It's been a while....

Ok, I have a confession to make.  You might have noticed I've been AWOL for the last year.  Guess what?  The first year teaching is TOUGH (I'm sure that's no surprise to anyone that's already been through that).  Not to mention coaching XC for the first time, being asked to do the yearbook just before Christmas break, and a whole slew of LIFE.  At the risk of sounding unprofessional, I frankly got my butt kicked. But, I survived.  And I learned SO much. Now that the school year is over and my summer classes are coming to a close (adding another endorsement), I really should let everyone know what I've been up to.  However, I've been putting it off - do I really have anything worth sharing?  I came into this year with guns blazing hot from grad school feeling like I would change the world.  As it turns out, what changed the most this year is me.

However, as much as I realized I have to learn, there are things that I've learned that might be of value to others.  Somehow, without a single tweet in the last year, people are still finding my blog and tweeting about it.  Thank you :)  So, I guess I'd better stop procrastinating and let you all know how all my ideas worked out.  It's going to take a number of posts, but here they come.

Get rid of the desks!

Over Spring Break, I had the opportunity to observe a French classroom that did Organic World Language.  While there are still some things I'm hesitant about with the method, I did get a huge takeaway regarding classroom organization.

I've never been a fan of desks.  They're in the way, clunky, and hinder true interaction.  This is a major point of the OWL method.  So what do they do?  Students stand or sit in a circle!  The desks are gone.  Students are all able to see and interact with one another as well as the teacher.

I decided I had to give this a try in my own classroom and did so as soon as I got back.  My initial thought is that I love it - suddenly, my students who don't usually interact are in the front row and able to participate - many of whom did so on their own.  They're able to see what's going on with everyone else and comment on it.  I can see all of them and move freely about my classroom - as can they.  With only two people next to them, classroom management is easy enough to simply ask someone to move to another part of the circle.  We can act things out in the circle or I can bring people to the middle.  If I write something on the board (which is kept to a minimum), students can move around to see it clearly.  No more heads down on desks or texting/reading under desks - and definitely no sleeping!

I can see a few clear issues that are easily solved with the right resources and classroom management techniques - both of which are going to be difficult to adjust in the final quarter of the year, but not impossible.

1. Students want to sit down - I don't see this being as much of an issue when the standard is set at the beginning of the year.  I also think that high schoolers will accept standing up for an hour better than middle schoolers since it's simply what has to be done.
2. Leaning - Students migrate towards areas such as walls and tables where they can lean instead of stand.  This takes some of the energy away and ties students (often in groups) to certain areas, as well as makes the arrangement unequal across the entire classroom.  When sitting down, this takes the form of half-sitting and half-laying, which is worse than the desks themselves.
3. Chairs - traditional chairs/desks will inhibit the free-flowingness of the classroom.  I am willing to provide chairs, but need to do so in a way that students can still move freely and easily.  I think I'm going to manage this by taking a weak spot (for me) and turning it into a strength - I'm going to use the chairs as a resource for much more than sitting.

So what kind of chairs will solve all three of these problems?  Drawing on my youth camp days, I remember using 5-gallon buckets that we upholstered and then packed all of our gear into for a cheap, effective, and unique seat/suitcase.

http://finditmakeitloveit.com/2013/05/5-gallon-bucket-seat.html

How does this solve my problems and then some?

1. Compromise - students may sit, but they cannot lean.  I still have all the benefits of students standing in a circle (and the bucket chairs should prevent there from being a huge height difference if some want to stand and others want to sit).  I also still have the power to take a student's chair away if needed.  They are easy to move (and even come with a handle!) and put away, enabling me to change the classroom configuration when needed (i.e. when we're watching something on the projector/board or taking a test).
2. Resources - I can put everything I need students to have right under their seat!  Think about it - no more passing out/handing in class sets!  Inside, I can put class books (novels and textbooks), white boards (white paper sealed in sheet protectors), dry erase markers, erasers (a sock), clip boards (when we need to write), props for our stories and conversations..... And more!  Other items that might be useful for other classes might include coloring/glueing supplies, the kind that are generally in a cup in the middle of a group or whatnot.  If I really needed to, I could put extra paper and pencils in each bucket, but that's getting a little generous haha.  And, since students have to get up, take the lid off, dig in the bucket, and then put the lid back on to get anything (which isn't a big deal when asking them to but otherwise it's very noticeable), I doubt students will be getting things out that they're not supposed to have at the moment.

My plan is to have students deposit their belongings in a certain area (backpacks/books/phones out of reach!) and grab their buckets for the day.  (This does lend itself to providing paper in the buckets since I rarely ask students to get out paper, but I wouldn't want them trying to dig it out of their backpacks when I do - they can bring their pencil to the circle).  I could easily ask students to simply leave the buckets in the circle and then put away extras/get out any more that we need.  This opens up so many opportunities for activities and especially interactions!

What do you think?  How would you put in your buckets seats and what activities would you do with students in a circle?

Genius Hour 2013: First Semester

Each day, I'm getting closer to introducing Genius Hour to my class.  After much thought and input from coworkers, I feel like I've got a solid plan.  Obviously, things will be a little less flexible than this last summer as far as what material we need to cover (I need to demonstrate that I'm meeting standards for Spanish classes), but we have so many more opportunities to really go big with this project so I'm very excited!  Here's what I've got planned so far...

