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.

Teach by Video

¡Buenas noches a todos!

I QUICKLY wanted to share a great resource with you tonight.  I know many of us have tomorrow off because it is Good Friday, and for some that will start Spring Break, too.  Perhaps over your long weekend and/or break you could check out this website and see how it could benefit your students.

Introducing:  Language By Video!  This website has a tab labeled "Countries."  From there, you can click on any Spanish speaking country and pull up a list of videos (sorted by Spanish level) that people from that country have made.  For example, I used this video when I met with my class who was preparing to go to the Dominican Republic and knew from past trips that conversations in the markets were challenging.  The video is extremely short and is conducted completely in the target language.  Out to the side, they have a transcript in English and in Spanish of what is being said.

Overall, I think this website provides a lot of videos I hadn't found on YouTube that show authentic, country specific language being used in a variety of contexts.  Other than that, I have been a bit disappointed in the other resources (or lack thereof), but I think experienced teachers can come up with ways to use these videos as the basis for discussion, as a quick warm-up or intro, or even as a homework assignment after a lesson.

Take a look and let me know what you think! 

World Language Week: Celebrities & Languages

For the third day of World Language Week 2016, I wanted to point you in the direction of some great Youtube videos to play in class this week.  What makes them great?  They include some famous actors, actresses, singers and professional athletes speaking a variety of foreign languages.  In my experience, many students were familiar with the people...and very surprised at what was coming out of their mouths!

• Sandra Bullock speaks beautiful German at an awards show.
• Gwenth Paltrow speaks Spanish.
• Bradley Cooper does an interview in French.
• Natalie Portman speaks Hebrew.
• Kobe Bryant does an interview in Italian.

And, just for an example of something we want to avoid...Selena Gomez speaking English in a Spanish interview about how important the Hispanic culture is to her...*face palm*

Last year, I enjoyed playing clips of these videos in class and having the students then say who the person was and what language they thought they heard (I would cover up anything that gave that information away).  Then, we discussed why these people would spend the time and energy learning a foreign language and how it helped them in their career. 

Try them for a few minutes in your classroom and see if students who typically aren't as engaged, lean in a bit when someone they know is on the screen.  For another way to get your students invested in your class, ask them to find a different video of a celebrity speaking a foreign language and bring it in to the class with an explanation of why that language helped that celebrity.

**Fair warning, I only showed a minute or two of each video, so I cannot vouch that 100% of the video is school appropriate.  Please view all videos before showing them to your students.  Always **

World Language Week: Cultural Breakfast

This year, World Language Week is being celebrated from March 7-13.  Maybe you didn't even know it existed?  Me neither just four short years ago.  But our department truly embraced this opportunity to show students how vibrant and vital languages can be in our world.  Read more about our activities, competitions and projects to get ideas for your school!

One of our most popular traditions in the World Languages Department is DEFINITELY our Cultural Breakfast.  It takes a lot of work in planning, but if you delegate well and promote it like crazy, it is definitely worth every minute and cent you put into it.  It can boost the notoriety of your program, but more importantly it can also be a unique way to expose students to authentic foods and customs.

We picked Thursday morning, March 19, last year.  We asked teachers, staff members, community members and parents to contribute anything they could.  We raved to the students about how delicious it would be. And then...we shopped and cooked and baked and decorated!

The main objective:  Introduce students to breakfast foods and customs around the world.  To do so, we asked each language teacher to contribute something from their target language/culture.  In addition, we reached out to teachers who travel frequently, ESL teachers, and our social studies teachers who incorporate a lot of cultural information into their classes.  Many hands make light work, as the saying goes, and without so many helpers there is NO feasible way to do this.  Some volunteered to purchase store bought items, some asked local restaurants to donate in exchange for advertisements and some cooked up their concoctions on their own time.  For those who aren't so handy in the kitchen...we also asked for plates, cups, silverware, napkins, water, hot chocolate packets and people to help serve.  Everyone can help!

The menu over the past three years has included the following items:  tortilla española, French baguettes with jam or nutella, Chinese assorted breads, Chinese noodle salad, clatites, naranjas preparadas, French quiches, Peruvian parfaits, Mexican chilaquiles con huevos, churros, magdalenas, pan dulce, Chinese dumplings, taquitos, doughnuts, biscotti, Indian doughnut holes, Indian chickpea bread, arroz con leche, and more.  To drink we normally provide water, orange juice or hot chocolate.  The items are labeled with names and the culture they are from.  We have also learned it is much easier to have the teachers serve the items so we can control the portions initially. Plus, it gives us a great opportunity to greet the students in our target languages!

