Make the most of your school's Open House in your language classroom!

Ah yes, the first few weeks of the school year when we get to welcome our student's caregivers into our
classrooms for Open House! While it may seem nerve-racking to think about at first, it is a wonderful opportunity to meet your student's caregivers, make connections, and provide a glimpse into the magic of your classroom. But what exactly should you include in your Open House meet and greet?

A smiling face!

It should go without saying that caregivers want to see the same friendly smile that greets their children every day! They want to know that their child feels safe and welcome in your classroom. In addition to a smiling face, present a hook to your class curriculum - get caregivers excited about your class too! If they are on board with your class, they can easily provide more enthusiastic support to their student at home. 

Provide a brief overview of the topics covered throughout the year - caregivers love having an idea about what their child will be learning about through the course of the year. Mention any classic assignments or engaging projects that students will complete. Have a fun idea for a field trip? Float it by the caregivers and see what they think! You should want the caregivers to leave your room with as much enthusiasm for your class as their child.

Key class expectations

As mentioned above, caregivers want to know that their child is going to feel safe within the walls of your classroom. What expectations are in place so that every child feels comfortable and supported to succeed in your room? What types of activities are students expected to complete? Are there a lot of partner or group activities? 

Think about the class policies that are most important to you, specifically the ones where you need caregiver support for their child to be successful. For example, I no longer grade homework, but I do provide students optional practice activities for each grammar and vocabulary concept. At the start of the year, I explain to students that they should reflect on whether or not they need this optional practice to succeed in class the next day and to do well on upcoming assessments. I reiterate that if students do not do well in class assignments and I see that they haven't been completing the optional practices, then I will speak to them and their caregivers about this. This expectation is definitely one I should share with caregivers! It presents a great conversation starter between caregivers and their child about the class material. I want caregivers to know that I will be reaching out to them if I notice a pattern with their child not completing the optional practices and struggling with a class assessment as a result. Together, I know that we will have productive conversations with the student about reflection and taking charge of their own learning.

Another important policy in my classroom (and now entire school!) is the use of no cell phones. Each classroom has a hanging cell phone holder set of pouches, and students must put all devices in the pouches upon entering the room. After seeing the success of the cell phone pouches in the first few weeks, I will reiterate this expectation with caregivers and explain how much even informal conversation has flourished in the classroom when students do not have their cell phones glued to their fingertips. I know caregivers will be relieved to hear that this new policy has been received so positively by their children and that it's creating a positive learning environment!

Grading policies

How do you grade assignments? My department recently moved toward standards based grading using the categories Presentational, Interpretive, and Interpersonal. This has been a huge shift from the traditional categories of tests, quizzes, homework, and participation. I will outline this new system for caregivers and provide examples of what each category looks like within my classroom. I will highlight the benefits of this new system and how now we will be able to understand what exactly their child can do in the language and what they can improve moving forward!

Do students have opportunities to revise work in your classroom? Outline any steps and deadlines students need to meet in order to turn in revised work for a new grade. Once again, the more caregivers know about your class policies, the more they can support their child from the other end!

Other curricular opportunities

My world language department offers a world language honor society for students. Each year we induct eligible students into the various honor societies for each language. The induction process and ceremony take place in the spring, and caregivers are always interested in what the eligibility requirements are so they can support their child in meeting the requirements. 

Does your world language department have any trips abroad planned? Open House is the perfect time to showcase any amazing trips that will be happening in your department. Advertising these trips early in the process is especially important if students need to save up money to attend! Some trips are even planned two years in advance to give caregivers the notice needed to begin planning.

End on a positive note!

The Open House at my school flies by - we meet with caregivers of each class period for only 10 minutes. No matter how much information I pack into that precious time, I always end on a positive note. My favorite thing to mention is how incredible their children are and how they make my job so enjoyable!

What do you highlight at your school's Open House? Post your thoughts below!

Happy teaching!

