Another School Year Has Ended! Now What?

Another School Year Has Ended! Now What?

by | Jun 20, 2016 | culture, End of School Year, Interactive Notebook, Reflections, Staying in the TL, Whole Brain Teaching

 Yes! Another school year has ended, and now it’s time to reflect upon on it. I have always been good about writing a list OF reflections at the end of the school year, thinking about what worked or what didn’t, what I need to continue working on, and what I will keep doing in the new school year. However, since it’s essentially a note to myself, I rarely benefit from anyone else’s experiences (something I value highly!) and I often lose the list during the relaxation and shuffle / travel of the summer. This year I decided to use my blog as an open forum to reflect on my school year. I know it will always be here (unless Blogger shuts down!) so I can come to back to it when I need it. I have also saved a copy in Google Drive, something I suggest you can use to safely store your reflections too! This document can also be used as a reference to set your goals for the new school year.


Teaching in the Target Language

As a native speaker, I find it an easy task staying in the target language (TL) and keeping my instruction at the proficiency level of my students. I come from teaching in a FLES programs where we were required to stay 100% in the TL, to the point that my students thought that I couldn’t speak English. Yes, the children were trying harder to communicate with me in the TL, but there was more to it than that. Once I moved to a different school, the policies about teaching 100% in the TL changed. That was when I realized that I had been missing an opportunity to connect with my students and get to know a little bit more about them. It was okay for them to use their L1 to communicate with me during recess time. I feel that because I am a native speaker, they need to know that I am bilingual and that I also have interest in their language and culture. Keeping my class at 90 to 95 % TL in my classroom continues to be my goal.

Whole Brain Teaching

This was my first full year using WBT. As a result I feel that my students were more engaged, and I spent less time focusing on discipline issues in my class. Due to the limited amount of time I have with my students I only use level 1 in WBT, which involves these steps:
1. Five Classroom Rules
2. Teach OK
3. Attention Getters
4. Scoreboard
5. Hands and Eyes
6. Mirror
7. Switch 
I will need to be more consistent in using the steps and definitely need a wider variety of “Attention Getters” in Spanish. If you use WBT, please share your Attention Getters with me! Also if you would like to try WBT next year, here is a link to the visuals in Spanish.

Reward System

I use the WBT Scoreboard system for the whole group. I use the “pesos system” for individual participation. If a student challenges himself/herself to stay in the target language, they would get a copy of a printed peso to keep in their billeteras (a paper craft made at the beginning of the year). There were three opportunities for the children to use their play pesos to buy from my “tienda”. The tienda was filled with pesos, stickers and erasers. We got to practice sentences such as “¿Cuánto cuesta?,” “yo quiero un  lápiz,” or “deme un lápiz, por favor.”

The “pesos system” got a little bit messy by the middle of the school year when students started to lose their pesos and billeteras, and, as a result, a lot of  feelings of frustration were in the air. I have to find a better way to keep track of their points which translate into participation using the TL during
class.

Interactive Notebooks

When using Interactive Notebooks, it needs to be clear that if you let your elementary students do this alone, they will take a lot time on it! This is my third year using Interactive Notebooks, and I sometimes forget about this. It is also necessary to put the samples together in advanced to have a visual to show to your students so they know what the final outcome will be. It is also important to be sure that the activity is at the level of your students. Something that has worked for me is to do activities with my students at the same time, making sure that they don’t get behind and always leave coloring for the end. Don’t use liquid glue – don’t even have it in the classroom because I learned the hard way this year when one of my students spilled glue all over his notebook. Glue sticks are the best! What I really love about Interactive Notebooks is that at the end of the school year students have a resource to take home to practice during the summer. I didn’t use them a lot this year, which I regret a lot because the excitement about this in past years has been great!

Flipped Classroom

I started my school year strong on this, making videos for my students and sending communication with families about it. I teach at the elementary level, and the success of this really depends on how involved and available parents are to be able to sit with their kids. I might give it one more try in the new school year, but not keeping it as my priority goal.

Culture

I have to confess that one of my biggest fears is passing down stereotypes of other cultures to my students. Remember that I have reserved 5 to 10% of the L1 to use in the classroom when needed. On the issue of culture is where  I give myself permission to use the L1 in class, especially to clarify any messages that can come across as stereotypes. I know some teachers have an strong opinion about doing this completely in the TL, but I do have to confess that I feel better if I allow room for using the L1 to clarify and maybe have deeper conversations about other cultures. That’s what has worked for me so far!

I incorporated some “light” use of the culture into my daily routine comparing the weather and temperature in different Spanish countries and sometimes even calling my mom in Colombia to allow my students to have basic conversations with her, and they loved it! I still have to work on stepping out of my comfort zone to share with my students more about cultures other than Colombia and Mexico.

Communication with Parents

I used a website hosted on Haiku, but because it was password protected it made it hard for some parents to access it during their busy routines. My goal was to get rid of paper newsletters, and I did, but the password protected site wasn’t helpful this year. I have heard of other teachers using Instagram and other social media outlets to share with parents while still protecting the privacy of their students. I might look into it and decide on what to use next year. I am open to any suggestions you might have, so please share them with me in the comment box!