Here are some logistical tips, from someone who has learned the hard way more than once:

1. Plan ahead. Like months. Email and check in person to follow up.  We meet face to face once ahead of time just to triple check.
2. Publicize!! Get it in school emails, over the morning announcements and show videos like these two (2nd video has "a*s at 2:03 but is generally unrecognized because of everything else that is going on)in the days leading up to it in class.  The more students have friends going, the more students will show up.  So get them excited!
3. Know people in your building who can help.  Our head custodian provides large serving tables, extension cords/surge protectors and extra trashcans.  Our cafeteria manager provides hot water carafes, chaffing dishes and a case of individual sized orange juice cups. Two teachers who have connecting rooms let us use their space to eat/serve.  Many times the resources to help you are there, you just need to know who to contact.
4. Have students sign up in advance.  To limit numbers, we require students to get rides before school (not ride the bus).  We also have them sign up and receive a sticker for the back of their ID card so that they can get in the door on the morning of.  We have even played around with the idea of charging students and collecting it for our World Language Club budget or to give to a local charity, but we haven't done so yet.  The bottom line is your teachers and community members need to know if they are making food for 15 students or 200.
5. Have adults serve. Have adults mingle. Have adults. Lots. Period. 
6. We don't infringe on class time.  That would do more harm than good for our department.  But if you are, make sure first period teachers know that ahead of time.  We tell students to get there with enough time to eat and get to class on time. (Our school day starts at 7:35 so breakfast is served at 7:00am)
7. Prepare a simple slideshow to have in the background as students are eating.  We have trivia questions about breakfast traditions/foods around the world as well as how to say "Good morning", "Breakfast" and "Delicious" in each language. You can even turn on some authentic music!
8. Have "Thank You" signs in all represented languages and take pictures of students holding those signs and stuffing their faces.  Then, print cheap "Thank You notes" and distribute to servers, cooks, and support staff.
9. Apply for grants.  You can get teachers and staff reimbursed for their contributions to your meal...that might make you even more likely to get more volunteers in the future.
10. Invite the big wigs!  Have your administration and Central Office staff come and see what your program does for students.  They love free food, and you might love the publicity!
11. Take pictures. Post them on your school webpage, give them to your yearbook editor, put them on your class Instagram and save them for publicizing for the next year.

You might be thinking:  It's way too late to plan something for next week, Maestra! Agreed. Don't do that.  But it's not too late to organize something small for the last part of the month.  Your school can adapt to create its own World Language Week at a time that doesn't interfere with standardized testing.   This year, I am helping out at the high school's breakfast that will be taking place March 30.  I'll be posting pictures and reflections after that!

Do you do something similar at your school?  If not, what would you bring?

Leading Through Languages: Workshop Reflections

This past Saturday, Warsaw Community Schools hosted its first ever "Leading Through Languages" workshop at Warsaw Community High School. It took place from 9:00am-12:30pm and was FREE for Warsaw teachers (PLUS it earned you 3.5 professional growth points!)  This workshop excited me from the moment I heard about it because it was born of the collaboration and brainstorming of two dear colleagues:  Mr. Christopher Hindsley and Dr. Shu-Chun Tseng.  They dreamed up this conference declaring,

"Our mission is to inspire teachers by sharing global stories, equip teachers with skills and techniques to implement in the classroom, and enrich teachers by building a global community of educators."

Our wonderful sponsors & the door prizes.

Mr. Hindsley & Dr. Tseng introducing the day.

It was obvious that the day was going to be well spent when I received an email that I could go at 8:30am if I wanted coffee and pastries.  Most teachers might shy away from earlier Saturday mornings, but for a stay at home mom with a Hubby on baby duty:  Get me there as early as you want and get me some caffeine! Sounded glorious.

I immediately got the chance to connect with friends and colleagues that I haven't seen much of this school year.  It was so good to catch up with them and get a chance to "relax" with them throughout the day.  I was very impressed with the turnout that the workshop had:  administrators, music teachers, history teachers, language arts teachers, college students, stay at home moms, media center specialists and world language teachers were ALL present for this day of intentional learning.