Dana, Señorita's Spanish Class

TPT Back to School Sale! Save 25%

What's better than a TeacherPayTeachers Back to School sale?! Save 25% off of everything in my store from 8/27 to 8/28. Every product, including bundles, will be 25% off! I have also been spending time creating new products and revising old ones to make them better AND change them to an editable Google Doc. Be sure to check back frequently to see new and improved products and redownload revised versions of previously purchased products once they're updated!

Don't miss out! Visit my TeachersPayTeacher store here: Señorita's Spanish Class

Happy Teaching (and shopping!)

- Dana, Señorita's Spanish Class

Why it's essential to assess your students the first (or second!) week of school

I can't emphasize enough the importance of assessing your students in the first few weeks of school! Determining a baseline for each of your students is essential to providing appropriate instruction to all students in the room. Perhaps most importantly, it helps to ensure that students are accurately placed in the correct level class. This is not only best practice as a teacher, but also creates a more equitable educational experience by making sure that students are placed in the class where they will succeed and learn most. 

When to assess your students

No one likes to return from summer break and take an assessment on the first day of school. I would argue it's not ideal for the second day either! As mentioned in my previous post about an interpersonal speaking activity on day 1, I like to spend the first two days getting to know my students and beginning to make connections and build a sense of community within my classroom. Within those first two days, I am sprinkling in some grammar review to make sure my non-Spanish speaking students are beginning to recall prior knowledge in the target language. Depending on how these few days go, I usually assess on day 3 or 4 of the school year. The reason I don't want to wait much longer than that is twofold - 1) I want to see how much Spanish my students remember walking into my classroom after summer break, and 2) if any schedule changes are recommended, there is usually a short time frame when I can try to make that happen.

How to assess students

My curriculum is aligned with the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, and I want to know that my students are placed in the correct level class. To do so, I develop a presentational writing task that builds in proficiency level across three separate prompts. When thinking about my Spanish 4 honors class, the goal is for students to obtain an intermediate mid level of language proficiency by the end of the school year. Therefore, I want my writing task to reflect a few things. First, I want to ease into the task (I don't want to scare anyone away within the first week of class!) with a novice task asking students to describe their lives. Theoretically, this should be a relatively easy task for my students if they completed Spanish 3 honors the year prior, and it immediately raises a red flag if a student struggles with this initial prompt. 

The second prompt for my students is aimed at a more novice high to intermediate mid level as they reflect on a past event. Students, if placed in the correct level, tend to do well on this one as well. 

Finally, the third prompt triggers more an intermediate mid to high response depending on text type and vocabulary. Remember, the goal for the end of my school year is for my students to obtain an intermediate mid level of proficiency, so if a student easily writes at an intermediate high (or higher!) level with this most challenging task, a different red flag is raise.

So what do I do with this information?

This presentational writing task provides a variety of useful information for me. First, it helps me get to know my students and their interests through what they write about, and of course it provides me a glimpse into their language proficiency. Next, it helps me determine if the student is placed in the correct level. The first two prompts reflect grammatical structures and vocabulary taught in previous years, so if a student is struggling with those two prompts, I start exploring the situation a bit more right away. I usually begin by reaching out to a school counselor to see if a switch to a different level class is even possible, and then I speak directly with the student. I ask them how they feel about class so far, how their general experiences have been in Spanish class, and whether they think this is the right class for them. This conversation can go many ways, so it's paramount that I speak directly with the student to get more information. Sometimes, it can simply be a case of extreme test anxiety, so then I assess them in other ways to see how they do. Depending on our conversation, I take next steps, speak to caregivers and other administrators, and potentially initiate a change to a different level.

However, what tends to happen more frequently in my classroom is the exact opposite - I find a few students every year who are typically native or heritage speakers who write extremely well, use the present subjunctive required in the third prompt very well, and add other advanced structures that I didn't even elicit in the prompts. What typically happens is these students take a placement exam if they just moved into the district or haven't taken a language class before, and may have been placed in an incorrect level. Usually it takes something like a presentational task the first week of school to determine this, thus the importance of assessing students early on in the year! With this group of students, I follow the same procedure as above by speaking to the student in Spanish and figuring out next steps. If we are all lucky, the schedules (and stars) align where they can jump into a more advanced class right away. If not, I know that I have to challenge these students and collaborate with them throughout the years in creative ways where they can grow as language learners and perhaps help their peers succeed as well. 

