My blog reading seems to be frozen just like this winter weather. I’m so ready for some spring weather. Spring: a time for renewal and for new ideas. And while the weather isn’t quite catching up with my physical desires for warmth, a season of regional spring conferences around the country allows us me connect …
Monthly Archives: February 2016
Getting Started – Naturally
Getting started is often the hardest part in a unit, heck in anything new! We are often unsure how to take that first step and in our classrooms when introducing language chunks or vocabulary, how do we do that while staying in the target language and NOT translating. Language learning requires attention and practice, asking …
On their own path this week (02/20/16)
I’ve been a little busy these past few days so unfortunately I haven’t had much time reading blogs. While normally at least glance over hundreds of posts each week, I had to do some initial curating just by headlines alone. Here are several posts I thought would be interesting to share. There are a few more …
Ensuring Student Voice
How do we provide our students voice in our classrooms? In one of my graduate classes in urban education, I am reading a book by bell hooks (she chooses not to capitalize her name), Teaching to Transgress. In the book, hooks talks about voice and since reading this selection, my initial question keeps swirling round in …
I have a voice
One thing I learned from participating in the TELL Collab in Austin, Texas, last summer is that I have a voice. I had been teaching almost 10 years, had participated in weekly Twitter chats, and had been a department chair, but being able to participate in the TELL Collab and freely share with other like-minded …
On their own path this week (02/13/16)
I’m on my way back from home from the return of the NECTFL conference in NYC and my head is spinning with ideas for writing my own blog posts. While that’s going to have to wait a little while, here is my summary of posts that caught my attention this week. The Big List of Discussion …
How do you know they know?
I think the act of teaching is a rather courageous process. It may not always be regarded as such, but it nonetheless is a courageous act. Through teaching we really put our best selves forward. I really believe (yes you’ve already heard this a hundred times but as a reminder…) that all teachers set out …
On their own path this week (02/06/16)
It was a rather quiet week in the world language blogging world, so I’m sharing a couple of other interesting reads that caught my attention. Oh, and then on Saturday, Dr. Gianfranco Conti released another powerful post that addresses so many things we should consider when teaching for proficiency. Can’t wait to hear what you think …
Easing into Technology Integration
My district is working its way to 1:1 technology integration district wide. We call it TEConnect. Instead of rolling it out all at once, they determined it would be best to have a few cohorts work this model into their classroom and year by year they’ll add more 1:1 classrooms. As a TEConnect educator this …
Grammar and the Airport
Here is the continuing saga of the travel unit…as promised. Would you like to jump into my classroom experience for a moment? “Sra. Rhodes, I’ve never even been to an airport…how am I supposed to know what happens there?” So….The students have to learn all the different places in the airport, the people they need …