There are so many people with so many great ideas on the web, but the challenge can be to find them. As a follow-up to my article on blogging for the CCFLT newsletter, I wanted to share some of my favorite blogs, not just for World Language, but for Technology and Education in general. The people that write these blogs are full of passion and great ideas and quite often have solutions and ideas to problems that I am facing in the classroom. I encourage you all to check them out.
The Creative Language Class - The teachers that write on these blogs are fantastic. They are full of great, real-world ideas for Spanish class, especially Spanish I. They also share some of their great assessment tools and rubrics.
Flipping with Kirch - Yes, this is a Math teacher's blog. She has so many great ideas and has inspired many of the philosophies that I employ in my flipped class. It is definitely worth checking out.
Calico Spanish - This blog is full of great ideas for the classroom and collaboration. They also house the archives for the #fliplang chat on Twitter which is another valuable resource.
Center for Applied Second Language Studies - The title says it all. This blog is full of great resources for all language teachers. There are writing prompts, conversation starters, and much more!
Free Technology for Teachers - Need I say more? Free and technology...some of my favorite words in English!
Kleinspiration - This teacher is at the lower levels and has great ideas that apply for all Foreign Language teachers. She also sponsors giveaways from time to time.
Sra. Spanglish Rides Again - This blog is from a fantastic Spanish teacher that uses PBL in class and has loads of other creative ideas for her classroom. Don't miss this one!
Hopefully this gives you a good place to start when following blogs. It is so easy to follow and well worth the while. If you know of other great resources, please share them. If you are starting your blogging journey, share that too! I love finding new resources.
Friday, October 11, 2013
Saturday, October 5, 2013
Blogs: Powerful Reflection and Sharing Tools
This is a copy of an article that I wrote for the CCFLT October Newsletter:
Three years ago, when I began flipping my Spanish classroom, I also began another project – a blog. With a new classroom format, new students and all of the craziness that comes with the beginning of the school year, I realized that if I was going to keep track of my successes and failures in the classroom, I needed to start documenting them right away. I love my paper and pencil as much as anyone, but I wanted an electronic method to keep track not just of what was going on in my classroom, but online resources I found along the way.
With very little knowledge about actual blogging, I jumped right in. I looked at a few other blogs for some ideas on the basics and set up a blog website. My writing was for my own reflection and documentation of my classroom when I began, so I just wrote without regard to anything else. I did not write on any set schedule, I wrote when I had something I wanted to get out and had the time. Frequently, while writing about the day-to-day of my classroom, solutions and ideas would reveal themselves. Blogging has also allowed me to vent my frustrations from the classroom in a productive way.
After a couple of months, something surprising happened. I received a comment on one of my posts! I was shocked. Someone was actually reading what I was writing? Now of course I knew that what I wrote was on the Internet, but honestly did not think that anyone would find what I had to say interesting enough to be bothered reading, let alone making a comment. With newly found purpose, I began to write more regularly and share my blog on websites and with other teachers. I write and share about sessions I attend at conferences such as CCFLT, ACTFL, AATSP and others so that teachers that are not fortunate enough to attend these great events can gain some insight into all of the great ideas shared at these events. As a result, not only do I have an archive of my day-to-day classroom and conference notes, I have a huge cadre of teachers that have helped me and/or been helped by what I have written.
So now I issue the challenge to you, my fellow CCFLT members. Start a blog! Keep track of your ideas, successes and challenges, not because we have been mandated to reflect, but because we want to. We all want to continue to improve as teachers, and taking the time to share our classroom stories is a great way to do that. You will be surprised how helpful it can be, and I am sure when you start receiving comments and realizing that people from around the world have read your blog, it will empower you as it has empowered me.
Where to begin:
Reflection on what we as teachers do in our classroom is very important. Utilizing technology to help keep your reflections documented and organized is almost a necessity today with all of the demands of the classroom. A blog is a great tool not only for your reflections, but to share them with others. Please feel free to check out my blog at www.spanishflippedclass.blogspot.com and send me a link to your new blog. I can´t wait to start sharing and learning with you!