**Conference Pre-face:  This Mom was on the verge of tears, literally the entire time.  Hearing life-changing stories and experiences from extremely invested educators and parents left me wiping my eyes for THREE.HOURS.**

We registered, received a folder from Manchester University stuffed with a notebook, a feedback form, a school map and the breakout session offerings and descriptions.  A few minutes after nine, the keynote speaker Kondo Simfukwe was introduced.

I was familiar with Kondo from hearing him speak at Grace College chapels when I was a student, and listening to him preach when I was church hopping around that time, too. However I did not know his entire story, and the way that he told it made him a riveting keynote speaker.  He was born in London, grew up in Zambia, attended high school in Australia and then moved to Winona Lake, Indiana for college.  The man has known culture shock, language diversity and plenty of stereotyping and misunderstandings.  He challenged us to go "Beyond the Cultural Veil", explaining that "it is amazing what happens when understanding takes us behind the veil of what someone did to perhaps why they did it."  Kondo went on to give three specific things that he wishes his teachers would have understood about him as a minority student.  These thoughts really challenged me as an educator to think of how my own cultural experiences have tinted how I view student's behaviors:

1. "I had a very low self-concept.  But I wasn't disinterested."  He explained that he felt fortunate simply to have the opportunity of an education, and would regularly claim he understood when questioned, rather than make the entire class stop for just him.
2. "I am completely people focused.  But, that doesn't make me lazy."  Project deadlines were difficult for him to meet because he valued conversations and relationships over all else.  
3. "I am community-oriented.  So, I'm not motivated by grades or GPA." Teachers tried to hold grades or class rank over him, when in reality no one tapped into his true motivation:  how he was impacting the entire class.  

Kondo challenged me to see behaviors (especially those of middle school students) as less of fully informed, intentional decisions and more as a product of their cultural experiences.  He reminded me that my students might not even be able to perfectly articulate their cultural understandings:  "By the way, that's not how culture works.  I don't go around saying 'this is my culture and I experience it sequentially in this way'...it's just who I am." Kondo made me want to be more curious and observant of my students' lives and hear more of their personal stories that undoubtedly impact their daily life in my classroom.

From there, we went to four different breakout sessions. Some were an hour long, but most were half an hour.  

I chose to attend Christopher's first session:  Connecting Cultures; A French & American Exchange Program.  He talked about the program he has helped to grow between a French high school and Warsaw which involves a three year rotation of a student exchange for two years followed by a group exchange the third year.  My favorite part of this program is that it is a true exchange:  each year the French student(s) come to Warsaw in the fall (six weeks as an individual or 10 days as a group) and each spring our students go to France for the same amount of time. Christopher really inspired me dream about what a Spanish exchange program in Warsaw could look like.  I started envisioning a two country program one day where we could send students to Ecuador one year and Costa Rica the next and then our group trip could alternate between the two.  I think this would so highlight the cultural differences, accents and country specific vocabulary that we can't properly cover in our classrooms.

Mr. Hindsley is difficult to capture not-moving in a picture ;)

A formerly un-motivated student's words about the exchange program and its impact on her.

A parent's words about how the program impacted her child.

Christopher reminded me that "our job is to infuse their day with culture, even if they can't get their passport or fly across the ocean."

Next, I attended Harrison Elementary teacher Deb McClintock & Harrison Elementary Principal Lee Snider's session:  Sister School Partnerships. I had worked in Warsaw during the process they were presenting, but I was completely unaware of all that they had accomplished!  Deb described how she had been intrigued by Asian cultures as a young child, and saw an opportunity to get paired with a Sister School in China thanks to a program called Global Indiana. She even got to visit the school, which happened to be in a prestigious resort community in China.  Lee then informed us of the logistics of scheduling the Principal of their Sister School's visit and planning a group visit for Chinese students to Warsaw as well. It was fascinating to hear how a group of elementary aged Chinese students came to our small town in Indiana, stayed with host families in the area, attended classes at Harrison and tried to live the life of our students. I got emotional (not the first time during the workshop) hearing how not only our students were impacted, but also their parents and siblings as well by getting to know people from across the world.  The difference between this program and the exchange program was that none of our Warsaw students have thus far visited China, but that is still a dream in process.  I am so excited to hear how this program continues to grow!

