3 Skills Every Student Needs (Inspired by Aaron Hogan)

As I prepped to participate in one of my favorite Twitter chats (#tlap), I found a blog post that truly resonated with me on many levels.  Aaron Hogan wrote a post titled, "4 Skills Every Student Needs" that highlighted the importance of the vital dispositions our students accumulate in our classrooms that may never be in our textbooks. I found this to be an especially timely post in light of the tragedies, violence and conflict in our country and across our world. I would HIGHLY encourage all teachers to read his post thoroughly before heading back to school, as the summer can be a perfect time to intentionally map out the "soft skills" we want to prioritize in our classrooms.

Here are my honest reflections after reading Aaron's post:

• My greatest weakness, personally, of the skills he listed is that all too often I tend to disagree with people, not ideas.  Ugh! I hate even writing those words. It is an important distinction that my passionate heart and language-loving-mind tend to ignore.  I want to model this. I want to teach this. I want to find this in more people.
• The concept of seeing multiple perspectives should be an easy fit into a world language classroom!  I love how he mentioned it's involvement in literature, but I couldn't help but think a classroom that elevates learning another's language has to be the embodiment of this value.  This is one way I tried to bring up this skill in class. My inspiration came from articles like this one & quotes like this one...

Find pin here.

• If we do not plan these conversation, they simply do not happen.  After all, they are tricky to write about when I have hours to do so...how much more challenging would they be to suddenly initiate out of no where?  When there is a tragedy in your community, discuss it.  Process out loud with your students in an age-appropriate manner.  Set aside your curriculum and show them that these types of things matter even more than their upcoming vocab quiz.  Be real.  But, in addition to planning conversations around these points in response to an event, we must be prioritizing these lessons this summer for the entire year.  I think we would all agree our job is much, much wider and deeper than our content area.  So, shouldn't the time and effort we put into these lessons reflect the level of importance we claim they have?

Inspired by his articulate reflection of often intangible concepts, I wanted to add 3 skills that I believe every student needs in addition to what Aaron wrote.  So...

3 (more) skills every student needs:

1. Defend your beliefs without becoming defensive.  To do this, students must first and foremost know what they believe.  This might involve researching the issue above and beyond repeating what their parents or more vocal friends have said. In addition, students need the ability to listen to and understand people who oppose their thoughts.  Finally, this skill takes a lot of thinking on your feet!  Being "put on the spot" is stressful sometimes, and a lot of people react by raising their voice, attacking the other person or shutting down. Perhaps in our classrooms we can stage debates and play "devil's advocate" just enough to coach students through these scenarios.  I am a firm believer that after the scheduled conversation or activity is completed, though, we talk to kids about what we just talked about.  Verbally walk them through why you just directed the conversation in that way.  Or, re-frame a point that was brought up so that it really sinks in to the class.  Help them learn to be well-informed and confident enough that they can have conversations about their firmly-held viewpoints without getting their feelings hurt.
2. Ask pertinent, thoughtful, and thought-provoking questions.  To really listen well, understand other perspectives and learn at a deep level, students will need to know how to know what they don't know!  Instead of coming up with the questions to scaffold one of our students to success, why not let another student volunteer that information?  I love trying to peak student's intelligent curiosity as it relates to cultural concepts.  Or, as we often try to fabricate real-life conversations in our language classrooms, let your students gain that practice of thinking and writing deeper questions.  Open-ended questions, by the way.  Opinion-inducing questions.  This is difficult for many people in our native-tongues...even more so as we learn to ask these questions in a different language.
3. Honestly reflect and alter personal weaknesses.  We talk a lot about "self-motivation" or "self-paced" curriculum.  And our culture greatly values independence and self-reliance.  But, in many of our middle school, especially, there are students who have never been taught how to take an honest (read: HARD) look at themselves and evaluate what they should change.  They allow our feedback to replace their own self-evaluation.  We can change this!  This skill can relate to Spanish class (vowel pronunciation, word order), school in general (organization, friend choices) or it can be much larger than that (fitness habits, relationship with parents).  How can we lead students to begin a life-long journey of admitting shortcomings, forming a plan to fix them and persevering until they are no longer problems?

After reading Aaron's post and my thoughts, what would you add?  How are you going to bring up these important topics in your classroom? Let's truly "facilitate thinking, support struggle and engage minds"!

Pin here.

Brave is Vulnerable

As mid July fades to late July, school stuff tends to be on the minds of many a teacher.  While some spend hours prepping their classroom and some pack their summer full of activities they never get to do during the year, sooner or later everyone will be thinking How should I start my year?  What do I need to do to get ready?  What do I want my students to learn from me from day one? And although I really want to write a detailed activity post later, I want to dedicate this post to a larger, more all-encompassing idea:  being brave.

