Category: Curriculum

New Year’s Post 2026 (It’s Going to Be a Happy New Year)  

On By GaryDibiancaIn Beginning of the Year, Culture, Curriculum, Semester Reflection, UncategorizedLeave a comment

As I always say, you certainly will not get inundated with posts from my Blog during the school year because for me it is crazy busy. I live deadline to deadline, and although I'm not always proud of that I certainly do get all of my work done.  This all being said, I made this …

Continue reading New Year’s Post 2026 (It’s Going to Be a Happy New Year)  

Running Reflection Series 2: My Experience with Mike Peto’s Brazilian Portuguese Classes ~ Post #6 – My Final One 

On By GaryDibiancaIn Beginning of the Year, Classroom Routines, Conferences and Training, Curriculum, Learning Portuguese, My Philosophy, Semester Reflection, Spanish I, Spanish II, Spanish III, Spanish IV, Teaching Strategies, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I must thank Mike Peto for the amazing experience this summer learning another language. As I posted in my first post about this class, I have been waiting for an opportunity like this for quite some time. This was a perfect summer experience for me and I am going back to the classroom re-energized and recharged for a great school year. Thanks again Mike for being such a wonderful teacher and inspiration. Now for One Post More!  

Running Reflection Series 2: My Experience with Mike Peto’s Brazilian Portuguese Classes ~ Post #3

On By GaryDibiancaIn Assessments, Beginning of the Year, Classroom Routines, Curriculum, Learning Portuguese, My Philosophy, Semester Reflection, Spanish I, Spanish II, Spanish III, Spanish IV, Teaching Strategies, UncategorizedLeave a comment

During this reflection series, I am noting an “AHA” moment from each day of Mike Peto’s 2024 Brazilian Portuguese Classes, which are available on his CI Master Class Site.   “AHA” Moment ~ Day 6: The Weekend Review in the Past Tense  Today’s class started in a terrific way reviewing what was discussed from Friday’s “What …

Continue reading Running Reflection Series 2: My Experience with Mike Peto’s Brazilian Portuguese Classes ~ Post #3

Running Reflection Series 2: My Experience with Mike Peto’s Brazilian Portuguese Classes ~ Post #2

On By GaryDibiancaIn Beginning of the Year, Classroom Routines, Conferences and Training, Curriculum, Learning Portuguese, My Philosophy, Semester Reflection, Spanish I, Spanish II, Spanish III, Spanish IV, Teaching Strategies, Uncategorized2 Comments

I've decided to give this topic its own post. It takes me back to my first day of learning Brazilian Portuguese with Mike Peto this summer and I have not stopped thinking about his clickable Song Activities for the past 25 days. In fact, we are still using these activities daily in our classes, and I still love them.  I feel like this post should also say: Feeling accomplished!

Running Reflection Series: My Experience with Mike Peto’s Approach, My Teacher Struggles, and Next School Year ~ Post 3

On By GaryDibiancaIn Assessments, Beginning of the Year, Classroom Routines, Curriculum, Semester Reflection, Spanish I, Spanish II, Spanish III, Spanish IV, Teaching Strategies, Uncategorized5 Comments

“AHA” Moment #3 from Mike Peto’s Guidebook: Write and Discuss Every Day I am going back to how I started 10 years ago in my school. I always wanted students to have a notebook and pencil, and somewhere along the way this became a problem for students. So again, I will require all students to …

Continue reading Running Reflection Series: My Experience with Mike Peto’s Approach, My Teacher Struggles, and Next School Year ~ Post 3

Running Reflection Series: My Experience with Mike Peto’s Approach, My Teacher Struggles, and Next School Year ~ Post 1

On By GaryDibiancaIn Beginning of the Year, Classroom Routines, Conferences and Training, Curriculum, My Philosophy, Semester Reflection, Spanish I, Spanish II, Spanish III, Spanish IV, Teaching Strategies, Uncategorized3 Comments

I have now been teaching for 23 years, and it is still amazing how I feel every year I continue to learn more as I hone my craft. This past school year was no different as there were some new “old” challenges thrown at me that have happened about every 3 years when I teach …

Continue reading Running Reflection Series: My Experience with Mike Peto’s Approach, My Teacher Struggles, and Next School Year ~ Post 1

Resource: Who is ready for a Tea Party about the film “También la lluvia/Even the Rain” with your upper-level Spanish students?  

On By GaryDibiancaIn AP World Language, Culture, Curriculum, Semester Reflection, Spanish III, Spanish IV, Teaching Strategies, Uncategorized1 Comment

I rarely share resources but I am sharing this resource because the whole class period was a wonderful introduction to the film. I feel that this year my students had a much better understanding of the film and the characters because of this powerful preview activity. I also loved it because in no way was the “preview activity” a passive one; my students were 100% engaged and actively interacting, speaking Spanish, and oh yeah, having tea and cookies.  

Upper Level Activity: The Claim Game 

On By GaryDibiancaIn AP World Language, Assessments, Curriculum, Socratic Circles, Spanish IV, Teaching Strategies, Uncategorized2 Comments

What I must do is provide the building blocks for helping my students develop an argument and the ability to express and support their opinions in Spanish because the students that continue on in the AP Spanish Language and Culture class will have many opportunities to write full argumentative essays.