop it.

These kids deserve better. All of them deserve better. They deserve to learn how to interact with one another in a way that is positive and productive. They deserve to feel like someone actually cares about them. They deserve a chance to develop skills and attitudes which will help them be successful in the future. Are we giving them those opportunities?

Estoy muy orgullosa de mis estudiantes de español I

Today my Spanish I class was amazing! Honestly, it was an improv lesson because I really didn't like what I had originally planned but the kids just ate it up. They were thinking critically, they were using Spanish in ways that had never been officially taught, even my student who does nothing (absolutely nothing - his grade is at about a 25% in the class), was participating and ASKING QUESTIONS IN SPANISH!!!

Here is the lesson:
-As the bell was ringing I quickly wrote a very short story about my friend Sally and what she looks like. Here is the story:

"Mi amiga es Sally. Sally es muy alta y delgada. Ella tiene los ojos azules y el pelo marrón. Ella lleva unos pantalones verdes y una camiseta amarilla. También lleva zapatos negros con calcentines azules. Ella lleva una gorra blanca."

-Then as students walked in they picked up a blank sheet of paper on the front table and were instructed to get some coloring utensils from the back.
-After collecting their homework, I told them that I was going to tell them a little story about a girl named Sally and that they needed to draw what she looks like. I encouraged them just to listen the first time through. I allowed them to use notes if they wanted (since we had just learned this vocab yesterday).
-I repeated the story 3 or 4 times pausing between each time to give students time to jot things down and draw (some prefered to write notes first before drawing).
-Then I told students that I would not repeat the entire story but would be more than willing to answer any question they had as long as the question was in Spanish (and my answer of course was in Spanish).
-When most students had finished, I randomly called a student to the front of the room and asked him to tell us a little bit about Sally in Spanish.
-I then called on more students to add more
-After we had sufficiently retold the story, I asked them to write a paragraph on the same page as their drawing (or the back of the page) about Sally.

Here are some of their paragraphs exactly as they wrote them (from students of all abilities):

"Sally es muy alta. Sally lleva los pantalones verde. Ella tienes marrón pelo. Sally tienes ojo azul. Sally lleva camiseta amarillo. Sally tienes zapatos negro. Sally es una gorra blanka. Sally los calcetines blanka."

"Sally es bonita. Ella lleva una la camiseta amarilla y los pantalones verdes y los calcetines azules y los zapatos negro y la gorra blanca. Ella tiene ojos azul y pelo marrón."

"Sally es muy alta y delgada. Sally es blanca. Ella tiene los pantalones verde. Ella tiene un la camiseta amarillo. Ella tiene un los zapatos negros. Ella tiene el pelo marrón. Ella tiene los calcetines azules."

"Sally lleva la camiseta amarilla, los pantalones verdes, los calcetines azules y los zapatos nengros. Ella tienen azules ohos y marrón palo. Ella lleva la gorra blanco. Ella es delgada y alta."

"Sally es una muchacha. Ella es muy alta y delgada. Ella lleva los zapatos negros. Ella lleva los pantalones verdes. Ella lleva la camiseta amarilla. Ella son ojos azules. Ella son pelo marrón. Ella lleva los calcetines azules."

I suppose this is basically the idea of TPRS with my own little twist to it.

You will definitely see some grammar mistakes in them. But you can see they were able to communicate and retell the story. And the thought process they went through was just amazing.

One kid asked me towards the end of class, "Does marrón lose the accent when it becomes marrones?" This is something I have not specifically taught yet but was thrilled to see this student was already getting it.

Their homework tonight is to write their own little story and tomorrow they will draw pictures based on what another student wrote. I can't wait to see the stories they come up with.

This is why I became a teacher!

How can they care so little???

So today in one of my classes a major project (worth 100 points) was due along with a review worksheet. Both were given to students over a week ago with frequent reminders and time in class on a couple of occasions. So this morning I go around to collect them from my students. In one hour 3 students had completed the project and only 5 had done the worksheet out of 11 students! And what got me most was the absolute lack of care. Not a single student showed any disappointment or regret that they had forgot to do it or anything. They just sat there as if this were the most normal and perfect thing in the world.

And then when we started doing some review activities, they were failing miserably because they didn't recognize any of the vocabulary. It's only vocabulary that we have been working on for 3 weeks and have been tested on several times.

