Ready for Virtual Open House

Virtual Open House is a great idea that is long overdue. It may be one of my favorite things brought about by COVID. My past experiences with Open House have shown that it is not the most productive thing teachers do. Virtual Open House give students and families the opportunity to get the basic information quickly and easily. There is great collaboration going on everywhere online about how to make the "perfect" presentation. I encourage everyone to remember there is no "perfect" presentation or video. We all want to make a good first impression, but don't stress out over it more complicated than it needs to be.  

I started small with just a video and then went a little further because technology is in my wheelhouse. All in all it took me about 1.5 - 2  hours. I might have been done sooner than that if I didn't have to keep saying, "Do I really look like that?" (Seriously those COVID pounds need to go....but I digress.)

Basic intro video:

• Keep it short. You just want to be welcoming, introduce yourself , and convey excitement for the new year.
• Use a recording tool you are comfortable with - that can be your phone, screencastify, camtasia, google meet, or any other tool you love. 
• LIGHTING...LIGHTING .... LIGHTING  - One thing my (selfie queen) daughter has taught me is how lighting makes all the difference. Good lighting makes you look happy and healthy, and bad lighting makes you look like you will be teaching from prison. I recommend outside if at all possible. 
• Make sure you look at the camera. It is so tempting to watch yourself....but looking at the camera is more welcoming for your students. 

Ok - Here is my basic video. It gets the job done and only took 4 takes.

Now after I did that, I wanted to do a bit more....so I looked at sample videos with all the cute stuff. Made this little Hola video using Snapchat. I did it that way so I could easily share with my daughter (the selfie queen), but you can just record it on your phone as well. Truthfully this one took about 15 takes until I was happy. 

Once I did this I wanted to make it loop, but after lots of searching, I couldn't find a way to make it loop in Google. Sometimes...you just have to let it go. 

I found this video that I liked, so I decided to adapt some of the ideas (and simplify).  I could feel myself going down the rabbit hole. Here is the final presentation that I made. 

If you want to do something similar - I used "insert shape" then changed the fill color to match our school colors and then "insert text box" on top. There are details about linking pages if you are unfamiliar with that in the YouTube video I shared.

Remember you don't need something complicated. You only need to briefly introduce yourself and convey your excitement for the new year. I would love to see your videos in the comments!

Planning for more!

Reflecting at the end of another school year is one of my favorite things to do. I have been working hard to revamp my curriculum (so happy to have a school district and principal that gives me that freedom!) to make it have a more communicative focus. I want students to have more interest in the topics that the units cover and therefore be more interested in learning the content that goes with it. Most of my work this year was done in my Spanish 2 curriculum so this summer I am focusing on how I can build on that with a revamped Spanish 3 curriculum.

For example, in Spanish 2, we always do a unit on food (as many WL teachers do). Instead of just another boring food unit, I changed the focus to living a healthy lifestyle. This enabled students to ave a focus for choosing their own vocabulary - we did this as a class for the first time (I was inspired by Amy Lenord, but have to find a better way for this because it took almost an entire class period!). Students chose many words and activities that I never would have thought of putting on a list. It had the added benefit of having each class have different lists so the cross-class copying for practice couldn't continue. ;)  We then did a variety of activities, interpretive reading with infographics. Like this one and this one. I also used this Coke commercial as a CI listening introduction to the unit.

What I found was that by changing the focus of the unit to a question - "How do you live a healthy lifestyle?" - Students naturally wanted input on vocabulary and activities. They also always had an opinion and had something to say so conversation practice came more naturally. They were at first freaked out by some of the TL activities because they didn't know every word and in some cases, couldn't even find a translation for words and had to use their brain to figure out what some words meant. The summative for this unit was open to student choice. They did a presentation about healthy lifestyle. For some this meant demonstrating how to play sports, for others, a cooking demonstration of a healthy recipe, ideas to replace junk food with healthy alternatives, etc. It turned out to be one of the best units I have ever planned and some of the best work from the students. As if I didn't know that things went better this year, my enrollment for Spanish 3 tripled for next year. Yea!

Of course, in hindsight, I realized we never talked about ordering in a restaurant and asking about items on a menu, which is something "real world" that students want to be able to do, but next year, I will make sure to add an activity to help them practice this as well.

