El último día

Ayer fue mi último día en el colegio. I got thank you cards from all of my classes, and it was really nice to read all of the comments.

Some of my favorites:

"Hola! Thank you for being an amazing teacher! Good luck in the future! You will make a great teacher :)"

"Thanks for being our great teacher and your support and help for us to learn Spanish. I appreciate that. We'll miss you so much."

"You were so helpful and a great teacher. I understood everything you taught in class. You were very helpful at Smart Lunch too! Thank you!"

Some of the more hilarious ones:

"Thank you. I wish you were my teacher." Oh darling, what would you call the past 6 weeks?

"Thank you for teaching us even though we weren't the best kids. You will be missed!" 

"Thank you for teaching our class! I will miss you putting sad faces on my homework log." (she never did her homework, lol)

"Should of stayed. Now I won't pass lol." (He wasn't passing when I was there, I don't know why me leaving makes that much of a difference... lol)

Oh, they gave me trouble some times but I'm gonna miss them :')

Middle School Visit

Today I went to visit Amber at her middle school! She taught Spanish 2 and 3 during her semester, and it was nice to see some of the kids she taught. They were so well behaved and interested in speaking/using Spanish, I couldn't believe it. As her CT explained, in a magnet school like theirs, with so many electives, they tend to get the kids that want to be there instead of those that "have" to, so that makes it better. Still, it was wonderful to see students that wanted to learn and were easily answering the teacher's questions and participating. They did a fun activity that was "speed-dating" style: 4 rows of students, given a topic to talk about with their partner for 2 minutes. After the time was up, the teacher threw a stuffed tiger to a student, who then had to answer the prompt for the class. Then they kept it as the students moved over 2 seats. Again, 2 minutes to fulfill the prompt, then the student with the tiger threw it to another student (on the other side of the room, preferably) to give an example for the class. It was meant as practice for the placement test that students will have to take if they want to get credit for Spanish in high school, but it was just great speaking practice in general! Amber and I tried out some of the prompts ourselves :) I really enjoyed my visit!! Thank Amber!!

Well everyone, yesterday was my last day of being in charge of classes. Although I dropped Spanish 4 last week, I stuck with both Spanish 1's until the end of the chapter, which was yesterday. I always have mixed feelings about test days. They're nice because you're not leading the class, but they can be just as stressful because you have to keep your eye on them at all times to make sure no cheating is going on. The test I wrote had about 10 sections, one of which was a speaking part where they had to go in the hall with a randomly assigned partner and make plans for the weekend. I haven't listened to them yet, but here's hoping they did okay!

Today I am grading these tests, grading some compositions, and observing my CT starting Chapter 5. I wonder how the students will deal with switching teachers again? For Spanish 4, it was more of a gradual change, but because of time constraints, I just have to drop Spanish 1 cold turkey. It is nice to be in the background again, though.

Today I dropped Spanish 4 and man, it's nice to have some more time for catching up. I love Spanish 4 and I love the type of work that they get to do, but I really need to focus on finishing out Spanish 1. For example, this morning was kind of pathetic as far as lessons go. Most of it had to do with the fact that I planned too much for yesterday, so the beginning of the period was playing catch up. I wanted to do a speaking activity and work on an essay as well, but 2nd period only got so far as planning the essay. THEN, I forgot to make some kind of graphic organizer to make it easier, and I wasn't exactly sure of what I wanted in the essay... I shouldn't be making these kinds of mistakes at the end of my teaching semester! So, luckily I had time to draft up an organizer for 4th period, and my expectations are much more defined now. Unfortunately this means I have to play catch up again with 2nd period so that they can be on the right track for the assignment. This was a great example of how poor planning just makes more work for you in the long run... ugh.

Almost done with today, just hoping that 4th period goes better than it did yesterday. My last Tuesday of teaching, woo!

Oooh boy. Today was interesting because my CT was absent and we had a sub come. By having a sub come, I mean I basically locked the man in the teacher's lounge because I was not about to let my Spanish 1's know that she wasn't there. Lucky guy got paid to sit around and read a book all day, haha. I was super nervous about not having my CT to turn to if something went wrong, but after I calmed down I realized it wasn't that much different from the other days when I'm basically in the classroom by myself with the students. 4th period was nuts today, but the ones who acted up are paying for it with lunch detention...