Every once in a while a student is incorrectly placed in my class but is unable to move levels. By determining all of this within the first week of school, I immediately know that I need to provide additional support for this student to ensure that they are successful this school year. Your school or class numbers may not even allow for students to change levels - in which case assessing students that first week is still essential so you can meet the group of students in front of you and adjust your instruction accordingly. 

Regardless of whether any schedule changes are made, this presentational writing task provides me valuable information. It helps me plan my instruction moving forward and helps me provide a more equitable teaching environment that meets students where they are and propels them to where I want them to be by the end of the school year. The task I outlined above focuses solely on presentational writing, but interpretive and interpersonal tasks should follow shortly after so you can get to know all "modes" of your students toward the very start of the year. 

Where to begin?

If you previously haven't assessed your students in the first week of school or want to change the ways in which you assess them, reflect on the proficiency levels students should have achieved in previous years and where you hope they arrive by the end of the year in your class. Think about prompts that are relatively easy to answer with vocabulary students should be able to recall at this point in their language learning experiences. The last thing you want is for a student to leave a prompt totally blank simply because they don't know what to write! (Note: If that does happen, investigate a little bit more to see why they did that.) Most importantly, make sure you provide prompts in progression that elicit the language proficiency levels that will help you determine if the student is in the right class. Don't forget to read the assessments shortly after students complete them as they don't provide much value sitting in a stack on your counter unread!

Do you have other ways to get to know the proficiency levels of your students toward the start of the school year? Share your thoughts below!

Happy Teaching!

- Dana, Señorita's Spanish Class

Back to School! An interpersonal speaking activity for the first day of Spanish class

The first week of school is quickly approaching, or there's a chance that you and your students have

already begun! If your first day hasn't happened yet, this blog post is for you! Even if it has and your classroom is already flowing with great conversation in Spanish, this post may give you some more ideas for an engaging speaking activity that reiterates the importance of listening when engaging in interpersonal communication. 

Day 1

You may have read my previous blog post about my favorite icebreakers (if not, read it here)! We usually jump into the airplane icebreaker on days 2 and 3 once we have spent a few minutes reviewing Spanish grammar. However, my students and I spend day 1 reviewing just a few housekeeping items before launching into speaking in Spanish. (My housekeeping tasks are what I deem to be most important like joining my Google Classroom.) I briefly explain a handful of fun things about my life with the hopes of connecting with some students (shout out to any Teacher Swifties in the crowd)! After that, I want to get my students speaking Spanish as soon as possible!

A quick note about my classroom set-up

My classroom is organized in two groups of desk that face each other so that students can look one direction toward the whiteboard and the other direction toward the SmartBoard projector. One side has 12 desks and the other side has 16 or so (this tends to change a little every year, but we are fortunate that our school's cap is 30 students). Students are always paired up with the classmate next to them, and I strategically create a new seating chart every two weeks so students have the opportunity to work with someone new.

A multipurpose interpersonal activity

On day 1, we jump into introducing ourselves and answering some basic questions with partners. Students speak in Spanish with their partners to discuss a few sets of basic questions like, "¿Cómo te llamas" and "¿Cuál es tu serie favorita en Netflix/Disney+/Amazon Prime Video?" These questions, and whether or not you provide any scaffolding like sentence starters (see below), should differ based on the level of students sitting in front of you! An example slide for my classroom can be seen below. 

The next step tends to throw my students through a loop. After I post the first set of 3 questions on the board and let students talk to each other for 2-3 minutes (or longer if connections are being made and the conversation is flowing!), I bring the class back together and tell them that they must introduce their partner and their partner's answer to one of the remaining questions on the board. For example, a student may say, "Mi compañero se llama Jimmy, y su serie favorita es Stranger Things en Netflix." The thing is, especially given the anxiety of the first day of school and the task of speaking Spanish after a long summer where the reality is many students haven't thought about Spanish class, most students didn't actually listen to their partner. After I explain this next step, it's not uncommon for a look of panic to come across their faces...which I quickly follow up by reminding students that Spanish is a language, and the purpose of language is communication. Communication is two-sided, and one could argue that listening is more important than speaking. I then immediately give them another 1-2 minutes to regroup with their partners and actually listen so they are prepared to introduce their partners to the class. 

