This year I have been receiving more messages than ever from new Spanish teachers, so dear new Spanish teacher, this post has been written with you in mind. I completely get it! With the current situation and all the uncertainty for the fall, it’s completely normal for any teacher (no matter how long you have been teaching) to feel nervous, but especially for our colleagues who are new to the profession.
I try to put myself in the shoes of a new teacher during COVID times, and I can’t imagine the frustration that some of you might be feeling. Thinking about starting the new school year in a virtual classroom environment makes me feel butterflies in my stomach, but I am also grateful that at least there are digital tools and platforms to support our teaching. I am aware that those tools might not be accessible for every student or teacher, which I can’t wrap my head around because I don’t live in a third world or developing country, yet the inequities of this system are real and more visible during COVID times.
Because I don’t have experience starting the school year in a virtual way, I can only go back to my feelings during my first years of teaching and rely on what has worked for me under “normal conditions” while adapting for what I have learned more recently and giving it my best shot.
Support System
Something that I remember was very valuable as a first time Spanish teacher in the United States was the group of teachers who were supportive and open to be my shoulder to cry on when needed. We were seven Latinas in a very white school system in suburban Boston. They were welcoming and happy to share all their knowledge with me. This was almost 20 years ago, so no Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter were there. I do remember some Yahoo Groups and a website run by a veteran Spanish teacher called “Anacleta’s World Language and Cultural Resources” that I frequently visited to get inspired.
After teaching in that school system for 4 years, the district held a property tax override vote, and guess which program got eliminated first? You guessed right! The Spanish program 🙁 . After that, I moved to a private school and there I was the only PreK-3 Spanish teacher. The school also had a French program for grades 4-6 alongside the Spanish program, so the French and Spanish teachers worked together, and I was kind of on my own. It felt very lonely, and that’s what inspired me to start my blog. I wanted to be able to connect virtually with other teachers who were teaching the same early grade levels as I was. I also contacted other elementary Spanish teachers in my area and hosted monthly meetings to exchange ideas and vent if needed. In the school where I currently teach, I have two colleagues, and we teach the same levels, so it’s nice to have someone to exchange with and learn from for professional growth. Along with this, I belong to a few Facebook groups for Spanish teachers and also am part of a small WhatsApp group with two other Colombian teachers (Profe ValentinaandLa Profe de Español) where we frequently communicate to share ideas and support each other.
Why am I telling this whole story? Well, just to invite you to find your support system. It could be colleagues in other schools close to you or a teacher who can serve as your mentor in your own school. If you use social media, I recommend identifying a few Facebook groups or teachers on Instagram that you can follow and learn from. I do advise starting with just a few because it might be overwhelming with tons of information and little time to process while navigating a new profession.
Understand in Which Type of Program You Will Be Teaching
Knowing the type of program you will be teaching in will help you think about the short and long term goals for your program. So much depends on the amount of contact time you will have with your students. The program may be FLES* (Foreign Language in Elementary School), FLEX* (Foreign Language Experience), a Content-Based program, or a number of other program types, but just by knowing the type of program will help you identify some of your goals and keep a nice balance between ambitious idealism and being practical within the limitations of the program’s boundaries. Visit this link to understand more about the various different types of programs. And if you need to play a sort of public / stakeholder relations role, knowing the type of program will also help you to educate your administrators, school community, and parents (and nicely but firmly help them temper or gear their expectations for the language acquisition process, pace, etc.). I’ll say it again, knowing what type of program you have will also help you create short and long term goals for your program – for students, for yourselves, and for key players in the wider community in which your work is situated.
*FL should be changed to WL!
Get To Know Your School Community
The first year is hard for any teacher in a new school. You are trying to understand the school community and culture, getting to meet and name the different people in your school, understanding what each acronymous means and so on! The most important people, apart from your students are the custodians and the school administrative staff. They will be the ones who will help you first! Our school secretary sometimes covers our classes when we need to do quick things in school. So keep their names in your head and make sure to thank them with a big “GRACIAS” all the time!
KISS, KISS, KISS= Keep It Simple Sweetie!
If this is the first year for your program, you might have to teach the same units or stories to every grade level while you build up your curriculum. You might need to developmentally adapt the content to make it fit for every grade. You will find yourself creating materials, so keeping it simple is the best way to go. I have found that because the needs of elementary language programs can vary so much, it’s hard to stay with just one “commercial” or “off the shelf” curriculum.