This is my final full week teaching, and I'm letting Spanish 4 go officially on Wednesday, although I'm sure it will be mostly my CT who does the talking tomorrow. I'm relieved because now I don't have as many preps to plan for, and I've got to get through Chapter 4B with Spanish 1 this week, then up until they take their test on Tuesday.

Tomorrow, we've got a LOT of speaking practice and a the beginnings of an essay, plus some more new stuff to learn that, because of their behavior today, we didn't get time to do today. Ugh. We are all in for a crazy week...

Remind me to let you guys know how Spanish 1's cooperative learning groups went today (hint: GREAT!), but for now I have a mountain of work to do before I can even think about getting some sleep. Thank God tomorrow is Friday.

Hello world! Today started off icky, but got a lot better. I feel like the more depressed/nervous I feel in the morning, the better the day ends, or the more excited/happy I feel in the morning, the worse the day ends. So, I've come to mildly enjoy being grumpy in the mornings for that reason, haha.

Spanish 1 was learning about para + infinitives, continuing with question words, and working on stem-changing verbs again. They also had a vocabulary quiz. 2nd period was frustrating because I had 2 kids who were the biggest Negative Nancys ever. One of them, I'd go by and tell him to start working on the warm-up, and all he would say was "but I never do those!" Yeah, I know. I manage to get him to take a notebook out and he just sits there, like taking a notebook out should get me off his case. I don't think so! He also sighed and moaned through the whole quiz, then was trying to look on some other person's quiz, so I took his up. Finally I had to just send him out of the room, although upon talking to him later, he had no idea what he did wrong. Kind of impressive how someone can be so unaware of their own behavior. After he left, the whole atmosphere of the class got a lot better though, so I hope they feel prepared for their quiz on stem-changers tomorrow.

Again, 4th period was on top of their game, answering my questions relatively easily, working hard on their work, everything! If you had been there Monday, you would not have thought this was the same group of students. Tomorrow we're working on a reading in cooperative learning groups, as well as a drawing activity (trying to incorporate more learning styles and different ways of expression), so I think that should be fun :)

Spanish 4 was good. There warm-up was kind of fun, where they had to chose a topic about what they would do if... they were the president of the US and wanted to make citizens' lives better, or what they would do to prevent their child from growing up to be a criminal (we've been talking about juvenile violence). It's a good chance for them to be creative while using si clauses.

We also have a "Lab Day" every Wednesday where the students must direct themselves to complete assignments and mastery tests of grammar concepts throughout the semester. It's really quite a genius idea that my CT set up, because it's one less day you have to plan for Spanish 4, and the students have deadlines to meet with the assignments, so they're always working diligently. So, I got caught up on some grading (although there is still PILES of things to work on) and wrote some quizzes.

The time between the end of school and about 6pm always seems to fly by the fastest. I do try to leave by 6 because I'm secretly afraid that I'll get locked in the school (not that it would matter that much cuz I live there anyway). Still have some grades to finish up tonight, but I feel prepared for the lessons tomorrow. Yay!

Ay ay ay

It has dawned on me that I had completely forgotten about this blog for the past month or so... Oops. Seriously, things have been crazy, but I regret not writing my thoughts down, because it would've been nice to go back and see how I felt as it was happening (although I'm sure you could track down my fiance or friends if you want a full recounting, because goodness knows I ranted to them enough). So, I have about 2 weeks left of student teaching, therefore I will try to recount every day in order to make up for lost... entries. Well, at least it will be a nice way to look back on my days.

We are in Chapter 4A in Spanish 1, and today we talked about question words. We made a big chart on the board with all of our question words, talked about which ones had elements that would transfer to the answer (ex. ¿Con quién? is going to have "con" somewhere in the answer), came up with sample questions and the corresponding answers for them. For guided practice, the students were given sentences and told to fill in the missing question word based on the context. Then, they had some independent practice with a communicative "fill in the gap" activity. 2nd period was dead asleep (despite my efforts) for most of the period and so struggled with the speaking task, but 4th period was on top of their game and they found it fairly easy. We also watched a video from the textbook series that featured kids from Spain, and the students thought their lisping was hilarious. So now, I told them, they can tell if someone is from Spain by the way they talk!

In Spanish 4, we wrote summaries of No oyes ladrar los perros using vocabulary words and without looking at the book, learned about si clauses (si yo fuera tú, lo haría; si hubiéramos tenido el dinero, habríamos ido a España), talked about an online blog assignment in Spanish, and introduced a new project where they have to write their own song using all of the subjunctive clauses. A full period, to say the least! They were giving me evil eyes by the end... well, it is an honors class!