This activity is a great way to reiterate the role of listening in communication and interpersonal speaking, but also it turns on their Spanish brains by having them hear and interpret their partner's response in the "yo" form, and then be tasked with rephrasing it in the "él/ella" form. Plus, in the best case scenario, students are making connections with classmates right away as they realize that they share the same interests, favorite movies, favorite ice cream shops, and more. Depending on timing, I post a few more sets of questions similar to those above and we review them as a class.

A Google Form questionnaire

If time remains after students introduce their partners, I have my students complete a Google Form questionnaire that outlines some basic information about their lives like any nicknames and their preferred pronouns, if they speak Spanish at home (over 20% of my school's population speak Spanish at home!), what activities they enjoy most in Spanish class, what their hopes and fears are for this school year, if there is anything confidential they want me to know, etc. Regardless of the time that remains, I always leave the last two minutes for the ultimate magic trick - I close my eyes (if I'm feeling extra ambitious, I also turn around backwards), and then point to each student and say their name. Students cannot believe their Spanish teacher not only memorized everyone's names but also where they are sitting! I do have to say though, this magic trick is becoming a bit more challenging the older I get, eek!

I hope this post has provided a new way to engage students in interpersonal communication on day 1 while also beginning to build connections and community in the classroom, and if you're lucky...learn the names of all of your students! Drop any questions or ideas for your day 1 down below! In a future post, I will talk about one of my favorite interpersonal communication routines that has become a staple of my classroom, ¡Conversemos! Check it out here.

Happy Teaching!

- Dana, of Señorita's Spanish Class

Welcome back to my blog!

Wow, it has been quite a while from my last post! A lot has happened since then including my husband and I having two children! Now that my son is a little over 3 and my daughter is an adorably funny, semi-independent 18 month old, I am finding time to share my observations, insights, and inspiration from my classroom again. Since my last post, I have added teaching an upper level Spanish 5/6 course to my resume where we have completely redesigned the curriculum based on the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals ... but more on that later!

Welcome back to my blog, and I hope the upcoming school year is impactful and fun! Happy Teaching!

- Dana, of Señorita's Spanish Class

HUGE Back to School Gift Card Giveaway!

WOW! Summer is quickly winding down, but the Spanish teachers of Teachers Pay Teachers have a few gifts to make it a little less painful. 

Visit: www.secondaryspanishspace.com to enter a raffle where you can win one of the following gift cards: $100 Target, $100 TpT, $100 Amazon, 2 $50 Target, 2 $50 TpT, and a $50 Starbucks. 

Crazy, right?! We already know that teachers spend personal money on back to school supplies, so our hope is to help you out this year. 

The contest starts TODAY and ends Wednesday night at 11:59pm (PST). 

And, if you want ADDITIONAL free stuff (who doesn't?!), then be sure to download the 2018 FREE Spanish Resource Library found here: Secondary Spanish Resource Library

Good luck! and Happy Teaching :)

Senorita's Spanish Class

Enter to win great prizes!

The Southern Conference on Language Teaching will be held in Atlanta, GA from March 15-17 and many Spanish teachers of TPT will be there! Senora Lee for the Love of Spanish and Spanish Resource Shop will be there representing over 20 of the best selling Spanish teacher authors. The conference will offer tons of goodies! If you can't actually attend the conference, don't worry - you can still win many other prizes. Check out the following post to see how! bit.ly/SpanishResourceShopSCOLT

Happy Teaching!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Senoritas-Spanish-Class

Valentine's Day & a TPT Gift Card Giveaway!

Valentine's Day is just around the corner, and there's no better way to celebrate than enter a raffle to win a $50 TPT card! All you have to do is "follow" my TPT store and enter here: a Rafflecopter giveaway 

One of my all-time favorite activities to do within my Spanish classroom is my "Novio ideal" activity. This lesson is always hilarious, and the kids have a blast. 