So, with this success, the question is how to I work on the other units to make them as engaging for students? I have long wanted to change my Fairy Tale unit in Sp 3 and really need to make my Future life and decisions unit better, but how.? This is part of my summer homework.

I´m committed - Production formative assessments only!

It has been a crazy school year with lots of ups and downs, and we aren´t done yet. This semester I have really been tougher on my 3 students, and I am seeing some increased improvements not just in their fluency, but in their work habits. Finally, they seem to be understanding that they have to do their OWN work to be successful. After catching a few students, they have realized that they will not be successful if they cheat. I have been more inspired by them these last few weeks than I have been all year. Nothing energizes me like my students and seeing them making not just the language connections, but the life connections.

As my students have learned, so have I. I am going to work this summer on revamping my curriculum, yes - again. I think that good teachers are always tweaking and looking for ways to improve to help their students learn better. I am working on a new plan to use formative assessments with no written quizzes. I want all assessing to be based on production. I think that students have gotten too good at gaming the system and since the flip is no longer a new concept, they are finding ways to try to ¨game¨it as well.

This makes total sense. After all, I do believe that the only thing that counts in a World Language class is how the students can actually communicate. It will be a big step for me to move away from the few written assessments to all performance based assessments. I have a lot of thinking and planning to do to make it happen. But I am committed.....because I wrote it here!

On a final note - as I was preparing for my presentations this week, I found that on www.tagxedo.com I could create a cloud based on the words in my blog. I was excited to see what ideas carried the most importance. Just wanted to share the love with everyone!

Spring Break Vacation??

Today is day two of Spring Break. We just wrapped up the quarter, and had parent teacher conferences. All my papers are graded (ok, we'll there are three kids that sent in late work that are on my desk back at school, but that doesn't count!) I have made my Essential Question projects, had them peer reviewed by my favorite German teacher, and even made the copies for Monday. For my PLN I have answered a bunch of emails. So, now I am planning on cleaning my house, hanging out with my kids, making lesson plans for levels 1 and 4, catch up on blog reading, write a blog post, answer more email, look for resources on the Internet.......

Hold on, isn't Spring Break supposed to be a vacation? A time for teachers to recharge so they can go back to school refreshed and ready to finish the school year? I read an article recently about work life balance, and after a long chat with my very supportive hubby, my post for today was inspired.

Let me start with a story.....
Once there was a man who worked in the IT industry. He worked all the time. He worked 10-12 hours at work, the would come home, go to an event for his kids, kiss his wife and then work some more. Is wife was constantly asking him to stop, to slow down.....

Now another....
Once there was a teacher, a teacher who worked hard to do the best possible job for her students. She went to sporting events at her school to build relationships with her students, she volunteered to chaperone dances, she revised curriculum. Then she began speaking at conferences, writing a blog. She also encouraged students to email her with questions, so she was constantly checking email and responding to her students.

These stories are about myself and my husband. I hadn't realized it, but I am just as bad at work-life balance as he is. I am addicted to my job. It snuck up on me. Who would have thought when I began teaching that those high schoolers would have such a place in my heart that I would find it near impossible to take a day off? Hard to believe that I am so committed to constant improvement that I am always working. I take consolation in the knowledge that I am not the only one. How many teachers do you know that take a day off just to grade and/or plan?

We all need time to recharge before the home stretch of the school year. These last 7 weeks go by so fast that there is hardly a chance to breathe. Recharging makes us better teachers. It helps us be able to distance ourselves from the pressure and drama of school. Then, we can better reflect on our work and our students. That is why, this Spring Break, I am putting away the blog, Twitter, emails, etc. and relaxing with my family. No more thinking about school until Sunday. I am looking forward to it and I hope you join me in the Spring Recharge!

Tapping into peer-to-peer teaching with assessments

I am constantly looking at how I am assessing students and trying out new ideas to help the students do a better job of demonstrating their knowledge. With this in mind, I tried a partner test for my new level 1 class. It started as an idea from necessity...we had three snow days in five class days, and there just wasn't enough time to get everything done that needed to be accomplished before Spring Break. When I decided upon this partner test, I had no idea that it was going to turn out to be a great idea.

