senoracmt

What do you want to change this year?

I start school Monday morning and I am so excited to go back! I get a huge adrenaline rush from all of those new school supplies and first day Spanish 1 students! Their enthusiasm on day 1 is so high! They are in Spanish class an they’re going to learn some Spanish!!! This year, I want to keep that first day high going all year! 🙂 lofty goals!

Last year I began with Ben Slavic’s circling with balls and it was GREAT! We had so much fun and I bonded with my little freshies right away! How can I make the year an all around bonding fest? 🙂 I wish there were a perfect formula!

So what do I want to change? I think that every Monday I want to just ditch the plans and talk about the weekend for as long as they are willing to keep up the input! I think that by the second week they will be able to talk a little about what they did and it’s great exposure to the past tenses in context! (prepping for Houdini by the end of week 6!)

I think that in the upper levels I’m going to channel Kristy Placido and bring in more authentic texts in the form of authentic lit, connections with organizations overseas, and commercials…

Hope back to school is a wonderful time for everyone! Looking forward to hearing about your plans!

As they say on “meet the Robinsons,” Keep Moving Forward!

Published by senoracmt

I began teaching Spanish in Illinois in 1994. I have taught levels 1-4 in a small rural high school, 8th grade introductory Spanish, Biology 1, and 101 and 102 at the community college level. My Spanish classes are partnered with the community college to offer students 8 semester hours of dual credit on completion of Spanish 4. In 2011 I met Carol Gaab and Kristy Placido and have since co-authored the book "La hija del sastre" with Carol Gaab and authored the novels "La Calaca Alegre", "Bianca Nieves y los 7 toritos." "Vector," "48 horas","Bananas", "Sostenible", and "Papálotl" through Fluency Matters. In 2006 I became National Board certified and I have been serving as a mentor both for candidates seeking certification in world languages other than English and a virtual mentor for candidates in all certificate areas. I completed my Masters degree in Spanish education in 2011 and did my research on the use of Understanding by Design to create meaningful cultural units for the language classroom. I am a frequent presenter on this topic, please consider me if you are interested in a workshop on backward design. In 2013 I was named the ICTFL Foreign Language teacher of the year and in 2014 I was selected as CSCTFL's teacher of the year. In November of 2014 I was lucky enough to be one of the five finalists for the ACTFL National Teacher of the Year in San Antonio, TX. What a "Cinderella" experience! You can reach me via email at carrie at somewheretoshare dot com.

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