For this activity, students practice the present subjunctive as they write about their ideal partner. There are various categories that students write about including the ideal profession of their partner and what he/she likes to do on a Friday night. Example sentences can include: Yo quiero que mi novio vaya al cine los viernes. Or Es importante que mi novio ideal juegue al baloncesto. 

I encourage my students to write meaningful but funny sentences, and the results are always impressive. To top things off, students draw a sketch of their ideal partner. 

If you want to do something related to Valentine's Day while also practicing the present subjunctive, consider purchasing this lesson to add some fun to your classroom!

Happy Teaching!

Visit my TPT store!

TpT Gift Card Giveaway!

This Thanksgiving season, I am thankful for support from teachers like you! Therefore, I'm collaborating with 20 Spanish teachers to give away $100, $60, and $50 TpT gift cards!  

Hop on over to Spanish Resource Shop and Miss Señorita for a chance to win!  www.MissSenoritaTpt.blogspot.com    

http://www.spanishresourceshop.com/tpt-spanish-teacher-giveaway/ 

#spanishteachers #teacherspayteachers #giveaway

Happy teaching!

Senorita's Spanish Class

HALLOWEEN Episode of Pocoyo - Listening Comprehension Activity

I love Halloween, and so do my students. More importantly, I love watching episodes of
"Pocoyo" in my Spanish class to practice listening comprehension. Even though the series is created for a preschool audience, the level of Spanish for listening comprehension is ideal for a high school (or even middle school!) Spanish classroom. My students love watching the 7-minute episodes and even request Pocoyo throughout the year!

A brand new Halloween episode of Pocoyo was posted on Youtube recently. You can see the 7-minute episode below:

I created a FREE product on TeachersPayTeachers to use in your classrooms this Halloween season. The product has nine comprehension questions in Spanish that use the present, preterite, and imperfect tenses. It is ideal for a Spanish 2+ class. 

Download the free product here: Spanish - Pocoyo - Halloween Episode - FREEBIE

Enjoy the product in your classroom as an easy way to practice listening comprehension while engaging students with a fun, Halloween episode of Pocoyo. 

Happy Teaching!

For other Halloween lessons, please check out the following products:

Zombie Apocalypse - Pronouns and Commands

House Vocabulary - Que hay? Donde estas?

Day of the Dead - Video and Listening Comprehension - FREEBIE

Yoga in the Spanish Classroom

Our students are stressed. We are stressed. It seems that everyone is stressed these days, and with school becoming more competitive (college applications, AP courses, etc.), it seems only natural that we should implement some calming techniques into our classrooms. It helps us slow down our crazy days, and more importantly, it helps students cope with the stress of their day.

For the past couple of years I have been practicing one yoga pose with my students - the tree pose. Watch the 2 minute video below for a brief explanation of this easy pose. 

The pose itself is pretty easy to do, so it shouldn't take long to teach your students how to "find their trees."

I tend to do the tree pose in my class at different points depending on the mood of my class:
1) If students are not participating and seem really disconnected from the class, we will do the tree pose for 30 seconds. The tree pose brings awareness back into the classroom so students seem to focus better afterwards.
2) If students are talking too much and can't seem to begin class or an activity efficiently, we will do the tree pose. 30 seconds of calm and quiet definitely slow my students down so that they are ready to begin class. 
3) Finally, if my students are stressed with an upcoming test or other events, we will do the tree pose. Deep breathing for 30 seconds and focusing on balance seems to allow us to forget about the outside world for a few seconds. 

You may be thinking: "There is NO way I can get my students to do yoga in my classroom." I promise you that it's possible. I have done this for the past 3 years with all different types of students, ages, and levels. My 8th grader love it, and my 11th graders enjoy it. I have gotten the captain of the basketball team to do yoga as well! With a little practice and convincing (at least the first time), students will be asking to do yoga within a few days. 

To recap, doing 30 seconds of the tree pose is a phenomenal way to bring focus back into your classroom and lower stress. Try it out sometime soon!