I also had a meeting with my supervisor and we mapped out all of the things I need to cover in or before my final observation. I have about 8 things to secure, but hopefully they won't be too difficult to fit in.

Sadly, today was my last day actually teaching Spanish 4. I will be supervising them until next Wednesday, but there isn't any more new content that I have to teach. Sad :(

Spanish 1 tomorrow will be working with para + infinitive constructions, continuing with making questions, and stem-changing verbs. And a vocab quiz! We sure do have a full week.

ACT testing today, so I'm cart-bound. Even though my CT has left me in the classroom a few times by myself, this is the first day where I'll really be in charge. I hope I'm properly prepared. I definitely have a great respect for teachers who have a "mobile classroom." This is not fun.

1st week of... 2 classes!

Wow, what a week! Despite my plan to only be picking up one class this week, I am now in the full swing of teaching both of our Spanish 1 classes! I took over 2nd period on Wednesday in preparation for my observation (which happened 4th period), but it went so well I decided that I would just keep on with 2nd period, since I was going to take them over next week anyway (and they were significantly less shocked about it than 4th period was). I'm glad because this means I will probably try to take 3rd period over (Spanish 4) sometime next week, so I'll finally have caught up with the rest of you teaching your full load :)

Here's our schedule in case I'm confusing you:
1st period - Planning
2nd period - Spanish I
3rd period - Spanish IV
4th period - Spanish I

Some highlights from this week:
- Caught some cheaters on a big assignment, which was followed by a very strange parent-teacher conference (in which the parent refused to believe that their child had cheated when the evidence was staring them in the face... people really amaze me sometimes)
- Had my first observation and it went awesome (I'm still reeling over how good they were... hopefully it's not my only good observation though, haha)
- Taught part of Spanish 4 on Thursday
- Intro'd vocab today and found out how exhausting that can be

So, little by little I am gaining a lot more confidence as a teacher. We'll see how well that translates once I'm teaching lessons that are completely my own!

1st week of my own class

Well, technically I took over 4th period on Friday, though I feel like they've been mine the past week anyways.

Friday had some bumps in the road because my CT left the room (hers and my decision), whereby the students decided that they were starting the semester all over and did a lot of the same behaviors they tested my CT with at the beginning - loud, obnoxious, out of their seats, asking to go to the bathroom in the middle of lessons, and just generally being rude. Luckily we did get through my lesson (and once the CT came back in things calmed down - a little). I was a little flustered after that... I'd never had them act that bad before :\ Today we're starting off class with an announcement that if you ask me to go to the bathroom in the middle of instruction, I'm going to say no, no matter how much you whine and complain about it afterward. Wait till an activity.

On the flip side, this morning I did the warm-up and homework for 2nd period and they were lovely!  I appreciate the calmness, haha.

Today was kind of a weird day for me. I was prepared to go up and teach my half of 4th period, but I was feeling reaaaaally sick (feverish and nauseous), so my mindset was kind of "get this over with and you can go take some Nyquil or something." Usually I have crazy nerves before going in front of the class, but I guess I was too preoccupied with not fainting. Anyway, I think coming in at the end of class is much worse than starting class because it's 4th period and the students are itching to leave, so they weren't that good for me today. In fact, my CT reprimanded them at the end and made them apologize for behaving inappropriately while I was trying to teach. The funny thing was, although I appreciated the apology, it didn't really phase me that they were being so bad. I guess that means I'm a little over the stage fright? We'll see.

Ohhh Spanish 1. Sometimes I love 2nd period and hate 4th period, sometimes I love 4th period and hate 2nd period. It all depends on the activities: if it's interactive and requires you to participate, 4th period is awesome; if it's studious, 2nd period is better. I think the hardest thing for me is making sure kids aren't sleeping. It's easier if they're just not on task, but when they're not being disruptive, just being lazy/sleeping, I have less motivation to mess with them. I still do, but grrrr, after so many times of talking to them about it, it's so tempting to just let them do their thing. It's not like we haven't warned them... the worst part is, most of them are repeaters. Don't you want to pass this class so you can move on? Geez.

