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.
Tag: education
Sharing some Quick Culture Activities
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.
Spanish II 2022-23 Reflection
Teaching Spanish II is always a test of endurance, patience, and satisfaction watching students grow from novice levels of Spanish to intermediate levels for most. This year I taught three sections of Spanish II, which have a mix of students with most 9th graders having had Spanish since elementary school and then daily in 6th, …
Summer Series Reflections 2023
-PLEASE FOLLOW AND SUBSCRIBE to my blog so you will receive an email when I post. My goal is to add 20 new subscribers for each of these summer posts. Please help me reach my goal. -CONTEST: Remember in almost all of my posts I have included musical theater references. At this point, I have no idea which references I have included on each post. So the contest is to add a comment on 5 different Blog posts with your guess of the musical theater show tune reference (of the 5, it can only include 2 of the ones that I am posting this month). The first person, who has also FOLLOWEDSUBSCRIBED to my blog, to add 5 comments with the correct musical references will win a $25. Amazon Gift Card. My musical theater fans, if you are going to read the posts, why not read with a purpose?
Some Food for Thought from April 2023
Written April, 16 2023 This was a post I wrote on Facebook that I feel should be on my Blog too. (No musical theatre references). This was a commentary I had after reading an opinion piece on April 16, 2023. I just wanted to post about what a joy it was to present with my …
New Resource: Hispanic Cultural Competency Collection
The Hispanic Cultural Competency Collection is a new resource of short videos from native Spanish-speakers who responded to prompts about 41 different cultural themes that included aspects about perspective, practices, and products. The prompts and short comprehension questions are provided in English to help focus students. Please encourage others to record more videos via https://flipgrid.com/hispanicculturalcc to provide our students with more perspectives from the Spanish-Speaking world.
Reflection 2021-22 Spanish Level IV
My final post from this reflection series is about my 2021-22 year in Spanish IV with my intermediate students. The post talks about the Ohio Seal of Biliteracy, using student data, developing thought, my core classroom values, discussion days, honing communication based on novice topics, and finding a happy balance. Thanks for reading. Gary
MASTERY LEARNING using High-Frequency Verb Quizzes
The 2021-22 school year provided me a chance to try out ideas with MASTERY LEARNING and a policy about retaking assessments until an 80% average was reached. I used this idea consistently throughout the whole year with both my Spanish II and IV classes, and I am very pleased with the results. One of the …
Continue reading MASTERY LEARNING using High-Frequency Verb Quizzes
Reflection 2021-22 Spanish Level II 
I am finally sitting down to write this important reflection of my Spanish level II classes this past year (even if it is in July and not June or any other month throughout the school year).
Aha! Moments from IFLT 2022
Aha! Moments from IFLT 2022 I am so grateful to have returned to an in-person training conference. IFLT 2022 in Saline, Michigan gave us all an opportunity to get refreshed and ready for a fantastic 2022-23 school year. Over the past 6 years, IFLT has implemented a trifecta training model where teachers observe other teachers …
My Mosaic of World Language Teaching 