Identify some themes or stories you want to teach and take it from there. You might want to do a cursory internet search and explore what other teachers have shared. Something to take into consideration is making sure the curriculum is not perpetuating stereotypes about Latinos and their different cultures while also making sure that it shows how super diverse the world’s 21 Spanish speaking countries are.
Here are some curriculums shared by other elementary Spanish teachers:
Something that I really like doing at the beginning of the school year is sharing a short PowerPoint presentation or video about me. I shared where I was born, my likes and dislikes, and I find ways to make connections with students while sharing about me. Students really like knowing something about their teachers and connecting with us as people.
Here are some examples of what I have done in the past to start building relationships:
Singing to celebrate birthdays is extremely important for some elementary students, especially in the younger grades. If children have summer birthdays, I recommend you do one summer birthday celebration for all the children with summer birthdays early in the school year or, if they would prefer to be special and have a day just to themselves, celebrate half birthdays (just watch out for December vacation …). I like starting each month talking about the calendar to include holidays, special events at school, andbirthdays! Luckily this is something that can be done virtually or in the classroom.
There is a part II for this post! There I share about the use of the target language, classroom routines and norms, links to language organizations, and more!
Last year I came across a great tool called “Wheel Decide” which is a wonderful online tool to create wheels to pick games, songs, volunteers, you name it! I was able to create fun games in class such as “El espejo” (see my post from my presentationat TFLA to learn more about this game), but I always wished I could use pictures instead of words in the Wheel Decide tool.
I didn’t give up and finally found a tool that was mentioned in a blog called“The Techie Teacher”written by Julie Smith. In her blog, she has a simple and easy-to-follow tutorial for using this tool. I think that if you want to understand how the tool works, it’s better to head to her blog and read all about it, rather than me writing something that is already well explained.
If you have explored my blog, you have probably already noticed that I have different posts making reference to mental or brain breaks, yoga poses, and breathing exercises. I always felt that it would be fun to add a wheel to help decide on the different mental breaks to do with my students.
I made this “Wheel of Yoga Poses” graphic as a resource to compliment my yoga story. I hope you can use it in your classes and enjoy the poses – from mono, to perro, to rana and beyond. Click HERE to get the link for the Wheel of Yoga Poses.
I just ended our 3rd week of distance learning, however this was my first week teaching live online classes. I do have to say that it has been exhausting trying to figure out how to make the class interactive and engaging while being so far apart from my students and only interacting through a screen. Learning new tools is a plus but is also exhausting. By my first class session I thought I had mastered Zoom, but it when I taught my first class (a second grade group), I realized that there were more things to learn. I shared my plan for the class using the screen sharing function of Zoom. One of my students then started using the annotation tool to scribble over the shared screen agenda, and that’s when I knew I needed to learn more. It was a bit funny but frustrating at the same time.
Anyway, we came up with the list below while brainstorming with some of my students about quick games we could do in class without the need to share my screen. By not sharing a screen, it also becomes possible to see every student. We have played these games in our classroom before, so the students should know them well. It is necessary to adapt some of these games to make it work for our current online setting.
Simón dice: We usually play this game in class by saying “Señora dice” instead of Simón dice. Sometimes I like choosing a student to be “it” and the name “Simón” will be replaced by that student’s name. Choose one person to give directions or say a command. Everyone should follow the direction only if they hear “______ dice.” If someone follow directions when the person directing hasn’t said “_____ dice”, that person will be out of the game. You can continue until one of few people are left in the game.
Charades: I usually have between 8 to 16 students on a live class on Zoom, so it’s not easy to divide the groups, or at least I haven’t tried it. This works great with students 2nd grade and up. You will need to use the chat tool for this game. I am not familiar with platforms other than Zoom, but in Zoom the host can choose to privately chat with a student. The rules for this game are simple. No words or pointing at anything, just acting it out for other students to guess. Choose one student to act out a word. Send the word in a private message to the chosen student only. Have the student act out the word and give students turns to guess. Whoever guesses first will become the next actor. You might want to write the word on a piece of paper or board to show to the students later.
Color colorcito: This is a game that my kindergarteners love playing in the classroom. It usually involves one person naming colors and the other students running to find the color. If the person naming the color tags someone who is not touching the color, then that person becomes the new “it.” See my previous post here for a longer explanation of the way I usually play it in the classroom. Because it’s impossible to play a “virtual” tagging game, we made it for students to look for an object of that color in the room. The person who finds the color last will say the new color.