Three years ago, when I began flipping my Spanish classroom, I also began another project – a blog. With a new classroom format, new students and all of the craziness that comes with the beginning of the school year, I realized that if I was going to keep track of my successes and failures in the classroom, I needed to start documenting them right away. I love my paper and pencil as much as anyone, but I wanted an electronic method to keep track not just of what was going on in my classroom, but online resources I found along the way.
With very little knowledge about actual blogging, I jumped right in. I looked at a few other blogs for some ideas on the basics and set up a blog website. My writing was for my own reflection and documentation of my classroom when I began, so I just wrote without regard to anything else. I did not write on any set schedule, I wrote when I had something I wanted to get out and had the time. Frequently, while writing about the day-to-day of my classroom, solutions and ideas would reveal themselves. Blogging has also allowed me to vent my frustrations from the classroom in a productive way.
After a couple of months, something surprising happened. I received a comment on one of my posts! I was shocked. Someone was actually reading what I was writing? Now of course I knew that what I wrote was on the Internet, but honestly did not think that anyone would find what I had to say interesting enough to be bothered reading, let alone making a comment. With newly found purpose, I began to write more regularly and share my blog on websites and with other teachers. I write and share about sessions I attend at conferences such as CCFLT, ACTFL, AATSP and others so that teachers that are not fortunate enough to attend these great events can gain some insight into all of the great ideas shared at these events. As a result, not only do I have an archive of my day-to-day classroom and conference notes, I have a huge cadre of teachers that have helped me and/or been helped by what I have written.
So now I issue the challenge to you, my fellow CCFLT members. Start a blog! Keep track of your ideas, successes and challenges, not because we have been mandated to reflect, but because we want to. We all want to continue to improve as teachers, and taking the time to share our classroom stories is a great way to do that. You will be surprised how helpful it can be, and I am sure when you start receiving comments and realizing that people from around the world have read your blog, it will empower you as it has empowered me.
Where to begin:
- Choose a platform – I use Blogger which is a Google product, but WordPress is also another very popular platform. I am sure there are many others as well, but these are very user friendly.
- Set up an website for your blog – It doesn´t have to be anything fancy, but it should be something easy to remember and share. Look at other blogs for inspiration and ideas. Start writing – Just write that first blog post. Write about what is going on in your classroom or what you are planning. Just dive in and get started.
- Share your blog – We all learn so much from one another. Take your time to share what you are doing and what you have learned. Share on Edmodo, Edutopia, and other websites as well as in person.
- Read and follow other blogs – Once your blog is up and running, you will see how easy it is to follow other blogs. Read and keep up with what other teachers are doing. Don´t be afraid to reference their blogs in your posts.
Reflection on what we as teachers do in our classroom is very important. Utilizing technology to help keep your reflections documented and organized is almost a necessity today with all of the demands of the classroom. A blog is a great tool not only for your reflections, but to share them with others. Please feel free to check out my blog at www.spanishflippedclass.blogspot.com and send me a link to your new blog. I can´t wait to start sharing and learning with you!
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Flipped Out September - Assessment time for Spanish II
This month rivals April for how fast it goes. I really want to be posting more often, especially about my Spanish II class, but finding the time has been a real challenge!
We completed the review unit in Spanish II, and are almost to the halfway point in our first unit - Where I live. The kids are starting to really understand the system, but so many are struggling with basics that they should have learned in Spanish I. We spent four weeks reviewing conjugation and vocabulary while working on listening, speaking and reading skills. I had decided not to give them a formal assessment for this review, and now I think that might have been a mistake. There seems to be so much that I feel like they should know that they do not, and now I am left trying to figure out how to solve this.
To preface, I just gave my first Benchmark Assessment, which is a short assessment which tests vocab and grammar. It is designed to see how the students are progressing on their way to the Summative Unit Assessment. First, I was surprised how many are such poor test takers. The vocabulary section was fill in the blank sentences, and they had a word bank. Now, this is very different from the Spanish I ¨kill and drill¨ daily quizzes that they are accustomed to. So, I anticipated some issues. However, what is wrong with students that leave half of the section blank when they have words to choose from? It is very frustrating.