Happy Teaching!

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Two Fun Icebreakers for Spanish Class for the Beginning of the Year

Happy start of a new school year! I don't know about you, but my summer flew by...all for good reasons! My summer began with a trip to Spain with a group of my high school students and ended with my wedding and honeymoon to Hawaii. Every part of the summer

was fantastic, but now I'm relieved to be back in some sort of a normal routine. More importantly, I'm excited to get my creativity back in the classroom. 

To start the year off on a positive note, I adapted an icebreaker we did at a faculty meeting for my classroom. This icebreaker allowed students to share something about their summer vacations and learn about their classmates while also practicing the preterite verb tense. The students had an absolute blast and I can't wait to tell you about it below!

Paper Airplane Icebreaker
The concept is simple. Students write their name on a blank piece of paper. Then they write a sentence (or two) using the preterite tense to state what they did this past summer. I prefaced this activity with a quick review on forming the preterite tense since I knew my student brains were a little rusty from the vacation. 

Once students wrote their sentence on a piece of paper, I asked them to fold it into a paper airplane. Many were shocked that their teacher asked them to make a paper airplane. I was shocked that many didn't know how to make a paper airplane :)

As the students finished up their airplanes, I asked them to stand in a circle around the room. On the count of 3 we all carefully threw our airplanes. Then, students grabbed an airplane that was not their own and sat back down in their seats. 

Here is the cool grammatical piece: Instead of simply reading aloud what their classmate wrote, I asked the students to convert the sentences from the "yo" form as it was written to the "él/ella" form. Therefore, instead of stating, "Yo nadé en el mar" the student would read aloud "Juan nadó en el mar." We tossed around my stuffed animal to share out each response. 

Despite it being the third day of school and first time producing Spanish in a few months (for most), the students were all engaged, excited, and enthusiastic to be working with paper airplanes and the preterite tense. This also allowed students to hear about their classmates' summer experiences and learn more about each other. I highly recommend completing this activity at some point, even as just a review on grammar! It doesn't have to necessarily serve as an icebreaker. 

Skittles Game
This next icebreaker also stems from an inspirational faculty meeting activity. I have yet to try it within my classroom, but I can't wait to try it next week! For this activity, it works best if you give your students Skittles or a different colorful candy. However, with many schools sticking to "healthy food only," it can be adapted to be completed with colorful blocks or pieces of paper, puzzle pieces, etc.

For this icebreaker, each student receives an individual bag of Skittles (or one colorful block, etc.). The students then remove one Skittle from the bag and depending on what the color is, they must share the following information with the class:

red = favorite superhero
yellow = favorite food
orange = favorite outdoor activity
green = favorite vacation spot
purple = favorite thing about the school

Of course these categories can be adjusted for whatever interests your students may have. 

Students can share their responses aloud with classmates in Spanish. This activity can even be utilized at the lower levels of Spanish since most levels can articulate their favorite items in Spanish (ex: Superman es mi superhéroe favorito). 

Overall, these two activities are a great way to ease back into the school year while also having fun, sharing summer experiences, and getting to know your students. What better way to start the school year?

Happy teaching!

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Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! Enter to win one of two $50 TPT Gift Cards

Why not enter another Raffle to win one of two $50 Teachers Pay Teachers gift cards? Teachers need all of the help they can get this time of year - hopefully this gift card will help you out.

Buena suerte!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Happy Teaching!

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How to survive the end of the school year (in one piece)

I think this is always the most difficult time of the school year - the home stretch between April vacation and summer vacation. At the high school level, that time is riddled with AP exams, and every teacher is scrambling to finish the curriculum for the year. Below are a few tips for making this challenging time of year productive and meaningful for students and teachers.

1. Prioritize your curriculum. For reasons unknown (and known!), we always struggle to teach everything that we need to teach by the end of the year. Therefore, it's essential to prioritize your curriculum. What do your students absolutely need to master before moving onto the next level of the language? Speak with teachers in your department, both horizontally and vertically, to determine what should be taught and what could be left out. For me, it is important that I begin teaching my Spanish 2 students the preterite tense. I slightly rearranged the order of my curriculum so that my students will have at least 6 weeks to practice the regular preterite tense before advancing to Spanish 3 next year. 