Lee's quote really struck me when he said, "Regardless of what our students later hear in the media, they can be grounded by knowing they have a friend in China who is a good person."

And Deb's dream deeply resonated with me when she said, "I want our students to have early exposure to other cultures so that their 'little antennas' are up and we can help make the world a smaller place."

Deb (in red) and Lee (center) were a great team.

Lastly, I went to an hour long parent panel of international or adopted students discussing the difficulties they have had in our schools. It was comprised of two local teachers who have adopted children, a parent who has an adopted child in our schools and an international parent who moved to Warsaw for work, started his family in our town, and has gone through the culture shock and stereotyping alongside his daughters.  It was (again) an extremely emotional experience for many of us as we saw their pain and concern about the difficult transition that their students have made in their young lives and how their peers and teachers have impacted that. There were 3 main questions that each panelist answered, and then the time was opened up for all of the teachers and administrators to ask additional questions.  The parents' vulnerability and transparency was inspiring as they bared their family's business to all of the strangers in the room for the betterment of our entire community.  I was so humbled and inspired.  I came away with a few key revelations that could impact how I interact with international students and families in the future:

1. "If you see something extreme or inappropriate, contact parents right away."  Many parents highlighted how the family may be trying to intentionally work on a behavior issue at home, and although it may not appear to be worthy of parent phone call home, always over communicate.  These parents have years of teaching and communicating to make up for and they need all the 'head's up' they can get.
2. "Just because he's speaking English well, don't assume he can read at that level."  As a language teacher I feel like I should not have been so surprised by this one, because we all know that different aspects of language develop differently.  However, it struck me as such a delicate matter when the student could potentially be so well incorporated socially, and yet be quite behind academically.  It also really convicted me as a language teacher that the students who do the best assimilating to our country are the one's whose verbal skills develop quickest.  Why is it that in so many of our classrooms the verbal skills are the ones that we sacrifice so that our students can 'master' accents and reflexive pronouns?
3. "In groups, put him with the higher functioning kids so he can model both their behavior and their language."  Sometimes this is counter-intuitive.  And different groupings serve different purposes.  However, there are definite times when international students or ESL students could benefit from being placed in a group perhaps they are not "ready" for.

The panelists sharing with us about their family's varied experiences in our schools.

We rounded out the day by returning for door prizes and a final word from the committee.  One of the questions (that, in my opinion should be on EVERY conference evaluation form!) was "what session would you like to see offered in the future?"  It was fun to brainstorm about different colleagues I know who could offer wisdom in this setting, and even dream about what I might have to say one day.  It intrigued and frustrated me that the conference claimed to highlight languages, but in an effort to include teachers from many content areas it ended up focusing almost entirely on cultures (valid, and extremely important, mind you).  My biggest hope for the future of Leading Through Languages is that we find a specific way to incorporate language development, language reference, and language pedagogy specific sessions.

All in all it was an INCREDIBLE first workshop. I came home eager to talk my husband's ear off about all that I had learned and organize my four pages of handwritten notes, quotes and ideas. This one will definitely be on my calendar for future years and I can't wait to see how it grows.  On Twitter, many educators tweeted pictures, quotes and reflections under our previously established corporation wide hashtag:  #WCSmission.

Dia de los Muertos

You know you're a Spanish teacher at heart when...

you get WAY more excited about Día de los Muertos than you do about Halloween.

This can be a fun holiday to decorate for, talk about, and compare and contrast with students.  However, if you teach in a small town, rural, conservative area of the MidWest like I did, it can be a tricky conversation to have with parents.  In this post I have included not only cultural ways of bringing this holiday to your classroom, but more importantly ways of making that culture real, vivid and meaningful to your students instead of trivial facts for an upcoming quiz.  After 3 years of slow progress, here are some of my best...

1. Pan de Muertos:  I suggest coordinating with your Home Economics teacher ahead of time so you can be in the kitchen on the day you do this activity.  Otherwise, I have had the students do the process and then I have run down to the ovens to bake it for them to pick up later.

2. Altares en clase:  Set up a table at the front of your classroom and have students contribute items.  You can take pictures in front of it, use your Spanish to describe the colors and components and even use it as a prop as you discuss important vocab (see number 5!)