So, I had the students sit two to a table and let them use notes and their partner to complete the test. They were allowed to use any notes and their partner at their table, no one else and no other resources. (I was pleasantly surprised by how some of the pairings worked out - I had some A/B students with B/C students.) I had created the test so although there would be some quick, easy answers from the notes, there was quite a bit of long answer: translate the sentence, write original sentences with specific words, and writing an original paragraph.

Amazingly, what happened was not a furious copying down of material from the notes, but great dialogues about how and why some grammatical things happened. I loved watching all of the students work together to come up with the right answers. Some worked together the whole way, some each did what they knew and then compared and discussed what was missing. Others (mostly the A students) did the test on their own and then swapped papers to peer review.

Yes, I know that this is not necessarily a true assessment of what each student knew, but to be honest, I thought the dialogue that came from doing this was well worth it. The most interesting part was that when I finished grading the assessments, the majority of students performed the way they normally do on tests. The only exception were my lower achieving students, who, for the most part, did better than normal. The best part was that in the days since we did this, I have heard more students doing peer-to-peer teaching, even the lower achieving students.

Since this went so well with level 1, I thought I would try something similar with my level 3 classes. We are studying adverbial phrases with the subjunctive, which is really some tough material. So, what I decided to do was have the students take the assessment normally. Then I gave them 10 minutes to compare and correct mistakes on their tests. Again, there were some great discussions about some tough grammatical concepts. I did have two students (out of 80) that really made out because they clearly had not studied at all, but the majority were able to tweak and refine their answers.

I guess I am just a sucker for peer-to-peer teaching. The students all have so much to offer each other and it is very difficult to tap into all of their knowledge. I don't think it is bad for students to discuss the concepts and then make decisions about what is right. I wouldn't do it all the time, but with a really tough concept, thought it was a good idea.

What do you think??

Cultural activities across the levels

This time of year is the worst for teachers. Students have realized that their grades are not what they should be and are in full panic mode, and parents are on alert as well. The holiday season is also around the corner, and even though Christmas decorations have been up in stores for weeks, I am not ready for the work that comes with the holidays! With all of this going on, it is easy to focus on the negative and the frustrations in the classroom, but I am doing my best to focus on the positives.

This past week was a crazy one, with our fairy tale unit ending. As I have mentioned before, I have been working on a cross-level project between the Spanish 1's and Spanish 3's. I have felt that we spend so much time focusing on the harder vocabulary and more difficult conversations that the upper level students forget how to say some of the most basic things...the conversations that would be most important if they were in a foreign country.

So, the idea behind this project was to have the upper level kids create stores and sell to the lower levels. We planned and wrote assignment sheets and talked about vocabulary. I let my students choose what type of store to have, because as I have mentioned before, I firmly believe we need to give students choices whenever possible. Here is a copy of our assignment sheet. (I also put a copy in the Helpful Docs tab.) We also gave the kids a handout to practice key phrases, and add phrases of their own that they thought necessary.

The students created all types of stores, including music, movie, cafe, clothing, and a party store. I was so proud of my students. They stayed in the target language, even when the principal tried to talk to them in English. They were so generous, giving juice, soda, cookies, party favors, etc. to the lower level students. Since we were using Monopoly money, I had assured students they would get all of their items back.

Now, my PreAp class is during a time when there is no Spanish I, so we tried something  little different. We did a "Tourist Day" between Germany and Spain with the German III students. In this project, some of the students set up stores, and other students were tour guides. The tour guides were in charge of teaching key phrases and helping their groups at the stores. The stores were based on what a tourist would need: a hotel, souvenir shop, tour/ticket office, and cafe. The students then took turns leading the tours and shops.

The kids were excited about this and it went very well. The students learned a few new phrases in a new language. They were also exposed to situations where they didn't understand what someone was saying, or how to respond and had to figure out how to get what they wanted. It was a great communication exercise for all of the students.

I was liberal with the assessment scores. I felt that if they were communicating in the target language during the duration of the activity (about an hour), and they helped the lower level students communicate as well, that was A work.

For me, it was a good week. Students did tons of communicating and had a great time. Hopefully this will be an annual tradition and something the students can look forward to. Now all I have to do is figure out how to do it again in the Spring. I think I will put my students on it! They have the best ideas.

