“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 …
Tag: SUMMER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Running Reflection Series: My Experience with Mike Peto’s Approach, My Teacher Struggles, and Next School Year ~ Post 2
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 …
Running Reflection Series: My Experience with Mike Peto’s Approach, My Teacher Struggles, and Next School Year ~ Post 1
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 …
Being in a New World Language Class is like a TRIP
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.
Spanish IV Reflection 2022-23 ~ Finding the Balance
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
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?
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
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).
My Mosaic of World Language Teaching 