June 1, 2019
The assessments are given and graded, the farewells made, the photographs taken, the materials packed away, and it’s time to sign off, from school, yes – but from what else? This will be my third summer (mostly) taking the months of June and July as an opportunity to go quiet on the blog, to prepare […]
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August 3, 2016
For those of you who are still avoiding Twitter to streamline your social media life or for whatever reason (I know you’re out there!) I have good news – you don’t have to join Twitter to leverage it as a resource for your teaching, and WOW what a resource it is. Twitter is tailor-made for comprehensible authentic […]
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October 13, 2015
Here begins a flurry of posts related to my presentations and workshops at the Texas Foreign Language Association’s conference this weekend. First, our workshop (by our I mean I’m doing this with Amy Lenord, John Cadena, Melissa Vargas) on Thursday night is called Twitter 101 and is about how and why to get involved with a professional […]
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April 17, 2014
In a recent focus on social media and political upheaval, I needed an interpersonal communication activity that related to the issues. I needed to present students with relevant authentic material to spur conversation. I needed a way to monitor what they were doing. I wanted it all to apply to the focus. And so, TweetFest […]
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April 4, 2014
If you’re interested in the kind of professional development where: you suggest the topics you vote on the topics it’s no big deal if you don’t show up it can be life-changing when you do show up it grows your personal learning network by leaps and bounds every time if you don’t like the topic […]
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February 8, 2014
This post from last year was a popular activity for Spanish class. Enjoy! ——— A while back, a hashtag hit the trending topics on Twitter in Mexico: #quierounnovioque. I used the program Archivist to save the tweets and export them to an Excel file. I often do this if the teaching value of a particular trending […]
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January 3, 2014
After you’ve decided which research-based book to read, how about resolving to collaborate with another teacher on something? My second suggestion for a 2014 resolution is: 2. Collaborate with another teacher on a project. One of my mottos is that collaboration is the 21st-century skill. Wow, what a wide world is opened to us now! My […]
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March 8, 2013
This is the third set of tips to avoid burning out in communicative teaching. Check out “Burning out or burning bright?” and “More tips on avoiding burnout” for more help on how to stay sane and effective at the same time. Develop a strong personal learning community. I can’t handle too much social networking. I’ve […]
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February 13, 2013
A while back, a hashtag hit the trending topics on Twitter in Mexico: #quierounnovioque. I used the program Archivist to save the tweets and export them to an Excel file. I often do this if the teaching value of a particular trending topic hits me. In this case, the tweets were full of subjunctive used because […]
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July 2, 2012
When people ask me what I do, and I tell them, I always get an interesting response. After all, I suppose I am in kind of a unique situation – my primary responsibility is Spanish department head and Spanish teacher for advanced electives, but I do spend quite a few minutes a week teaching my […]
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January 6, 2012
Free Ebook for WL educators
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Our generous friends over at Calico Spanish have put together a free resource for you! Sign up today to receive Web Tools for 21st Century World Language Classrooms. This free e-book is an organized, user-friendly collaboration based on past Twitter #Langchats related to using web tools to enhance and develop all sorts of language acquisition […]
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October 26, 2011
Learning from #langchat
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If there’s one big principle I’ve learned over the past 10 years, 8 teaching and 2 in grad school, it’s that good teaching isn’t magic. Sometimes it looks like magic, but it’s not. Sure, some people just don’t have the personality or gift of explanation to be a teacher. But some very gifted people have […]
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