Increase your World Language PLN today!

There are many things that make being a World Language teacher difficult, but I think the hardest part is a feeling of isolation. Often, World Language departments in schools are small, and like-minded collaboration is difficult. Additionally, there is little professional development for us at the school level. When schools have professional development, we often don't fit in. We aren't a core class, but we don't fit in with most electives either. So, for professional development, we head to local conferences as well as national conferences like ACTFL in the hopes of learning new techniques, gathering new materials and meeting new contacts to help us improve our classes.

Thankfully, we also have the magic of technology to allow us to find our own professional development. So, it is time to get out there and find your PLN (personal learning network) and get some great ideas to improve your class!

Blogs are great ways to learn new things. Best of all, they enable us to learn from the successes and mistakes of others to save us valuable time. I have a long list of blogs that I read (ok, sometimes I skim). The ideas on these blogs can save us hours of searching and writing our own plans. The teachers that write these blogs are always open to sharing ideas, making them a very valuable resource. (If you are a blogger, or know a great WL blog, please add it on the form at the end of this post!) Check out the list so far!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aob9qf9ypisidFMzLUxfNmF2b093OTNuc0YzMDNGdHc

Social media is another way to find great resources and other WL teachers to collaborate with. I know many people shudder at the thought of Twitter, I was always the same way. However, I have found that just with my small amount of activity, I have met some other great teachers, found some great resources and participated in some wonderful chats. If you are ready to give it a try, here are some great people to follow:

@SraSpanglish
@viajando_kj
@Riete
@espanoles2amigo
@SecCottrell
@Zjonesspanish

Great conversations happen quickly on Twitter. Here are some I like to try to participate in:

#flipchat is every Monday at 8EST
#edtech is every Sunday at 8EST
#langchat is every Thursday at 8EST

And of course, there are many webinars available. I have one on November 13, you can register here. I am also co-presenting in December 5th with French middle school teacher Ellen Dill, and you can register here. If you are interested in Project Based Learning, check out this one. You can find a webinar on just about anything if you look. Although I think it is best to do them live so you can ask questions, most are recorded so you can watch them when your schedule allows.

So, now that the weather is turning cooler (it snowed this week in Denver!) cuddle up to your computer and learn something new today!

Conquering the challenges

The last few weeks have been busy weeks in my classroom. Here is a quick recap:

Unit 1, Challenges in Teen Life proficiency assessment (culminating project for the unit - found in important docs) was a mixed bag. In many ways it was a success because the students all worked together to create a project in the target language. They worked over the course of the unit, but the last two weeks were the most intense. It was great to see the students working together, watching other commercials in the target language and creating posters, PowerPoints and videos.

As with most big projects, I realized at the end that I need to explain a few things better. I told them to create "campaigns" for the teen problem, such as "Don't Drink and Drive". However from many I got something that more closely resembled a report on drunk driving. Clearly I need to include a "slogan" portion of the assignment and we should watch examples of these types of commercials before they begin working. Sometimes, explanation just isn't enough. Overall, they were good, and they chose great teen issues and learned tons of Spanish. Next year, I just need to help them a little more with what I am envisioning. I need to give them choices, but still show more examples of what I think it should look like.

On to Unit 2, Fairy Tales and Legends! This is always a popular unit. Again, since the Spanish 2 teacher gave overviews of some of the elements I teach in 3, I still have some students that don't want to do the video instruction, because they "know" the concepts. However, this time I changed the way I did the grammar. It is in three small parts over the course of 3 class days. So, I have had the opportunity to catch those not taking notes, fix problems with irregulars, and then the students have still had another opportunity to practice the work again.We have our first Benchmark Assessment on Monday/Tuesday, and I am hoping that this will help them to do better.

Since last week was Homecoming Week, I had given the kids short Fairy Tale skits to work on in groups, learn and then present. I make the kids memorize their lines, bring costumes, props, etc. They grumble, and some just can't do the memorization, but the skits are loads of fun, and the students really enjoy doing them and watching the other groups. It is one of the activities I never had class time to fit in, that now I can enjoy with my students.

Here are some samples of the posters I received. (Imagine them as billboards!)