My original plan was to go over the review sheet as a class the latter part of the hour and then answer any questions before tomorrows chapter test. But since so few had even completed the review sheet I was not about to just give the answers to the rest so I met with the 5 who had completed it and we went over it together. What did the remaining students do? They sat and gabbed.

Will I feel sorry for them when they fail the test miserably tomorrow? No way! I have done everything I can to help them succeed and they have done very little, for some of them absolutely nothing. It's just too bad that the quarter ends this week so there will be no chance to pull their grade up after this and the zero they earned for not completing their project.

Classes that put a smile on your face

My Spanish I kids are amazing this year. They work hard. They ask the best questions that truly show they are thinking. I often hear them practicing Spanish in the halls. The work they do is quality. They are just fun. They are what make my day almost every day.

And then on top of it I got to teach one of my favorite lessons today (conjugating verbs). So that class was just fun today.

I have learned this year that it is so important to sit back and just smile on a regular basis. My first hour class was slowly getting started this morning and one girl says "We should have a half day on Wednesday" (we have Thur and Fri off already this week for teacher convention). And so I just chuckled and said "Why don't we take the whole week off?" It was a very light hearted way to start the day. A way to connect with the kids and start the way in a positive mood. One kid then responded with a smile "We'll go talk to Mr. Principal and tell him it was your idea."

Talkative students

I got a new group of middle school students starting on Wednesday and they just won't stop talking. Things that I have tried so far:
-waiting patiently and not talking over them
-making it clear that I dismiss and not the bell (this allows me to quickly dismiss the students who weren't talking first)
-hold a few after both days
-asked individual students what consequences should follow if they continue to talk (thus they are creating their own consequences - this worked with the few I had trouble with in my last group)
-talked with my mentor (who sees these kids 4 times a day) who says she will bring it up at the student-led conferences they are having tonight and Monday

We will see how things go tomorrow. Several of them are kids who do not have the support at home and calling home would do nothing. So if things aren't better tomorrow, I'm not sure where I will go from here. There are some great kids in there I can tell but I can't see or hear them when the rest of the class is a three ring circus.

A student who was gone

Today a student comes into class who was gone yesterday. He sits down and copies the notes from his table partner (kudos to him for at least starting to figure out what he missed). I ask the class to get out the sheet we worked on yesterday and students write the answers on the board so we can go over them. At some point I realize that this kid had been gone yesterday and has yet to ask for this sheet that we are working on. By now, probably close to 10 minutes has passed in class. I then ask the students to complete the next part individually which we then go over on the board. We spent probably about 25 minutes on this worksheet and this kid never once asked me for the sheet nor did he go back to the basket where I keep extra handouts to get one. He just sat there.

And then later today I was looking at my gradebook. I have 4 students who have never passed ANY of the competency tests this year. That means they have a zero for 20% of their grade right now. These are tests that I let them take as many times as they need to as long as they get the required grade on them. They are essentially free points if you take the time to work with me and get them done. I have NEVER had a student who was trying fail one of these tests!

Many of these kids are the same ones that are all mad at me because they get a zero on them if they don't ever earn that required grade. If I had just taken the score they got on it and entered it in the gradebook, yes their grade would be higher. But they would still be failing because they wouldn't know the material any better and so they would still be getting 30% on the chapter tests (yes, all 4 of the ones who have never passed any competency tests got right around a 30%) on the chapter test. And so those kids would still be failing (along with tons of others who were happy with the first score they got on those competency tests regardless of whether they knew the material)!!!!

Responsibility

One of my biggest struggles is helping students understand their responsibility in learning. Too many of them show up in my class expecting me to just hand them everything on a silver platter and that they won't have to do anything. And then when they do poorly the first person blamed is the teacher.

At some point in the year I like to sit down with my classes and talk about their responsibility as a student and mine as a teacher but it doesn't always help like it really hasn't this year with one of my classes. Even when I'm soliciting the information from students, they still see it as coming from an adult. And of course we all know that adults know nothing, right??!!

I guess I'm just at a loss as to how to approach this problem. I hate to see my students not doing well. But there is only so much I can do if they aren't pulling their weight.

Responsibility for learning

We are working on verbs like gustar right now in my Spanish II class.  This is a tough concept.  We do not have a structure quite like this in English.  So I get that this is tough for my students.