You see, I read this post from Spanish Mama earlier this week and it really struck a chord.  She talks about many different ways that she wants to be brave:  in the classroom, with her children and with Spanish.  She even shared one of my all time favorite quotes:

Because those with accents speak at least one other language better. Think about it.

She caused me to reflect on the ways that I, as a teacher, should dare to be braver.  Ways I should lead by example.  Should set the tone in my classroom not in level of perfection, but in desire to learn.  So, I wanted to encourage YOU to do the same.  Spend time before the school year starts deciding how you are going to be brave in front of your students on a daily basis this year.  In my school we use the terms "growth mindset" and "life-long learner" a lot.  But how valuable are those words if we are not living them out?  Have you shown your students that you are learning something?  That would mean getting up in front of your class and potentially *gasp* making a mistake.  Looking foolish.  As teachers, we should be demonstrating to our students that sometimes being brave is being vulnerable. In language learning, in other classes, in relationships...in life!

Here are some ways to be vulnerable with your students:

• Tell a failure of a study abroad story.   Be specific.  Tell them a time you messed up pronunciation or couldn't remember a word.  Find a picture to go with it.  Don't skim over it:  tell them what you were feeling and how the situation was (or wasn't) resolved.  
• Start fresh with another language. Many Spanish teachers may be at a point where Spanish is second nature to them.  I know I had personally lost part of that frustration or "it's on tip of my tongue" problem...until I tried French. Or Turkish! *face palm*  Then I remembered my frustration very vividly.  Use Duolingo or another tool to try a language you are completely unfamiliar with and then relate it to the issues they are having in your class the first few weeks.  Share with them a few sentences you are learning to say and the phrases that you can never remember.  Tell them how long you're practicing and what your goals are. (You can read how I incorporated Duolingo into a lesson here!)
• Demonstrate a hobby that has nothing to do with your class. Bring in your clarinet or put your hand-lettered canvas under the document camera.  Tell your students how long you have been practicing and show them some before and after evidence of your progress.
• Challenge yourself to really USE your Spanish once a week and report to the class.  I have known many Spanish teachers who are so skilled in the classroom and their level of content, but don't have the time or intent to use their language outside of their school.  Call a friend, go to a local restaurant or volunteer to translate somewhere.  Whatever makes you a little uncomfortable to commit to because you might mess up or it doesn't suit your personality...do it. Then tell your students details of how it goes each time. That's being vulnerable. That's being brave.  

This Pinterest board might come in handy as you push yourself and your students towards braver steps this year.  Maybe you could print one out each week and put it at the front of the class to initiate a class discussion about your individual bravery goals.   

And perhaps the ultimate leap of vulnerability  for a Spanish teacher is the commitment to daily teaching Spanish in Spanish.  Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell posted a really though-provoking article about her position on how much target language should be used in classroom and when/how.  It is definitely worth a read (or two!) as we approach the school year.  It will shake up some of your preconceptions (it did mine!)  I am still working on my position statement and I truly think we all should be.  May we see our role as teacher as a platform from which we can (and MUST) model life-long learning by being bravely vulnerable.

Original pin here.

P.s. The title graphic at the top is one of my favorite examples of being vulnerable.  The girl with her back to us and the girl we can't quite see are two of the students that traveled with me to Spain earlier this summer.  This is a picture of them in El Mercado de San Miguel, Madrid striking up conversation with a woman who was shopping there to ask her questions about why she comes to the market and what her life story is.  Pretty BIG conversation to strike up out of nowhere.  No teacher waiting to help.  No manual on how to go about it.  Just two girls on their first day of language immersion learning being brave by being vulnerable.  And they got an AWESOME story out of it.

My Confession...and Resolution

I guess I have to come clean:  for much of my adult life, I have been a thief.

Probably much of my student life, too, if I'm being honest.

In the name of full disclosure, my stealing was as a result of laziness, not intention.  But, still.  Even just this summer I was regularly in the practice of using images made by someone else and never never NEVER giving credit.  My mind reels to the dozens upon dozens of PowerPoint presentations I have made teaching, the brochures and marketing that I did for our trip to Peru, the countless handouts and worksheets that I have tried to "spice up", and the hours upon hours that I have spent Tweeting or reTweeting something I liked.

So.
Many.
Images.
Used.
"Borrowed."
Stolen.
And no concern whatsoever for citing their origin.