Here is a link to a great video that another group of  students did.



Flipped Class progress - I still feel as though this year's classes are not getting as much out of the flip as we did last year. I am adding more fun activities to help them practice, for example we did Scattegories and Speed Dating. However, I am still having trouble getting the students to open up and interact with each other and me. Too many are content to be in their own zone and try to never say a word. I have to change this....but how?? I have been thinking about it for a few weeks, and think I have finally come up with some ideas.

First, I am going move away from the word of the day for a while and give them a speaking prompt of the day. They will need to have at least five minute conversation in pairs at the beginning of every class period. I am going to make each group record their conversation on a hand held recorder. I don't know that I will listen to them all the time (or at all), but it is my experience that if the students think I am recording it they will take it more seriously. I can usually get a good feel for the conversations as I am walking around the room. As far as I am concerned, if they are in the target language and trying, that is good enough for me.

Second, in the next unit, I am moving away from the short stories and going to introduce the readers. My focus here is going to be for students not to translate every word, but to read a few lines, a paragraph, or a section, and then in their group do a quick conversation to make sure they are keeping up with the story. I want to create some type of reading log to have them keep track of this. (Not sure yet exactly what this will look like.) Last year, we began with level 2 readers, and for many of the students, they were too hard. This year, we are beginning with the level 1 readers for the majority of the students. I will start the higher level students in some of the level 2 books. (I love reading because it is so easy to differentiate!) As we have been reading the short stories, I have been talking to the students about  how they felt about each of the stories, and the reading groups are almost forming themselves.

Third, we are finishing the planning of the cross-level shopping project. The upper level students will create "booths" in the plaza, and the level 1 students will "shop". One of my biggest worries for some of the upper level students is that they get so caught up in some of the more advanced vocabulary and grammar structures, that they forget how to do the simple things, like ask how much something costs. I am also hoping that these types of projects will help encourage students to continue learning the language because they will know some of the fun things that go on in the other levels and look forward to them.

Are you a World Language Blogger?

We learn best from our reflections, as all you bloggers out there know. However, we can avoid mistakes and learn from the successes of others too. I want to compile a list of World Language bloggers out there in one convenient place so we can all learn together!

If you are a blogger, please fill out the form below. I will post results on the blog.

Mistakes ....new and old - Reflections on Week 6

This week has been an interesting one. Students have been finishing up required work in class and their culminating projects are due next Thursday and Friday, so they have been finishing those up as well. We should have ended this week with the second benchmark assessment quiz in my level 3 classes.....but we didn't.

Why you ask? Well, I am still not doing a good enough job getting students watching videos and getting work done. I remember that the first unit is a hard one because it is the first time they are expected to learn new material in the flipped classroom. Where did I go wrong? I am not completely sure. At the beginning of the unit, the students watched the videos, did they work (well, most of them). For the second grammatical concept, they all pretty much decided they didn't need to watch the video. The concept is reflexive verbs, and yes, the students have seen some of this before. However, I told them all that there was new information in the videos that they needed to know. Why aren't they listening?

I am concerned that if I can't find a solution to this problem quickly there is going to be more trouble in the future. The teacher that did all of the level 2 last year decided that in addition to teaching his required curriculum, he would teach most of mine as well. I am not sure why. (For you Spanish teachers, this is what he covered in level 2: additional stem changers in the present, preterite, imperfect, the present and past perfect, future, conditional, present subjunctive, in addition to all the vocabulary and smaller grammatical concepts normally covered in level 2.) The result is, I have classes full of students that know a little bit of all of these tenses, are unsure when to use what, and are unsure of conjugations. So, I am going to have to cover these all again in some manner. So, I have to convince students that even if they have seen a concept before, if I am giving it to them again, there is a reason. For example, with the reflexives, I gave them some new verbs that change meaning depending on whether or not they were reflexive.

Now, if you have read previous posts, you know, I believe that if kids haven't done the work and you give them the break and push quizzes back, you are setting  bad precedent. However, when I realized that 80% of my students did not watch the video in all of the classes, I was shocked. I had many who were confused that we were supposed to have an assessment. Well, what was a teacher to do? I could have given the assessment and then spent the weekend grading failing quizzes, only to have to grade many of them again when we did the retake. This sounded like a bad idea (especially since I am behind in grading this week already.) So, I took a look at the schedule and decided I could push the assessment back a day without wrecking other deadlines.

