Tag: education

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 2

On By GaryDibiancaIn AP World Language, Assessments, Beginning of the Year, Classroom Routines, Semester Reflection, Spanish I, Spanish II, Spanish III, Spanish IV, Uncategorized1 Comment

As teachers, I think we all have our favorite grades or courses to teach. For me, the consistency of teaching level 4/IV Spanish to juniors in high school for 21 of 22 years, is where I am most comfortable and, perhaps, happy. It is where I am helping students to grow and hone their skills …

Continue reading Running Reflection Series: My Experience with Mike Peto’s Approach, My Teacher Struggles, and Next School Year ~ Post 2

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.  

Conferences and Trainings, Oh My – Some Thoughts from MITTEN CI and Upcoming Summer Trainings

On By GaryDibiancaIn Coaching, Conferences and Training, My Philosophy, Teaching Strategies1 Comment

The thought and dedication that go into putting this conference together are remarkable. This world language conference focuses on teaching using ADI: Acquisition-Driven Instruction/Comprehensible Input/Comprehension-Based Communicative Teaching, with the philosophy of teachers using language that is comprehended by students to help them acquire language. Again, I am left with a feeling of fulfillment. It is exactly what I needed in mid-April to provide me with the strength, wisdom, and energy to finish out this sometimes tough school year. 

Being in a New World Language Class is like a TRIP 

On By GaryDibiancaIn Beginning of the Year, Classroom Routines, My Philosophy, Uncategorized1 Comment

While traveling this summer in Rome, Italy I had an “AHA Moment:” the student experience in my world language classroom is like a trip in a big city that is foreign to someone. Let’s delve into this crazy metaphor that I thought about while walking through the “_________” neighborhood in search of a market that bears that same name (umm, I cannot remember its name for the life of me as I am writing this), and frankly that is perfect because it really makes this metaphor even better. Here are my 10 reasons why I am making this claim.

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.  

Spanish IV Reflection 2022-23 ~ Finding the Balance 

On By GaryDibiancaIn AP World Language, Assessments, Curriculum, My Philosophy, Semester Reflection, Spanish IV, Teaching Strategies, Uncategorized2 Comments

Teaching Spanish IV, which in my district consists of mostly students in their Junior year, is a magical experience for me as an educator. I feel the class can be a great turning point for students in terms of their proficiency growth as they approach proficiency levels of Intermediate-Mid and High.

Sharing some Quick Culture Activities

On By GaryDibiancaIn Culture, Curriculum, Hispanic Cultural Competency Collection, Spanish II, Spanish III, Spanish IV, Teaching Strategies, Uncategorized1 Comment

So this year, seeing how my Spanish II students really needed to more regularly stand up and move around my rather small classroom, I designed 8 cultural object hunts that could be easily replicated by any teacher just using image searches or some cultural realia that could be sitting on a shelf, in a basement, or even organized in culture bags like mine and again, still not being used.