It’s January– you’re tired, they’re tired. Routines have started feeling…routine…and the same old challenges that you’ve been dealing with since the fall are starting to feel really old. Now is a particularly great time of year to be predictable in expectations but unpredictable in planning. Instead of starting the next unit or chapter and working…
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I’ve always struggled with writing year-in-review posts. None of the standard metrics ever seem to capture a true representation of the fading year– and this is the end of the decade! My top posts are never the posts that I consider to be the most valuable. My blog “by the numbers” fails to capture the…
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I know. We can’t believe it either. BEHOLD! Our first ever SOMOS Workshop is being held in Dallas, Texas, on February 21 & 22, 2020! *REGISTRATION IS CAPPED AT 100 ATTENDEES!* A huge THANK YOU to Andrea Schweitzer at St. Rita Catholic School for taking the lead in organizing a space for us to host…
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My students and I made strong, lasting connections as we co-created stories. Whether it was TPRS® (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling) or OWIs (One Word Images), we had so much fun being creative together. It was through storyasking that I first experienced the power of acquisition-driven instruction. As I helped my students to understand…
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This Monday and Tuesday, save up to 25% off ALL teaching resources from The Comprehensible Classroom– including the complete SOMOS Curriculum and El mundo en tus manos subscription! This is the biggest discount that we EVER offer on our materials, and it will be the last chance to save in 2019. Save on all purchase…
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For those of us coming home from #ACTFL19, it is time for the real work to begin. A big conference like ACTFL can feel exciting, inspiring, exhausting… and overwhelming. Conferences are special kinds of vortexes–’swirling centers of energy’–that leave you feeling uplifted but when left out of control can lead to a huge crash. The…
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The 2019 ACTFL Convention and World Languages Expo is just one week away. This convention is unlike any other training that is available to World Languages teachers in the US, and it is an invigorating, inspiring… and overwhelming experience! Over the last 10 years, I have made it a priority to attend and present at…
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I have learned many of my favorite games from Nelly Hughes, author of Fluency Matters‘ Selena and the force behind Comprendes Méndez SpanishShop. As a teacher that has been using and training teachers in Comprehension-based™ methods for many years, Nelly has a knack for finding and adapting games for communicative language classes. ”El que sabe,…
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By trade, I am a Spanish teacher. I learned Spanish in classrooms and in the real world, and I’m intentional about creating opportunities that will help me to become ever more proficient. On the quest for proficiency, there is one factor that will always haunt me… …ENGLISH!!! You see, English is my L1. And, like…
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Most of us teach language within four classroom walls, and yet the physical space of our room neither defines nor constrains us: our language classes are boundless. The connections that we help our students to make span time periods, political borders, races, and interests. If we are lucky, they might even span that uncomfortable space…
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