What mistakes do I know I have made?
1.  The grammar practice assignments should be due earlier. In planning I was thinking that giving them more time gave them more flexibility and as long as they had it done prior to the assessment, that was fine. Clearly, that idea isn't working.
2. Even though I found in my notes from last year that we needed to do more fun vocabulary and grammar practice prior to quizzing, somehow, it didn't happen. The students need that to reinforce and continue working with the vocabulary to be more successful on the assessments.
3. A mini-speaking assessment was scheduled during the class period that many of the students were working on the grammar practice. This meant that I was working one-on-one with kids and not able to roam the room and notice that they weren't getting it done correctly the first time - before they finished everything.
4. By not correcting everything as they were going, many students had the entire practice sheet done incorrectly, which resulted in a)I spent forever checking them giving students less time to fix their mistakes in class and b) there were one or two in each class I didn't get to check at all.

Instead of the assessment, I had students write a quick skit with reflexives and vocabulary in groups of three. Then the groups rotated and performed the skits for another small group. It was an informal practice, but it got them to practice the verbs they needed to and reinforce the grammar rules and vocabulary that they needed for the assessment.

As I am finalizing the plan for the Fairy Tale unit, next week, I am going to go back and double check to make sure I am avoiding these mistakes in the next unit.

I am still the teacher! - Reflections on Week 5

The last two weeks have been full of changes. The students, who in the beginning were afraid to talk to me, are now opening up more and asking more questions. I still, of course, have quiet students, but the majority of them are realizing that they need to ask me questions.

Many students quickly decided that they liked being able to email me when they have questions. I was shocked however, when I was receiving emails from students that asked if I could help them in class!!! I am constantly moving through the class, as always, looking over shoulders and offering help and suggestions. The idea that a student thought they needed to ask me via email to help them in class was very disturbing. Especially since, you guessed it, he is a student that when I offer to help him in class says "I've got it."

After talking to the student, and thinking about it, I decided that maybe I still did not do good enough job explaining about the flipped classroom. Or, maybe it is something that needs to be consistently brought up and explained in class. Many students are slowly realizing that I am not a babysitter, I am still their teacher. I can offer help and suggestions. Yes, this is a self-paced class, but I am here to help you every step of the way.

For me, I think I may have began the year well, taking it slowly and reinforcing how things work, but as a little time went on, slipped into my pattern......which was great last year when the kids totally got it. However, these students still need reinforcement and reminding about the process. Additionally, since I knew many of my students last year from lower level classes, the relationship piece was already in place. This year, I have to show them how the new system works while establishing relationships.

We are in full project mode in my class, which has been great. Students are getting that they can run ideas by me, ask me to double check scripts and count on me to answer tough questions for them. I am hopeful that as the project due date nears, this will continue and will help us build the relationship that I want to have with them. I want to be their mentor, their guide, and their student. I want to teach them what I know and have them teach me new things as well. I want to continue to get to know each one of them as individuals so they are comfortable coming to me.

I am excited about these projects as I try to implement project based learning more firmly in my class. Giving the students so much freedom of choice is a little nerve racking (for them and me), but they seem to really be getting into the work. I love that these students listen to me that they should not write rough drafts in English and then translate them....they are in Spanish, right from the beginning.

This group might be my best one yet. And I, as their teacher, can't wait to see it!

Listening Training

Sorry I haven't updated in a while, but it is hard to keep up with the family, class, and the blog. I will try to do better going forward.

We are two weeks into Unit 1. The students are finally understanding the process of the class, (although I did have a student ask me yesterday if class was going to be like this every day). Now, students are learning not about the flip, but about working to my expectations. Since I allow students to work at their own pace through the material, they can do activities when it works for them, and as many times as necessary.

Nowhere is this as apparent as the listening activities. Listening is an area where students struggle. It is something I struggle with as a teacher. How do I help the students progress and improve their listening without them getting discouraged?  I have spent much of the last two days explaining to students that they have to "train" to listen. Just like a kid isn't going to become a star football player without practice, they aren't going to become good listeners without practice.

