Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell
December 5, 2012
It pays to have a focus
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When I first started teaching, if you had asked me what my one goal was in my Spanish class, I think I would have answered, “To get through the book.” We used a college textbook at the time, divided into two years. In Spanish 1 and 2 in my classes, we finished the entire book […]
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October 25, 2012
Best and worst games I’ve seen
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I don’t think many teachers truly believe that having fun is the only prerequisite to learning. Even with my preschoolers, whose teachers I often tell that our 20 minutes may look like chaos but is really learning through play, I have to carefully structure our fun in order to maximize acquisition. So why does it […]
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October 12, 2012
Using authentic materials is an ideological battleground for language teachers. No matter how much people agree that it’s important for all levels, I still seem to hear so much uncertainty as to how to do it, particularly for novices. –But what if they don’t understand? What can they do with it? How can we help […]
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September 26, 2012
Success with Stations
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We did it! Under much inspiration by @muchachitaMJ and @viajando_kj (with Megan’s presentation on stations the only general session I was able to attend at KWLA 2012), this week we did a stations day for the first time. Overall it was a great success, more so in Spanish 3 than in AP. Here’s what I learned. […]
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September 23, 2012
More student choice in homework
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Are you using or considering using the weekly student choice homework idea? Check out the 35 awesome new options suggested by attendees at my recent session The Choice is Theirs at the fall conference of the Kentucky World Language Association. Have students talk to Siri or make travel reservations online (up to the payment part, […]
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September 22, 2012
Here is the Prezi for my presentation about student choice in homework and assessment for the Kentucky World Language Association’s Fall 2012 conference. For more information, see the original post It’s time for them to use their time, as well as Design your own final exam and the Google doc of my class’s weekly activity […]
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September 21, 2012
Here’s the Prezi from my presentation at the Kentucky World Language Association, Kick the Vocab Quiz. For all my posts tagged ‘vocabulary,’ click here.
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September 17, 2012
At the beginning of the year I was curious what problems or dilemmas people were facing this year. @lintperez commented her current challenge is “trying to get ready for standards-based grading and everything that comes with it!” What standard are you using for your lesson planning and assessment? Here are some “standards” I have used […]
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September 6, 2012
Fun activity #7: Conecta cuatro
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Last year I blogged about what a boring teacher I really am and how I was inspired by some conference workshops to make things more fun in the classroom. This is the seventh post on the activities that came out of those experiences: a twist on “connect four.” Students hate vocabulary. And if you’re talking […]
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September 4, 2012
A song for feelings
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One of my students actually brought to my attention this new Reggaetón sensation, Joey Montana. La melodía had become one of her favorite new songs. I ended up adding him to my Pandora station (linked at the page footer). So the other day one of his new songs came on: Sin ti. It strikes me as […]
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August 31, 2012
Screencast: Edmodo
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Have you heard about Edmodo? Not sure how it works or whether it’s worth exploring another social media platform? Give me five minutes to show you how I use Edmodo in my classroom. We now use Edmodo for blogging-type out-of-class social interaction in grades six through twelve at my school. A couple things I didn’t have […]
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August 28, 2012
Myth #7: Spanish Mike is a taco.
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It’s about time I picked up the task of finishing my myths posts! For the original post, click here. Myth #7: Media produced for language learners counts as authentic materials (or, “The ‘First Semester of Spanish Love Song’ is the best video ever!”) Most media in the world language classroom is a taco. It’s not just […]
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