senoracmt

Three Snow Days!!!

I think that no matter where you live, the weather does its thing and causes unexpected issues with school. For me, in the midwest, Winter Storm Blair has just dumped 8 inches of snow on my area and we did not get to return from Christmas break. Monday we had a traditional snow day, but yesterday and today we have been on eLearning.

As a full-year class teacher, I am getting a few transfers into and out of my Spanish 2 from the other teacher, but I don’t have any brand new classes starting. I really feel for my colleagues who are starting a new class outside the classroom!

I had a great winter clip chat that I use with my level 2s, but I needed something to use with my level 3s! I found this cute Simon’s Cat video (are you following Simon’s Cat on YouTube?? You should be!!) and made it into an intermediate clip chat for my 3s and 4s. The GREAT thing about a clip chat whether you’re in class or on eLearning/Sub Day is that once you’ve talked students through the clip, there are SO MANY FOLLOW UPS that they can do independently that give them exposure to the structures you’re teaching in the video and immerse them in language! I made a little 11 minute video of myself doing the clip chat last night, now they can watch that and do a follow up today and whether we are in school or at home tomorrow, we can just keep on following up our video!

Find our freebie here.

And if you’re looking for something for your novice level kids, we have Lily and the Snowman in Spanish and French (perfect for level 1) or Saving Simon (Spanish only for now) for level 2!

Hope the winter weather is treating you better than us… or that you’re a big fan of snow and love having it on the ground as long as possible. As for me and my summer heart, we are going to just hope for sunshine and warm weather to hurry back! 🙂

Happy New Year, happy new semester!

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" "Vector," "48 horas", "Bananas", "Sostenible", "Tucán", and "Papálotl" through Fluency Matters and Wayside Publishing. In 2006 I became National Board certified and renewed in 2016. 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. Please contact our info@somewheretoshare.com account with any questions you have about the curriculum or PD@somewheretoshare.com with questions about professional development opportunities.

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