Today students are working on a listening where two girls are describing their daily routines to each other. It is a slightly longer listening, about 2 minutes, and a little faster than what we have done before. So many of the students listened two or three times, threw their hands up, and just wrote whatever on the comprehension worksheet. As I was checking work, many of them were shocked that I wouldn't give them credit unless they went back and tried again.

It just reminds me of why I love the flip. In previous years, we would listen two, maybe three times, and their either got it or they didn't. I never really got a good handle on who understood what, and some were lost forever. Now, they are able to take a listening, listen to it in little chunks, discuss it with their classmates, and then move on. Obviously listening to conversations fifteen words at a time isn't ideal, but baby steps must come before they can run!

With change comes objections

www.tagxedo.com

Flipping your classroom is a daunting task. It is not easy, takes a big time investment from the teacher up front, and requires patience when it is being implemented for the first time. You may encounter resistance from students, parents, administrators and your peer teachers.  You will experience technical difficulties - both your own and your students. Kids will not magically start doing their homework, nor will they all become fluent language speakers.

So, with all the issues, why would anyone bother flipping their class? The answer for me is easy...because the traditional way of teaching was not working for me or my students. I was spending so much time lecturing and "leading" class, that many students could get good grades without truly learning the material. I had other groups of students that could keep their head down and be quiet, make their "C" and also not really learn much. Then of course there was the third group (albeit small) that just ignored me as much as possible and barely made it through class. This was not acceptable to me and I knew I had to find another way. (see earlier posts for my AP story and thematic units.)

Here is my attempt to answer the common objections:

1. Students won't do the homework. Honestly, this is completely true. Students that continually refuse to do homework in a traditional classroom probably aren't going to do homework in a flipped class. For me, a big difference is that they don't have to do homework. They can plan to watch the videos in class. In fact, I encourage some of my "homework slackers" to do it that way.
2. I will lose my relationship with my students. From my experience last year, and talking to other teachers that have flipped, the complete opposite is true. Since I am not being a "sage on the stage", I am able to work with students individually and actually have better relationships with them now than I did before the flip. When a student was having a problem with content, or a personal problem, I was able to detect it quickly and help the students work through the issues.
3. Parents and students will object. Whenever we try new things in the classroom, the one thing we can be sure of is that some parents and students will object. The key is to try to predict the objections and be ready for them. Start the year by explaining the changes you are making and why you are making them. Everyone fears change. Many parents fear change for the sake of change, especially in education. (As a parent myself, I can attest to this!) Make sure you can justify changes that you are making in the classroom BEFORE you make them. Last year, I had only one student at fall conferences who tried to convince her mother that I wasn't teaching and that is why her grade wasn't where it should be. I had many parents tell me how much they loved the lectures via video because it really helped their student.
4. Peer teachers aren't supportive. I am so fortunate that in my small school with three other foreign language teachers, I always receive support from my fellow teachers. Although I am the only one flipping, I have never heard any of them be negative about this decision. I know that many other teachers are not so lucky. I believe that it goes back to the fear of change. If our peers have been teaching the same way for years and are comfortable, it is difficult to contemplate changing their methods. I think some teachers fear that if the flipped class works for some teachers that they will be forced to make the change in their classroom if they want to or not.
5. Putting lectures on videos won't improve learning. Actually, this is something I totally agree with. However, what many people misunderstand about the flipped classroom is that the videos are a small part of the process. What improves learning is what happens in the classroom once the teacher becomes a facilitator and the students take the lead in the learning process. I have been blown away by not only what my students could achieve at the end of last year, but their motivation was even more exciting. So many times, even my good students think of Spanish is something they have to "get through". Last year was the first time I had many students really start to love the language and be excited about class. That to me is the indicator of true success.

My advice to you if you are considering some type of flipped classroom is to be ready for objections, make sure you are making changes for the right reasons, and then to stay the course. Listen to criticism and learn from it. Get support and advice wherever you can find it...if not at your school, then elsewhere in your district or your state. Work on an online PLN and follow other's blogs, Twitter chats and websites. Continue learning, adapting and striving to be the best teacher you can be....that is true success.

Thanks Karla for inspiring this post! Keep commenting!