La caja mágica: You could either use a box or a bag. Place and object inside, describe it and have your students guess it. Click hereto find more ideas.
Sigue al líder: Play some music and choose one student to lead the class in different dance movements.
Congelado: Play music for a few seconds, stop the music and everyone has to freeze. If anyone continues moving, they will join you to find other students who are not freezing or continue moving when you stop the music.
El director de orquesta: This game is known as “Follow the leader.” Choose one student to close his or her eyes, and this student will have to guess who is directing the group. While that student has his/her eyes closed, choose another student to direct the group. Write the name of the “director” on a white board or a piece of paper and show it to the group. The student directing then has to do movements or gestures that everyone else will copy. The student who is guessing will have three opportunities to guess who is directing the group. If the student doesn’t guess, you can reveal the name of the student director, and then you can all clap for him or her. You can decide how long you want to continue with this game.
Do you have any other games to add to this list? Feel free to share them in the comments or email them to me for updates to this post.
Farm animals are always a hit in early elementary classes.This fun and repetitive song will be a great addition to your activities. Here are some ideas to use along with this song:
Activities
•Find Colombia on a map.
• Show a farm and the different animals. Introduce Tío Ramón (Uncle Ramón) and tell them that he lives on a finca (farm). Introduce the different animals and tell them the dog makes a different sound in Spanish. The dog says “guau, guau”.
• Have children make the sounds of the different animals when you name them in Spanish. You can also ask them the colors of the animals to link to the lesson on colors.
• Animal bag: Place different animals in a bag. Blindfold a child and ask him/her to reach in the bag and pull out an animal. Have the child guess the animal. Other children can give cues about the animal.
• Animal dice: Use a square shaped box and place pictures of different animals on every square. Have the children throw the dice while naming the animal and saying the sound it makes.
La finca del tío Ramón / Uncle Ramón’s farm
En las montañas de Colombia está la finca del tío Ramón,
En las montañas de Colombia está la finca del tío Ramón.
En la finca hay una vaca y la vaca hace muu.
En la finca hay un perro y el perro hace guau, guau
En la finca hay un pato y el pato hace cuac, cuac.
En la finca hay una oveja y la oveja hace baaa.
En la finca hay un gato y el gato hace miau.
Uncle Ramon’s farm is in the Colombian mountains,
Uncle Ramon’s farm is in the Colombian mountains.
There is a cow on the farm, and the cow goes moo.
There is a dog on the farm, and the dog goes woof.
There is a duck on the farm, and the duck goes quack.
There is a sheep on the farm, and the sheep goes baaa.
There is a cat on the farm, and the cat goes meow.
Uncle Ramon’s farm is in the Colombian mountains,
Uncle Ramon’s farm is in the Colombian mountains.
This is one of the most relaxing activities I have used with my fifth graders. We are close to the break so they really enjoyed learning about Año Viejos. I gave them a little introduction about this tradition and its meaning (see post from previous years). We also watch a video of a girl making an Año Viejo in Colombia, and this leads to a small discussion about the materials needed to make an Año Viejo. Although the girl in the video doesn’t use firecrackers, most people put them in their Años Viejos.
We watched a video of the actual tradition. In the video we saw the excitement on the streets of people counting down. And we could hear the fire crackers and the sounds of a radio station playing the national anthem, a song which is always played on December 31st at midnight:.
After watching the video we read the story “Corre Año Viejo, Corre” which is available on Teachers Pay Teachers.
After reading the story each student decorated a paper Año Viejo, which you can also find in my store. I also gave each student a small magnet to stick it on the back of the Año Viejo.They placed their Años Viejos on the magnetic board I have in my classroom while I played a video of a Christmas fireplace I found on YouTube.
I also played the traditional Año Viejo song while the students where coloring their Años Viejos.
Last but not least, I placed the Año Viejos on one of the bulletin boards in my room. I used as a title for the bulletin board the name of the song “Yo no olvido el Año Viejo”. Click HERE to download the letters.
¡Hola! I am Carolina, a Colombian elementary Spanish teacher based in Boston, MA. Fun for Spanish Teachers is the result of my passion for teaching Spanish to children and my desire to inspire collaboration and creativity in a vibrant teaching and learning community. It’s the perfect stop if you are looking for songs, games, teaching tips, stories, and fun for your classes.
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