Perhaps that lack of concern is rooted in the fact that I assume everyone feels as I feel.  I have a laid back personality in this respect.  I couldn't care less if someone knew my name or not.  I despise being the center of attention.  I can't think of a scenario where I would demand credit for anything.  Most of the time, I do my best to push credit (even deserved credit in some instances) to others.  I've always found humility to be an attractive quality.

And then Twitter rocked my world in SO. MANY. WAYS.

Recently I over-read (oversaw? eavesdropped? stalked?) a conversation I found to be rude and ridiculous.  Five or six people were ganging up on one individual who had tweeted an image without citing who created it.  They attacked like a flock of vultures who saw an opportunity to pick their prey apart.  Did they have a valid concern?  Probably.  But it's hard for me to hear anything you are saying when you are obnoxiously rude and petty about it.  My empathy is for the other person and you become the bad guy instantaneously.  And then one apparent-vulture-lady Tweeted something to the same effect as the vultures, but with all the emotion removed and just the facts stated objectively. Not vulture-like after all.

@justintarte @stumpteacher @surreallyno Need 2 note it's not yours. Don't share w/o making effort 2 track it down 1st. #digitalcitizenship

— Mirna Jope (@MadameMoodle) July 20, 2015

Their words specifically caught my attention because Justin was Tweeting exactly what I had done/felt before.  I never claimed to create this.  What is the big deal?  Isn't it assumed that everyone "Google Images" what they need and comes up with something they didn't create?  Mirna was Tweeting something so black and white, something I would tell students, and something I myself was not doing. Ouch.  As I searched for more #digitalcitizenship Tweets, I came across this one:

Such a great point! If we don't model, how can we expect Ss to follow #digitalcitizenship #leadbyexample #FPSteach https://t.co/eUpIzGkCe4

— knives chau (@iwearthecrowns) July 7, 2015

OUCH. (Have I said that in this post yet?!)
How can I create projects where I require students to cite their sources if I'm not bothering to cite mine?  How can I expect the librarian to co-teach with me for 2 days to correctly explain the difference between plagiarism and paraphrasing when the remaining 178 days I undermine what she just taught?  How can I continue doing what I've been absentmindedly doing for the past 5 years if I want to improve in so many other areas?

I think the big "AHA!" moment came when one of my blog posts about "Tweachers" really took off.  I mean, "took off" for me.  I posted resources for teachers found on Twitter and all of the sudden some of my educational role models were posting my link on Twitter!  Before I knew it, people I didn't even know were linking my blog post in articles they publish weekly.  For those of you who have largely successful blogs, just pretend you remember what it felt like when you were first getting noticed :)  It. felt. good.  I liked seeing my name next to work that I had put effort into.  I liked getting credit.  I liked people knowing my name because of my work.

Wait, WHAT?!

And all of the sudden, it clicked.  All of the individuals out there who have created visuals, photographed incredible scenes, and come up with ideas better than mine deserve credit for their accomplishments. And that doesn't make them self-centered or rude or demanding.  They don't even have to care about it, to be honest.  It is my responsibility as a professional and as a respectful human being to make whatever effort necessary to give others rightful credit.  In word or in deed.   And I'll be honest, I have very little clue of where to start.

Here are the links I am currently searching to find out more about how to be a more responsible digital citizen and how to teach students about digital citizenship as well.  With more and more schools moving to 1:1, I am realizing how pertinent the need for teachers educated on this topic and actively modeling this topic truly is.  So, feel free to browse along with me if you find yourself in the same boat as I am:

1. Curating vs. Stealing
2. Why Digital Citizenship Should be on the Minds of Educators
3. 6 Resources for Educators
4. Teacher's Guide to Digital Citizenship

My "next step" for the moment is to read through these articles (and more!) for future change, but also change in small ways immediately.  Recently, I have begun just tweeting someone and asking/checking if I have their permission to link something to my blog, Smore eflyer or even in a presentation in advance.  They always say yes, but some do specify "please give credit."  Which I no longer think is self-seeking, but rather a legitimate concern.

I should include that Justin (the man I mentioned who was attacked by vultures?) corrected his mistake for all to see.  I was pretty impressed that someone with his platform for influence would admit an error and post the correction publicly, even when that correction came because of vultures.  And the kind not-vulture lady?  She kept being kind :)

@justintarte @betamiller Thanks for fixing it, Justin.

— Mirna Jope (@MadameMoodle) July 20, 2015

#Teach2Teach Q3: Troubling Times

What has been your most troubling experience with teaching and how have you handled it?

My first year of teaching was a troubling experience. Period.  Not in your typical "first year of teaching" type of way, necessarily. 

