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.