 

However, many of them in one of my classes are not even attempting to grasp this concept.  They do not study at home.  They come to school with the homework incomplete.  They lay with their heads on their desk when we have some in class practice.  They do not come in and ask questions.  They rarely ask questions in class even though they clearly don’t get it.  So I am quizzing them tomorrow and we are moving on.  I can’t do the work for them.  And since I’m clearly not seeing any progress from many of them there is no point continuing down this path.  Those that have been working hard on this are getting it and will do well tomorrow on the quiz.  Unfortunately they will be a minority.

 

This is the same group of kids who still cannot accurately conjugate regular present tense verbs, commonly used irregular ones like ser, nor use subject pronouns correctly.  These are things we spent many weeks on this year already (and that they should have learned last year).  Again, those that have been working all along get these things and are doing well.  Those that won’t try, sit and chat all hour or put their head down are drowning.   

 

But what can I do?  I have given them ample practice.  I am always available before school, during homeroom, during lunch, during several hours during the day, and afterschool almost every day.  I have provided extra resources online.  I spend each class period circulating and answering specific questions and working one on one with those students willing to try and ask for my help.  At some point there is nothing more that I can do.  At some point the students have to take responsibility for what they are learning.

Mastery learning

4 years ago, my cooperating teacher planted a seed in my head about mastery learning. My first three years I experimented a little with it in regard to just a few very important concepts each level. I created competency tests (idea stolen from my CT) on some of the concepts I felt were very critical (present tense verbs, subject pronouns, and preterit verbs) and expected students to show their mastery by achieving a certain score. Students could retake these tests as many times as they needed but had to reach the target score to get any credit for the assessment. So students couldn't be satisfied with a C or a D on those critical concepts like I see way too often.

So this year, in a new school I decided to take the idea beyond just a few competency tests. I have developed a series of competency assessments (including oral assessments) and I have decided to allow students to retake vocabulary quizzes (with a one week deadline). What I have found so far is that students are now taking the time to go back and learn what they missed knowing that they can get credit for it. This should then help them be more successful in the future as they are expected to be able to use the vocabulary.

If you had asked me 4 years ago about whether I would allow retakes, I would have told you "No way!" but I am really seeing some positives come from allowing them.

Dallas School District has just created a new grading policy that requires teachers to allow retakes (I linked the article above). Someone posted it on Livejournal which really sparked this post. I really believe in their reasons behind it but I really don't believe we do any good by forcing when philosophy of grading (or whatever) on a whole district with teachers who have different teaching styles, different beliefs, and different grading systems. Retakes so far is working really well for me and my students but that does not mean it is best for all classrooms and all teachers and students.

Just pour the information in my brain Señora

I got so frustrated with a few of my Spanish II students this morning. I handed back tests and told students to look through them and ask questions. I like being able to go around individually and talk with students who have questions. Two students sat their staring into space not even looking at their tests. Then after about ten minutes there were no longer any questions so I told them we were going to move on and that I was going to be collecting the tests. These two students then got all upset asking me why I wasn't going to go over the whole test as a class. I explained that we had just spent time for them to look through them and ask questions. And I said to them both that they were welcome to come in outside of class and I would go through it with them. Their response was they can't do that. And that they expected me to go over it with the whole class.

When I go over homework, tests, etc. with the whole class a few carefully look through theirs, others half-heartedly correct theirs, and the rest just sit there and stare into space. So those few carefully going through theirs get a lot out of it and the rest really don't get much. If I circulate and answer specific questions, it forces students to look at their mistakes and first try and figure out what went wrong and then second enter in a dialogue with me. So much more learning goes on. Unfortunately though, those that would have just stared off into space while we went over it together still stare off into space and still get nothing out of it.

And then as we were going over some pronunciation exercises and dividing syllables to find stress, they made me question how an English word was spelled (which I was right on when I looked it up later) and some kid says quietly "Go back to English class." It was just an awful class today. I'm not sure where to go with this tomorrow.

Class expectations and rigor

I am really struggling with my Spanish II class. They claim they learned nothing last year and when we are reviewing conjugating verbs they don't even recognize the forms of ser. The pre-test isn't even worth wasting my time to grade because it is that bad. And then on top of it the kids are asking when we are going to have fiestas and that they had a Salina fiesta last year and a this fiesta and a that fiesta. It sounds like all they did was have fiestas.

So, I want to step up the rigor significantly but I also don't want to lose my program. It is a small school and my class sizes are already quite small. So I am really struggling to find a happy medium (enough rigor so that I'm not wasting my time but not too tough on the kids so they lose interest completely). And I understand that it is hardest with the groups of kids who are used to an easy A; once I've been around a while, things will get better.