My new classroom!

Well, it's been a while since I last posted, and I have so much to write about! I'm officially one week into my teaching career.  I've been absolutely swamped between moving and getting started with my first year of teaching.  However, things are finally calming down to where I can start posting about what's going on :)

First things first - here's my new classroom!

Here's the front wall -  it has all the most important things for students to see.

• Starting on the left, we have our class rules (LISTEN) so that I can point and refer to them whenever we need to.  
• The giant white notepad next to it is for words that the class wants to use, but aren't necessarily "in bounds".  We write the words and their translations on the pad to bring them "in bounds".
• Next is our vocabulary word wall.  I use this to hold/display curriculum vocabulary.  There's plenty of room to display our current words as well as hold all the other word sets we will cover.  Each word from each of our structures is written on a color-coded card for each chapter.  we'll put these on the board with magnets (the smiley face!) when we're using them in context and combine them with other words.
• Above the whiteboard are the ACTFL proficiency standards in student-friendly language for the Novice and Intermediate levels.  There is a little green arrow for Spanish 1 and another one for Spanish 2 pointing to where I expect them to be at the end of each class. (I'm only teaching Spanish 1, but I discussed where to put the Spanish 2 arrow so students have a long-term idea of where they'll be by the end of these classes).
• Below the board is the current Spanish alphabet with vocabulary words for each letter - great for inspiring some fun words during PQA and stories since we'll see them all year!
• On the left-hand side of the board is the "CBC" board with the date (written out in Spanish with vocabulary cards for the day and month), Objectives, Agenda, Essential Question, and Homework.
• To the right of the board are the question words as well as our props!

Here's another view of the front wall where you can see a few more items:

• My desk area - I love it!
• Above my desk are cards to remind students to tell me when to STOP (red), SLOW DOWN (yellow) and REPEAT (green).

Here's the right side of my classroom:

• There are responses for students to use during PQA and Stories, etc, that are color-coded for the type of reaction they express (for example, under "Approval" is listed "¡Qué bien!")
• I have a chart with the weather where the arrow can be rotated to point to the current weather.
• I have two windows, though we keep the curtains closed in the morning to prevent glare.
• The bookcase holds our library of books, including textbooks, Interactive Notebooks, and books for free-choice reading.

There are only a few things along the back of the room, but they take up the whole wall!

• TPRS-friendly grammar posters - these have the endings that we'll most frequently use, but the important letters are colored in with black to draw attention to them (i.e. the "-mos" on all of the nosotros forms).  I also have a "subjects" poster with all of the Spanish words for "I", "you", "he", "she", etc.
• Color words are above the computers.

Finally, the left-hand side of my classroom, with lots of fun things.

• Map of the Spanish-speaking countries of the world - I love this map!  It's so cool and has a lot of interesting information.
• Map of Mexico with illustrations of different areas.
• Poster of all the country flags.
• "How to tell time" poster.
• "High Frequency Words" poster.
• Emergency exit strategy
• Bathroom/Tardy sign out/in.

Finally, you might have noticed there are labels everywhere!  All useful words to point to when I need to :)  My desks are also set up so that I can go throughout the room with ease as well as have a nice, large area in the center for acting!  I'm so excited about my room set up and my students seem to really like it.  So far so good, and I haven't had to assign seats yet!

Quick Update

Ok, making a quick post to explain my lack of posting and responding - we've been in the middle of vacationing with family, moving, and getting started at my new school (which we can't get into until tomorrow, one week before students show up!), so things have been hectic!  I will be back to posting VERY soon, I promise!

Genius Hour - The Moment of Truth

Our Latino Culture Genius Hour projects are done and yesterday we presented our projects.  So, how did we do?  Here's the process we went through, how everything turned out, student projects, and my reflections on it all :)

20 Time in a Foreign Language Classroom

Now that I have a better idea of what I'm in for this fall when it comes to Genius Hour and 20 Time, I've started thinking about how I'm going to connect it to my curriculum.  There are two main areas that Genius Hour can (and should) be connected to in a Foreign Language class: culture and language.

NOTE: A special "thank you" to Denise Krebs and Señorita Barragan for helping me form and articulate my ideas for this post.

Genius Hour Week 3: Three Distinct Groups

Three distinct groups of students have emerged within my classroom and, though my program is a special one for students who might be considered "at risk", I imagine similar groups will emerge in any Genius Hour classroom: the "This is awesome!" group, the "Ok, I get it." group, and the "What is this?" group.

Genius Hour Week Two: 2 Struggles and 2 Successes

Last week I introduced Genius Hour to my students, and this week we spent the entire class period researching various ideas.  We had a lot of interesting experiences today - some shed light on some of the struggles my students may have and that I need to address and others confirmed how awesome this really is.  For week 2, I have two of each to share :)

Genius Hour: Week 1

"How did you know that?"

"I Googled it."

The first student had asked a fairly complicated question out loud ("Do babies dream?"), and within a few seconds, the second student started telling her about the REM cycles of babies, something he knew nothing about just a few moments beforehand.  That's the beauty of Genius Hour.