I was the second teacher in two years to teach a Heritage Spanish class.  This program was pitched to me as an opportunity for a large percentage of our population who are native Spanish speakers to take a higher level language class that would help them perfect their mother tongue.  The miscommunication among the other teachers in my department seemed to be that the program was also an appropriate spot to place students who had Spanish-sounding last names and who appeared to know enough of the language to become a behavior problem in a level I course.  You can imagine the difficulties that ensued.

Enter me:  5 foot 2 inches of white skin, freckles and red, curly hair.  "Newbie" written all over my lesson plans and shaking hands.  Even worse:  Spanish Spanish instead of Mexican Spanish came from my lips.  Oops.

They ate me alive, to say the least.  Class sizes of 6 and 10 students didn't ease the pain.  It was them vs. me immediately.  My attempts to get to know them, to interest them in learning and to maintain any semblance of order were mere fantasies.  Let alone my hopes of  challenging them in Spanish. HA!  What did I know, anyway? Not much, from their perspectives. They did everything in their power to trip me up, embarrass me and catch me in errors (which I had plenty of, let's be honest).  I think I walked out to my car nearly every evening with hot tears dripping down my face.

Now, don't feel too bad for me.  I am not even a little proud of how I handled the majority of the situations I came across my first year.  I tried to be more "tough" like I saw some of my colleagues being in their classes.  I embarrassed those high schoolers right back to "put them in their place."  I sank to their level of arguments many times.  And, at a certain point, I stopped making rigorous education any sort of a priority and just tried to survive until the end of sixth period. It was a nightmare. Repeat 179 times.

Add to all of this a lack of any sort of administrative support.  Add to this a "mentor" teacher who could not have cared less if I succeeded or failed.  Add to this no written curriculum.  Add to this students who did not have a high enough level of Spanish to succeed.  Add to this students who had a higher level in Spanish than I did.  Add to this the fact that I was simultaneously writing curriculum for a new course in a separate building, traveling there during my prep period and teaching 3 different courses.

I have blocked much of this year from my memory, to be honest.  But I recall a distinct moment around Christmas time when I came home with tears and told my husband, "They honestly hate me.  We are getting nothing done, I have no idea what to do to make it better and they hate me."
Cue dramatic music change.  One key conversation happened about that same time with a student that I would consider one of my biggest disruptions and one of the most natural leaders I have ever seen.  He said something quite rude to me in front of the whole class...to the point that everyone turned to look at me and see what my reaction would be.  I simply stopped what I was doing, maintained eye contact with him for a few seconds and then took a deep breath and began again, right where I had left off.  He interrupted me again, trying to rile me up.  And I stopped.  And I breathed.  And I started over.  We must have done this three or four times before he gave up.  As the bell rang, I asked him to stay after class. He immediately said:  "Oh great, you're mad at me, aren't you?"  Instead, I told him that I thought he was funny.  Genuinely funny. I told him I like him as a person.  And I told him that I could tell that others looked to him and followed his lead.  I told him he singlehandedly had the power to change the culture of our class. I don't know what I said that time that was so different than other conversations we had before, but he looked up at me and said, "You know what, you're actually a nice person.  You're really nice."  And he walked away.

That may sound like nothing.  But to me, it was everything.  And from that day forward, I kid you not, he stood up for me.  When another student smarted off, this student intervened.  He was still rambunctious and crazy, but he never directly defied me again.  He talked to me about his life from time to time and he even listened sometimes when I spoke.  We had some sort of agreement that I didn't mean to make, but it worked.

All that to say, I dealt with this difficult situation by still trying my darnedest to matter to my students.  It was not easy.  And it did not happen daily.  But I tried to show them that I saw them as people even when they did not return the favor.  They weren't really listening to me in regards to Spanish, but they listened to life lessons from time to time.  I gave them more privileges than other teachers I knew because I wanted to show them I respected and trusted them.  I journaled to them.  I talked to them about the work force. I got them involved in our community.  I apologized to them when I messed up.  I freaking hip-hop danced with them in front of the school.  If that humiliation doesn't bond you together, I don't know what will!  To be honest, I think I failed at my job description my first year.  But I think I found a way to still make some sort of an impact on these students.  I pray I did, at least.

And the next year, I promptly reduced my contract willingly to be part of a different program I truly believed in instead of 3 programs I felt under-qualified for.  And that has made all the difference.

#Teach2Teach: Q2: Politics

How do you stay inspired and not get bogged down by the politics of teaching?

Especially recently, this is a very tricky thing for me to do.

This past year our school was given a "D" by the state.  It felt like a punch to the stomach for a school that had been part of a corporation of "A" schools for the previous two years.