What Am I excited About?

After 15 years of being in Boston (which is also the total of years I have been in the US) and 7 years of teaching at the same school, my family and I will be relocating to Austin, TX this summer. I will be teaching in grades K-5 at an elementary school, so I am excited to be working with a wider range of groups. I was the only PreK-3 Spanish teacher in the school I was teaching at in Boston, and now I will be part of a team of two more teachers teaching the same grades! How sweet is that?! I am excited to have more companeras.

This summer I will be attending the iFLT conference in Tennessee for the first time, and although I already use TPR I can’t wait to take it further and start with TPRS!

How did your school year go? What are you plans for the summer? Any goal for the new school year yet?

Have a restful summer! You deserve it!
Carolina
BRAIN BREAKS FOR SPANISH CLASS

BRAIN BREAKS FOR SPANISH CLASS

by | Nov 5, 2015 | Brain Breaks, energizers in Spanish, Whole Brain Teaching

I am “brain break” lover! I teach young students, but it doesn’t matter how old your students are, a little break to get them moving will help them tune into class. I use brain breaks a lot, but depending on the time of the day, I have noticed that they are more needed, especially with classes after lunch.

Here is a list of brain breaks for different levels.

Chocolate
Choco, choco, la, la
Cho, choco, te, te
Chocola, chocote,

¡Chocolate!

 

Palo bonito
Palo, palo, palo,
palo bonito,
palo eh,
eh, eh, ah
palo bonito, palo eh.
Hula en español: Five minute video that will get your students moving!
La Yenka: This could also be used as a fun choreography for your students to learn!
You can also use it as freeze dance by just chanting “izquierda, izquierda, derecha, derecha, adelante y atrás, 1, 2, 3” and then everyone freezes.
La Familia Sapo: Perfect to review family members while getting everyone moving
Todo el movimiento: Great to review parts of the body
El baile de la ensalada
Have fun moving in class!

Carolina

Whole Brain Teaching in the Spanish Classroom {Facebook Corner}

by | Aug 26, 2014 | Facebook Corner, Whole Brain Teaching

Conversaciones de maestros en nuestra página de Facebook 

Ana Alicia says:
“Whole Brain Teachers! How do you introduce your rules in Spanish class. Do you use only Spanish? A little bit of English? English? This will be my first year using WBT. I am also trying to translate “Teach, OK” , “Mighty Groan” and “Mighty Oh Yeah.” Any ideas? Thanks for your help. Have an awesome school year!”

SeñoraSpeedy : I love WBT! I keep the rules in English so that there are no excuses for not following them. I do Clase, clase – sí, si, Espejo, Enseña, and Cambia. For the scoreboard they do ¡OH Sí! and ¡Que pena! We also did the air punctuation (well sometimes and only in 1st grade but they loved it and I need to remember to do it more.) Here is a link to a few blog entries where I outline how I use WBT in my classroom. https://senoraspeedy.blogspot.com/2013/12/whole-brain-teaching-part-one.html 

Fun for Early and Elementary Spanish Teachers Wow! This is awesome! Thanks for sharing. I started using WTB a little last year and it worked great. I plan to start with WTB from day zero. I am still reading the book.

Neen: I have pictures next to my rules which are written in Spanish. I try to keep everything in the TL.

Christina: I have them in Spanish too!! Love WBT!

Roxanne:  We say the rules in Spanish and have hand gestures that accompany them. My partner teacher, who teaches in English, does them I’m English making sure to use the same hand gestures.

Danyell: This is great!

Kimberly: I have the rules posted in Spanish! I will go over them in English for the first weeks until they get the hang of them

Tabitha: Many thanks, SeñoraSpeedy…I’m moving from high school to Kindergarten (Spanish immersion) and I was wondering how to introduce WBT and in which language!!

Jeisa: I teach Spanish Immersion too. I have my wbt rules posted in Spanish. At the beginning of the year we go over the rules every day in the target language. I have the posters already made in TpT in Spanish. Good luck!

SeñoraSpeedy:  Tabitha – I think you could easily do the rules in Spanish if you are immersion. I am in the Specials rotation so I don’t see my students often enough for me to feel comfortable doing them in Spanish. Although by the end of the year I did have students asking how to say them in Spanish so I might start in English and transition to Spanish later on in the year.

Mundo de Pepita I have the rules posted in Spanish, along with all our other procedures. Like Kimberly, we go over them in English and Spanish at the beginning of the year so everyone is clear and by the end of Sept I’ve transitioned over to only Spanish. (I teach in a Specials rotation like Señora Speedy). For getting their attention when I need it, I use the call and response ‘Nachos’, ‘Salsa’. I would also note I teach using Responsive Classroom, so lots of modeling and reinforcing throughout the year.

Kristy: What do the rules look like in your classrooms? This is only my second year teaching Spanish in the elementary classroom.

Visit Fun for Spanish Teachers on Facebook for more exciting conversations like this one!
Fun For Spanish Teachers