Now, in these sentences, they are expected to conjugate the verbs correctly, make adjectives agree, etc. Is this too much to expect from a Spanish II student? I expect this from my Spanish III students, but I think that if they students are ever going to learn how to choose the right vocabulary and use it appropriately, they have to be held accountable somehow. Unfortunately, this accountability comes in the form of grades. I wish I knew some other way to make students see why it is important. Now, they don´t lose much credit, just 1/2 a point on a 2 point question.
Their lack of studying well always leads to other conversations with students, like how to study. It is amazing how many students feel that just staring at a vocabulary list for ten or fifteen minutes is studying. And for me, what else do I need to do to help them ¨get¨ the vocabulary? They do some written practice, listening practice with the words, reading with some of the words, Google Voice prompts for speaking with the works, and online journals where they need to use some of the vocabulary. At what point does it become their responsibility? Should we be doing more bell-ringers with the words? I want them to be successful, but I also think that it is their responsibility to learn vocabulary. Still searching for new and better ideas to help my students succeed. Ideas welcome.....
To preface, I just gave my first Benchmark Assessment, which is a short assessment which tests vocab and grammar. It is designed to see how the students are progressing on their way to the Summative Unit Assessment. First, I was surprised how many are such poor test takers. The vocabulary section was fill in the blank sentences, and they had a word bank. Now, this is very different from the Spanish I ¨kill and drill¨ daily quizzes that they are accustomed to. So, I anticipated some issues. However, what is wrong with students that leave half of the section blank when they have words to choose from? It is very frustrating.
Now, in these sentences, they are expected to conjugate the verbs correctly, make adjectives agree, etc. Is this too much to expect from a Spanish II student? I expect this from my Spanish III students, but I think that if they students are ever going to learn how to choose the right vocabulary and use it appropriately, they have to be held accountable somehow. Unfortunately, this accountability comes in the form of grades. I wish I knew some other way to make students see why it is important. Now, they don´t lose much credit, just 1/2 a point on a 2 point question.
Their lack of studying well always leads to other conversations with students, like how to study. It is amazing how many students feel that just staring at a vocabulary list for ten or fifteen minutes is studying. And for me, what else do I need to do to help them ¨get¨ the vocabulary? They do some written practice, listening practice with the words, reading with some of the words, Google Voice prompts for speaking with the works, and online journals where they need to use some of the vocabulary. At what point does it become their responsibility? Should we be doing more bell-ringers with the words? I want them to be successful, but I also think that it is their responsibility to learn vocabulary. Still searching for new and better ideas to help my students succeed. Ideas welcome.....
Monday, September 2, 2013
Loving Flipping 2.0!
So, I wouldn't be me without a quick note about how excited I am to finally hold Flipping 2.0 in my hand. I had such a rough week this week, and I have to say getting those books in the mail was the highlight of my week. I know I have been working on this project for a while, but it honestly did not feel real until I held the book in my hand. I feel so privileged to have been asked to participate in this great book and I am so happy to count all of the authors as not just members of my PLN, but friends as well.
I hadn't mentioned to the majority of my co-workers that I was working on this book, and I loved the look on my principals face when I showed it to him. I am not usually a big seeker of the "gold star", but I have to admit in this case I was really looking for it and was quite pleased when I got it. I would love to say that I have read the entire thing, but with all of my new responsibilities at school this year (Junior Class sponsor, Student Council) and the fact that this week is my wedding anniversary, it hasn't happened.
I am looking forward to reading it all, and I am pretty sure it will happen this week! Yay! If you are looking to purchase your copy, you can click on the link on the right. Don't miss out on this great resource for everyone that is flipping or thinking about flipping their class.
I hadn't mentioned to the majority of my co-workers that I was working on this book, and I loved the look on my principals face when I showed it to him. I am not usually a big seeker of the "gold star", but I have to admit in this case I was really looking for it and was quite pleased when I got it. I would love to say that I have read the entire thing, but with all of my new responsibilities at school this year (Junior Class sponsor, Student Council) and the fact that this week is my wedding anniversary, it hasn't happened.
I am looking forward to reading it all, and I am pretty sure it will happen this week! Yay! If you are looking to purchase your copy, you can click on the link on the right. Don't miss out on this great resource for everyone that is flipping or thinking about flipping their class.
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