I know I must be biased, but my current school is the absolute best building of administrators, and teachers that I have ever been a part of.  Creative, passionate, talented adults truly looking out for students and challenging them to be their best.  All the parts of education I have always longed to be a part of, and none of the stuff I hate.  The despair and discouragement that rippled from this injustice was a knife to the heart.

So, this year, the politics of teaching have taken a front seat, I hate to admit.  Our school has been forced to make decisions that don't put students first.  Our administration has been backed into a corner and our teachers have been pushed to their breaking points.  Inspiration has felt sparse at times.

BUT.  There are still gems of individuals who say the right things at the right times and burst through all that negativity to remind me what is most important:  the relationships we build with students.

If there is one sure fired way to stay inspired and not get bogged down by the politics of teaching it is this:  invest into the souls that are in your classroom each day.  When it seems easy to feel burdened, stressed and overworked by things that are out of your control focus your energy on asking questions of your students. Not "Did you get your homework done?" or "Are you ready for the test?"but rather "What are you looking forward to this week?" and "What inspires you?"  Use your life experiences and perspective to shed light on their emotional disasters and challenge their black-and-white thinking.  Present them with more than assignments.  Present them with challenges and opportunities.  Push the pause button on the all-consuming conversation of standardized testing and offer a handshake and a personal greeting to the shells of people walking through your door.  Refuse to accept the answer "fine" when you ask how Juan is doing today.  Take notice when Melissa can't stay awake at the back of the room.  Congratulate Mitch on winning the geography bee last night.  Double check with Ellie when you notice a pattern of nurse visits right before quizzes.  Channel the energy typically put into teacher's lounge gossip and pointless complaints into how to better relate to and connect with your students.

The politics of teaching could leave me feeling inadequate, undervalued, ignored or stifled.  But the faces staring up at me from my desks beg for more than my wounded ego and victim mentality.  They deserve my fullest attention and energy for the moments that I stand in front of them.

Choose to matter.

#ItGetsBetter

Life in middle school can be hard.

The body is going through the biggest period of development and change next to infancy.  The transition from elementary school to high school is short and intense.  And to be frank, kids can be mean.  

I recently watched an episode of Dateline discussing middle school and high school students who were seeking out plastic surgery due to extreme bullying by their peers. It saddened me so deeply that I couldn't help but discuss it with my students.  I tried to emphasize how temporary this stage of life is, even when it seems unending.  After the discussion, I began to visualize a way of actually showing them how different life can be in a matter of years.  

So, thanks to the Lakeview Middle School faculty and staff, we now have a #ItGetsBetter bulletin board in my hallway.  It includes horribly awkward school pictures of many of my students' favorite teachers.  Scattered among them are pictures of current celebrities when their lives were less-than-glamorous.  Phrases such as "Life goes on" and "People change" give poignant reminders to their readers.  

It immediately garnered lots of attention as students tried to predict which photo belonged to which adult.  Teachers also enjoyed sharing horror stories as they reminisced of their younger years.  It was a lot of fun to put together and I think it did forge somewhat of a bond between teachers and students as they realized we were all once in their shoes.

Nuestro Mantra

"I'm so stupid."

"I never get good grades."

"I can't do this."

"I'm just not good at Spanish."

These are just some of the common tidbits I overhear as a teacher.  At the beginning I used to just say, "Did I say that about you?" and when they answered, "...no..." I would reply, "Exactly.  Because I don't think that." I assumed they got the picture.

But as the negativity began to be more prominent and as I began to read more about fixed mindsets vs. growth mindsets, I realized these statements went much deeper.  No amount of lectures seemed to be getting through.  Time after time students walked into my classroom already defeated because of something that happened at home that morning or in the hallway before class.  I couldn't take it anymore!

So, I drafted what I call our Mantra.  I introduce it as positive brainwashing.  I explain to the students that the words we say over and over again are what we subconsciously begin to accept as truth.  I give them the handout and allow them to practice pronunciation of unfamiliar words and then we go through what the Mantra means.  If I hear negativity from that day forward that affects our class culture, I loudly begin the first line and the students break into a grin as they repeat after me.  In fact, on days when I feel rushed and accidentally forget to start class with the Mantra, I have multiple students who interrupt me and say "You forgot our Mantra, Maestra!" Sometimes as a quiz or test is being distributed they ask to say it one extra time "for good luck."

Lately, students have been asking if they can say my part and be our Mantra leader for the day.  I take a seat in their desk and shout the student part as loud as I can..."Puedo alcanzar mis sueños poco a poco empezando con mis decisiones HOY!"