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/4d/71/32/4d71323aa5d00ef9fbe1beca6f29a0f6.jpg 

3. Parent Email:  I highly suggest emailing parents a letter a few days before you discuss or participate in these events. Include what your plans are, give them a few details about the holiday and its cultural significance and offer them an opt-out if they are uncomfortable with their student participating for religious reasons.  I also recommend cc'ing your principal or mentor teacher in that email to keep them in the loop.

4. Papel Picado:  Buy cheap tissue paper, download a few patterns and collect as many scissors as you can.  When your students are finished, you can string them together and decorate your classroom or even the hallway!

5. Vocabulario:  There are all kinds of words you could teach your students related to these customs and this holiday.  Perhaps you want to put the ball in their court?  You can have your class contribute words they think are important, instead.

6. Videos:  Search for tactful, interesting videos that you could show to introduce this holiday or to help students visualize how it is celebrated.  This is my favorite one I have found:

7. Venn Diagram: Throughout the week, no matter what activities we did, I always had a Venn Diagram printed on neon cardstock and in my students' hands before the week began.  All throughout the week, each video, activity, reading, etc I would ask them to pause and write down two facts, or one observation comparing and contrasting Día de los Muertos with Halloween.  At the end of the week you could add this to their portfolio, display them in the room, or take them for a grade.

8. Fotos:  One of my favorite activities was to have students bring in a picture of someone who meant a lot to them that had passed away.  We got in small groups of 3-4 people, and used our basic Spanish to tell their name, relationship to us and one thing that defined them.  If they wanted, they could then describe this family member or friend in greater detail.  Students always enjoyed honoring someone's memory and as a teacher it was an EYE OPENING activity into the lives of my students. When I talked about my grandmother or a high school friend who had died, my students were not only engaged in the language, but connected with me on a personal level as well.

9. Decorations:  Add a few of these  infographics in the halls or near your desk to get students curious.  I laminate mine and then file them for future years!

10. Even More:  Where do I go when I need more inspiration & resources?  AMY LENORD'S PINTEREST OF COURSE.  Check out her Día de los Muertos board for many more goodies. And here for some additional authentic resources!

Top 5 Spanish Foods to Bring to Class

Many of us Spanish teachers would claim that culture is one of our favorite parts of language teaching.  We desire for students to truly grasp how different countries and people groups live and work and eat and dance and dress.  Most of us fell in love with our target language through a cultural experience.  Our most vivid memories of using our beloved language probably involve being in a restaurant, our study abroad years, riding public transportation or asking questions of strangers; diving into the culture that surrounded us.

And yet, many of us have also felt the pressure of the upcoming chapter test or the need to stay on pace with the project we are doing with our team teachers.  And somehow, sadly, culture often takes a back seat.  Or gets left behind altogether. At least I remember those moments very vividly from my first years teaching.  I desired so badly to make culture less trivial facts and more real life experiences, but it was challenging and I failed many times.

So, here's one way to bring culture front and center in your Spanish class.  BRING FOOD.  I know, I know, we already contribute more than our share of hours and dollars, but the reason I am introducing these foods specifically is because they can take as much or as little time as you have to put into them.  They are foods my host mom served regularly in Spain (hence "Spanish", please let's use that adjective correctly :) ) in 2010 and 2011 and they are foods that are easily transported to class and split many ways.  My "go-to's", if you will.

**Recipes/videos are linked to the names of each dish**

1. Tortilla Española (O Tortilla de Patata):  This is a simple dish with really 3 ingredients, and yet it is all over the place in Spain.  You do have to master the art of flipping the tortilla, but if I can do it, so can you!

You can cut it into whatever shape/size is easiest for you!

An electric skillet is a great way to transport/warm tortilla.

If you don't want to worry about silverware, use toothpicks!

2. Pan con Aceite:  Easy. Peasy.  Get some crusty baguettes from your local bakery/grocery and bring out the olive oil (yes, poor quality compared to what you can feast on in Spain).  A couple of loafs go a very long way.  Maybe even try a little bit of Queso Manchego  on the side (a little pricey in the USA) or sprinkle some Parmesan on top!

3. Naranjas Preparadas:  A familiar fruit done differently.  Slice the oranges, drizzle the oil, sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top.  No cooking, baking, nothing.  Sticky, yes.  But they make your classroom smell great and about 99% of your students will love them.