2. Refocus your students with yoga. This might sound ridiculous, but my high school students love to do yoga every once in a while. I limit the moves to the tree pose. When I see that students are either too tired and not responsive or overly energetic and all over the place, I calmly state that we are going to "find our trees." I got a few eye rolls at the start of the year when I first did this, but you would be amazed at how many students enjoy it now. All students participate - even the most athletic of the 15-year old boys who you would not imagine doing yoga in a thousand years. I usually have the students "find their trees" (or cacti :) ) and hold it for one minute while being silent. This exercise really does seem to refocus the group and bring their positive attention back to learning Spanish. I recommend trying it out in your class! Check out the brief Youtube video if you want to see how to do a tree pose properly.

3. Keep students engaged with technology. I have always been a big advocate for Plickers as a formative assessment tool, but I recently discovered Quizlet Live. Each student needs a device in order to play Quizlet live, and the classroom needs a projector (either a Smartboard or another screen). As the teacher, you log onto your Quizlet page and select a set of flashcards with which you want to work. Then, you choose the option "Quizlet Live" and students enter the code on their devices. Once all students enter the code, Quizlet creates groups of students within the classroom and students must move to sit with their group members. When the game begins, students in each group are given a multiple choice question and each group member has four distinct answers to choose from. If there are three people in the group, then the entire group will look at 12 total options. Only one student has the correct

option in front of them on their device, so students must work together to determine who has the correct option. As teams answer questions correctly, the projector shows each team's progress. Whichever team answers 12 questions correctly in a row wins that round. You can play as many rounds as you want. This is great for practicing new vocabulary or grammar. Above is an image of the projector screen. When your Quizlet flashcards are in Spanish, the team names actually convert to Spanish which is a neat feature! Even my sleepiest of students love this game and you'll be surprised to see how engaged each student is!

So there you have it - three tips to make the end of the school year bearable for teachers and students alike. Good luck - we can do this :)




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Happy teaching!

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An InLinkz Link-up

$80 in TPT Gift Cards!

It's time for another TPT Gift Card give-away! This time there are 2 $40 gift cards up for grabs. This is perfect for purchasing some high quality products from TPT as the second semester starts up. 

To enter the give-away, please visit the following link. You have to simply "Follow" each of the participating sellers on their TPT store site. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks for your support, and good luck!

Happy teaching!

'Tis the season for peppermint mochas, holiday music, and shopping! We want to help YOU out - enter below for your chance to win one of THREE TpT gift cards ($50, $20, or $10). Holiday shopping just became that much sweeter!

Please become a follower of my blog and my TpT store in order to enter! More information is found below in the link. 

GOOD LUCK!

Enter to win one of THREE TpT gift cards!

Happy teaching! (and shopping)

Parent Teacher Conferences

I started teaching in a new district this year, and to my surprise, they have parent teacher conferences every fall. I had only known these to be an elementary school event, so I was surprised and excited to try them out at the high school level! Everyone told me to print the student grade report and use that as a basis for my conversation with parents regarding student progress in my Spanish class. However, I wanted to do something more than that. 

In the weeks leading up to parent teacher conferences I did print the student grade reports. I highlighted assignments and grades of concern and wrote notes. The averages for the breakdown of the grade categories (homework, participation, assessments) were also highlighted. This information was the starting point for me figuring out what to discuss with parents. 


In addition to the highlighted grade report, I wanted to create a quick handout where I outlined things that the student does well in my Spanish class, things that can be improved, and which goals the students should have moving forward. In addition, I provided a list of the useful websites for our class as well as my contact information. I emphasized the times that I was available for extra help, too. I have this form available for free here: Student Reflection Form for Parent Teacher Conferences

I completed that form for the ~20 students for whom I had conferences scheduled but realized it was a great opportunity to encourage student reflection as well. Therefore, the morning of the parent teacher conferences, I asked all of my students to complete the form as a reflection of their own progress during the first quarter. Students completed the form without seeing what I had written about them. I collected their reflections, photocopied those for which I had conferences, and scanned all of them so I had them on file. 