/rant

Conociendo a los padres

First Meet the Teacher Night! Not that big of a turn out, but it was nice to see some of the parents (I could definitely see the resemblance to the child in each of them). Everyone was quite pleasant and it was nice to be able to introduce myself in person instead of simply through the letter I sent out. We talked about our expectations for the class and our experiences thus far, as well as our reasons for speaking so much Spanish (oh boy, wait til I'm on full time...) and resources that the students can use to succeed in our class. One parent seemed happy when I told her that I knew other languages and I was going to bring some of my language-learning strategies and techniques to the classroom. It really is a system! So, today was tiring but it definitely ended on a good note :)

Español 4

Ooh, it's driving me crazy when the Spanish 4 students are still talking in English. Even when explaining things amongst the group... even if you don't know all the vocab, work around it. I feel like I'm saying "español por favor..." and "no quiero oír inglés..." nonstop. Well, I feel bad because it's not yet "my" class, but they're capable of expressing themselves fairly well in Spanish, and this is their one chance a day (for most of them) to practice. Frustrating!

martes, período en el cual encontré un poco de valor

So! With my new-found courage, I asked my CT if I could be in charge of an activity for today. In Spanish 1 classes, I taught the names of the months using construction paper w/ images & words on opposite side (they were finishing up the alphabet and learning dates today). I made the connection between los días y la semana y el mes, which my CT went over, and held up a card: ¿Qué mes es? They said English name based on the image on the card, then I turned the card over to give them Spanish name and had them repeat. 2nd period was not so enthusiastic, but 4th period already knew some of the Spanish names! I was so impressed :)

Some pointers my CT gave me:
- don't be afraid to make them repeat (even if they start groaning, haha)
- use a louder voice (born with a mouse voice I'm afraid...)
- cue into writing the months in order with class help
- cue into seasons
- cue into how to write the date, then give them an example & an exercise

The cues were what my CT ended up doing (although I did do the writing the months in order thing in 2nd period) because I seem to have a hard time keeping the steps of the lesson straight. Honestly, I was just so happy with how quick they got it I was like... ok what do I do next?

Some other things to keep in mind from class for vocabulary introduction:
1. present
2. check for comprehension
3. don't jump straight to production

We also had an AMAZING speaker come today who really inspired me to want to try immersion again. From now on I'm going to try to speak exclusively with the students in Spanish, which will take some good planning, but will help them and me a lot. I know I always hated it when I had a language teacher that used too much English, but I realize not everyone is a language nerd like me, so I was trying to compensate for that. Armed with some more knowledge about immersion, however, I'd definitely like to give it a go. :)

Who's ready for a great week? :)

Dudas y temores

Okay guys, time to get honest here. I was about thiiiiiis close to giving this up all together. My first couple of days standing up in front of the class didn't go so well, and worse yet, I shifted into panic overdrive. I was having severe stage fright, which is kind of strange given I used to act and sing in front of people all the time, but I think having all eyes on you and not being sure how the students will react or who's going to test you, plus being responsible for discipline was waaaay too much pressure for me.

Luckily my friends and family pushed me back in the right direction to see that my expectations were a little too high. Although the experience of conducting parts of the lessons on my own the first few days may have been necessary, I also think I was asked to jump in the deep end before I knew how to swim yet. So, my new strategy includes getting to know the students on a more individual basis first (walking around, monitoring, praise, giving help). Then my CT and I will move to teaching lessons as a team, kind of like ping-ponging back and forth so that the students need to pay attention to both of us. After that, we will start doing a lesson where she does 90%, I do 10%, and work our way up until I have 100%.

I also have to work on a persona for when I'm teaching. I really can't be Rebecca up there or I'll feel like finding a nice hole to crawl into. I have to be Srta. Kaylor, who wants these kids to learn but ain't messing around.

So, I don't really know that I want to be a teacher after this, but I'm going to get through and give it my all while I'm here.

First day of the new semester tomorrow! First week: laid out. Seating chart: made. Worksheets for the unit: printed. I'm very excited because I get to take over at least one activity every day. By excited I mean super nervous, but I'm hoping the more I do it, the less nerve wracking it's going to be. Well, hope everything goes well tomorrow :)

El inicio

Bienvenidos a mi blog! I am a new student teacher who will be using this blog to chart my progress into the crazy world of teaching high school Spanish. Seeing as how I chose to start this blog in the limited time before I have to go give some Spanish 2's the oral section of their final exam, I can't write much, but I will check back in later. Saludos y bienvenidos!