DIGITAL | Fun for Spanish Teachers

STARTING THE SCHOOL YEAR VIRTUALLY

by Carolina | Aug 15, 2020 | DISTANCE TEACHING

Every new school year comes with relationship building, routines, defining spaces in our room, and little rituals that we all use to make our classes unique and great for every learner in our communities.

Of course, without needing to go into too much detail, this year is unlike any other and comes with more things to add to our routines. If you are teaching face to face, you will be working on hygiene routines, and if you are teaching remotely you will need to work on norms to be in a virtual class. No matter how we start the school year, we all need to work on making sure that every single student is feeling safe, validated, and extra loved.

I suggest you explore the Responsive Classroom website because it has a wonderful amount of articles and resources that are helpful for the first weeks of school, ideas to build relationships and routines in your classes, and so on. Something that I love about Responsive Classroom (RC) is how it always focuses on phrasing everything with a positive tone and in a simple way for students to understand. Students’ voices are very important in RC, and that’s why teachers who use RC create classroom norms and agreements with their students.

I know many language teachers are eager to start the school year in the target language right away. I have to say that was my approach for many years, but I no longer start my classes in Spanish. This is partly because the school where I teach emphasizes that it’s better to take the time to slow down and work on relationships first to get to know our students and for them to get to know a little about me, too. I truly value this approach and see it as an “investment” in my relationship with my students, rather than a “waste of time,” and as a result, the school year goes smoothly. I can’t say it makes it perfect, but the ride is certainly more pleasant and more connected.

You might want to read these posts where I share tips for the first days of school:

Quick Tip for Starting the Year Off with Distance Teaching

When teaching students online, it comes in handy to have some visuals to help your students figure out what you are asking for. In my experience with online teaching in the spring, I didn’t really have to invest time in relationships, but just to continue to grow them, based on seeds I had planted in person earlier that year. In another sense, though, teaching remotely felt like starting from zero because I needed to add more to the skills that were based on in-person teaching and learning. I found myself drawing quick pictures to remind my students to stay muted or unmute themselves if I couldn’t do it. There were times when I needed to see all my students on camera and to have them raise their hands to participate. This school year feels like the opposite. I will start teaching remotely and am arranging my teaching to account for this, but I have to work extra hard to build relationships, that’s why is so important to start with a kind of short presentation where children can know a little bit about you and find ways to connect with them.

Visuals are key when teaching a language so students can make connections faster, and for that reason, I have prepared this set of cards that you can use with your students. In this case, you will need the physical cards as a quick visual way for your students to understand what you are asking them. That should help during your lessons to remind your students or let them know what they need to do. Click here to download and print them for your classes!

Have fun!

You might like these resources on Teachers Pay Teachers:

VIRTUAL GREETINGS IN SPANISH

by Carolina | May 10, 2020 | DIGITAL

I miss my classroom so much and also miss being able to see my students in person. One of the hardest things about transitioning to online school was finding ways to keep some of the routines I had in my classroom and adapting them to this new way of teaching that I refuse to call “normal.” I wanted to bring to my “home classroom” (which is now a table in my bedroom) some things that I had in my regular classroom for the children to feel connected, especially our kindergarteners and first graders. I brought home our class pets, and sometimes they make their appearance during our classes. I continue teaching my classes by first greeting them, then sharing the plan for the day’s class, singing a song, engaging in the main activities, doing a game and a closing song or phrase to end the class.

Of course, the greeting that I used with my younger students needed some adaptation to work in a virtual setting so I introduced new ones, and the children seemed excited. The most popular greeting has been the “baile,” since they can get silly and creative. Here are some greetings I use. Please notice that all the greetings are on the left side of the picture to let you place the Zoom video (or any online communication platform you and your students are using) on the right, as shown in the example below.

Click on each picture to save or drag them to your computer’s desktop. Place them in a PowerPoint or Google Slide widescreen, and you are ready to greet your students in your virtual meeting.

Have fun greeting your students in your virtual classes!

You might like these resources on Teachers Pay Teachers:

DIGITAL STICKERS FOR SEESAW

by Carolina | Apr 26, 2020 | DIGITAL

One of the things that I love about Seesaw is the different options it has for teachers to give feedback to students. You may either type or record your voice to provide direct feedback. Although Seesaw doesn’t allow you to give a quick sticker response (like you can do with text messages) many teachers have found an easy enough workaround to reply with unique stickers. I love to add digital stickers in response to my students’ work, and I think they love to see a special touch that resonates with them!

I have created a quick picture tutorial for you to follow along if you don’t know yet know how to add stickers using the Seesaw platform. Here goes:

1. First, go to the response by your student to an activity you have posted. This is an example from an activity I posted called “Mis actividades de español.”

2. Next, find the three dots at the bottom right side of the activity.

3. Click on “Edit Item.”

4. Find the specific page within the activity where you want to place the sticker.

5. Click on the Seesaw photo icon.

6. Click on “Upload.”

7. After clicking on “Upload” you will be prompted to choose an item from your computer, most likely your desktop. Look for the place where you saved the “Digital Stickers.”

8. Click on the “Digital Stickers” folder and choose the sticker you would like to place on your student’s activity. Click on “open.”

9. Now a special digital sticker has been placed in your student’s activity. Move it around to the final place where you want it to appear. Click on the three dots to lock the sticker in one place.