Next, I compiled a packet of information for each of the parents with whom I had a conference. The packet included: 
- the grade report with highlighted areas of concern
- the student reflection form that I completed
- the student reflection form that the student completed
- the Lend an EAR to Student Success Handout

I began each 10 minute conference with a quick summary of student performance based on the highlighted grade report. I pointed out the assignments on which the student did well as well as assignments that could have been revisited (I allow quiz retakes under certain parameters in my class). 

Next, I showed parents the student reflection form that I had filled out alongside the reflection form the student had filled out. We compared the two and discussed any discrepancies in perceptions of student progress. For example, if I felt that Johnny struggled with completing homework but Johnny said that completing homework was his strength, we discussed that point more closely. Having the highlighted grade report was a nice resource to use at this point in order to look at the actual grade percentages. 

I ended the conversation with a reminder of the Lend an EAR to Student Success Handout that I had handed out during Open House earlier in the year. The handout has a few general tips with a snazzy acronym to support parents in helping their student succeed in the classroom. The handout is available for FREE on my TPT store so check it out!

Overall, I received very positive feedback from the parents about the conferences. In particular, they loved comparing the student reflection form that I had completed with the one their student completed. A few even said how clever the idea was! I am fortunate to work in a district where the parents are extremely supportive, and they truly appreciated the packet of helpful information I handed out. 

Do you have any ideas for carrying out successful parent teacher conferences? Comment below!

Happy teaching!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Senoritas-Spanish-Class

"Lend an Ear" to Student Success! Increase Parent Engagement with this Flyer

September. The start of the new school year. Another group of students, another set of classes, and another OPEN HOUSE!

Parent involvement cannot be overlooked as a key component of student success in class. However, at the middle and high school levels, sometimes parents and guardians may feel intimidated by the content material. Personally, if my mom wasn't a math major, I don't know how I would have survived all of those pre-calculus homework assignments! Regardless, parents should understand that they do not need to know the content material in order to engage in open conversation with their students about class. This conversation is a way of staying involved with their student's classes. 

As this year's Open House approached, I wanted to create a clever acronym for a flyer to give to parents. After a few sleepless nights, I came up with this:

"Lend an EAR to student success!"

The EAR stands for the following:
Encourage your student to...
Ask your student...
Remind your student...

Encourage your student...
...to understand the value of learning the class content! For my Spanish classes, I think it is so important to learn Spanish. My students and I complete meaningful activities in class that demonstrate the value of learning Spanish, but if my students can hear this at home as well, that would be even better.

...to speak with the teacher if they want extra help and support. Encouraging students to reach out to the teacher for extra help is so important. Teaching your student to advocate is an important part of life.

...to ask the teacher if there is an issue with grades, etc., in class. We can fix the grades - sometimes we input the wrong grade for the wrong student and need a gentle reminder to fix them!

Ask your student...
...how's class going? Sometimes this simple question can bring to light any positive or negative things happening in class. 

...what vocabulary (or grammar or other content) are you learning right now? How might you use this in the real world?

Remind your student to...
...regularly check the teacher's website! Personally, I put all of my class information, homework, activities, hand-outs - you name it! - on my classroom website. Students can clarify any questions that they have or re-download any misplaced worksheets.

...study for upcoming assessments. This is an obvious one!

...complete the homework. We assign homework for a reason (hopefully). It's great review for an upcoming assessment or great practice.

...check the online grades to make sure all assignments are in and there are no errors.

...practice the content with helpful websites.

The back of the flyer contains additional information that is important for parents and guardians to know like classroom routines, classroom participation, grading practices, and more. 

Parents loved receiving this flyer at this year's Open House. They chuckled at the clever acronym and enjoyed the concise information. 

Download a FREE version of this flyer that you can edit for your classroom here: 
"Lend an Ear" Family Engagement Flyer

Thanks for reading, and if you have other great ways to empower parents and guardians in your classroom, please comment below and share!

Happy teaching, and good luck with the start of another school year!