                   

4. Pisto Manchego: Best prepared the night before and brought to school in a crockpot, from my experience.  You will need a variety of veggies for this dish, and I recommend bringing bread along.  My grocery store carries pre-cut, pre-seasoned little bite size garlic toasts, so I buy a $3.99 bag of those and the crockpot goes a very long way!

This is one of those recipes that I change each time I make it.  My favorite includes eggplant!

To show you the little garlic toasts I was talking about :)

5. Patatas Bravas: Always a crowd pleaser.  Buy frozen potatoes to fry or dice up your own.  The beauty is is the salsa brava.  I normally put it on the side (although in Spain its all over the top!) for the students so they can just dip them in it.  Not to brag, but these have literally brought students into my classroom from the hallway during passing periods, so you know they smell great while cooking!  I recommend electric skillet plugged in at the back of your classroom so they're nice and warm.

Lovely picture by cooksipgo.com

                                       
There you have it! Five simple, easy and diverse authenticly Spanish recipes to bring culture to life in your classroom.  You can easily tie these in to adjectives practice (deliciosa, horrible, etc), food and ingredient words (go through the recipes together), or set up an food cart simulation where students have to read a menu and ask questions about prices in Spanish before ordering.  Get creative!  And let me know what your students think of these dishes.

World Language Week: Talent Showcase Project

World Language Week was nationally celebrated this past week (March 9-15).  However, our school corporation will be celebrating this coming week (March 16-20) and I could not be more excited! Every year it seems this celebration gets bigger and bigger within our World Language Department (high school and middle school teachers).  I will be posting our schedule, events, and reflections eventually, but today I just wanted to share with you the project my students have been doing in preparation for WLW.

Thanks to one of my awesome colleagues, we started our World Language Talent Showcase project back in February.  The main objectives of this project are...

1. Students demonstrate their talents and interests.
2. Students teach classmates about another language or culture.
3. Student work and projects will advertise World Language Week and the World Language Department in future years.

It began with students choosing a talent of theirs.  Some chose writing, playing an instrument, painting, creating a website or making a 3-D model.  We had a wide variety!

Then students brainstormed ways of using that talent to teach their classmates about another language or culture.  For example, students wrote a letter to a family member in Spanish, played the national anthem of Mexico, painted a Frida Kahlo/Diego Rivera tribute mural in our Media Center, collected helpful links regarding sports' stars from Argentina and created a replica of a terraced farm from Peru.

Once that was decided, student chose whether their project would be in the form of a product or a presentation.  Products are going to be displayed in our Media Center all next week for others to enjoy, and presentations will be in front of our class on Thursday and Friday.

On the day we introduced the project, I handed students these guidelines.  We spent just one day researching information in the computer lab, and the remainder of the project was completed on their own time.  They created their own due dates along the way and monitored what materials they would need and when.  Two weeks before presentations were do, they submitted a one page "Content Connection" paper which justified their choice in project as vital to a language or culture in some way.  

This coming week products will be displayed in our Media Center for other teachers and classes to learn from and check out.  We will have contributions from at least 6 different Spanish classes and one Latin class.  The French and Chinese classes may contribute as well.  Late in the week, those not submitting a product will verbally present to their classmates.

I hope to learn a lot from my students, get to know them a little more in the process, and create lots of resources for future open houses and publicity of the program.  Stay tuned for more details throughout the week!

#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.

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!"  

Cultural Lenses

This activity was something that came up during curriculum planning with another teacher in my corporation.  We wanted to come up with a visual for our students to help them better understand what culture is and how our cultures define us.  My favorite thing about teaching a 9 week exploratory course was that we got to dive into topics like this one.

I started by asking students to define the word culture.  We listed topics on the board such as ethnicity, religion, foods, clothing, language, etc.  After we had a good working definition, each student received a handout that had a large pair of "Cultural Lenses" on it. We discussed how our culture is similar to a pair of glasses we put on each day when we wake up.  The rest of the day, everything we see, everyone we talk to, and every interaction we have is colored by the way we were raised and our definition of "normal."  So, inside their "Gafas de Cultura" students tried to depict their own personal culture, including each of the categories we listed on the board.  They could use a mixture of pictures and words to more accurately define what makes them unique and what affects the way they view the world around them.

How do you discuss topics such as stereotyping, racism and cultural awareness in your language classroom?  Do your students come from similar or diverse cultural backgrounds?  I'd love to hear about your experiences!