To challenge or to entertain?

I've been thinking lately about my expectations with my students, particularly my Spanish 3s. I expect a lot out of them and I challenge them. I want them to increase their proficiency level in Spanish, to experience other cultures, to get better all of the time. BUT, I am not sure if they are having fun. I  know that there have been engaged in a number of activities and projects that we have done, particularly when we have used technology or they have had the opportunity to be creative. So, can these two concepts co-exist in the intermediate to advanced foreign language classroom? There are times when fun does not equal using the language and times when the challenge discourages some and the end result is that they don't use the language.

Whatever my students say or feel about Spanish, the three emotions that I don't want from them is: stress, discouragement or apathy about the language. I will give my students an end of year survey to find out what they enjoyed about Spanish this year. I want to know where they grew most, what areas discouraged them or helped them learn.

Bringing the world to my classroom

Last week, my Spanish 3 students skyped with American students studying Spanish in Madrid. I asked the college students to only speak in Spanish with each other and with my students. It was an awesome experience. The goal of this career/study abroad program was to teach my students about the SAP opportunities that they will have in college. They had to research a university in a TC, that they could potentially see themselves attending. As part ot the project, they had to interview SAP students in a target country. My kids wrote 2 questions each regarding life in the TC. Speaking to the students in Madrid showed my students what life in a TC is like for an American, and the differences between attending college in the US versus Madrid. The college students were so gracious and patient as each one of my students came to the camera and asked the college students a question in Spanish. The college kids then asked a couple of questions of my students and a couple of my kids answered the questions.

Next year, I want to do this as part of my curriculum. I want to skype students in a TC on a regular basis and develop friendships between our classes. It was a five star experience for my students and one that I hope to be able to replicate in the future with TC students.

Twitter, My PLN

A few years ago, I created a Twitter accout, but was never interested in doing anything with it, until this year. I discovered that Twitter is where I can learn, grow and exchange ideas with educators who are hungry for learning about best instructional practices for World Languages, technology and other fields. These are passionate "crazy" people, like me, who want to continue learning after we leave school. I have learned more about teaching Spanish, from my Twitter PLN than from any other college course, WL conference, or PD. Twitter puts everyone on an even playing field. It is a place where the novice teacher has equal access to generous veteran teachers who want to share their experience and knowledge. It allows me to talk to experts in the field, writers, and people who otherwise would not be accessible to me unless I traveled to a conference. Twitter is a lab where we are all experimenting with various evidence based techniques for the same purpose: to spread knowledge about WLs, to bring our kids to proficiency in TL, to get them to experience target cultures, to make the United States into a multi-lingual country where the rule is that people speak more than English.

I am humbled and awed by the incredible generosity of so many teachers who spend hours sharing their knowledge with others. So, this is my thank you letter to those who host #langchats, to those who write for Edudemic, to those who write blogs and to those who have personally reached out to me and encouraged me in this journey. You have made me believe that I CAN teach in a way that brings results. Thank you, @Sraspanglish, @msfrenchteach, @dr_dmd, @ColeeSensei, @SECottrell, @alenord,@placido, @tmsaue1 .

I've created this blog to organize my thoughts and activities and to experience the blogging world. I am a veteran teacher of Spanish, who only has about 10 years of experience in my SC teaching certificate. I have taught K-6th and 9th - 12th grades. Currently, I teach levels 1-3.

This year, some things rocked my predictable world. I went to the HSTW conference where I was introduced to PBL as an instructional strategy, our district went to 1:1 technology with iPads, I am in a Masters program for Divergent Learning at Columbia College, I attended a workshop that introduced me to the new Modern Languages National and State standards and  I joined a PLN of World Language professionals #langchat in Twitter. All of a sudden, I find myself in a paradigm shift from the old way that I was teaching to a new and more efficient way of instruction.
It has been a whirlwind for me and at times I have found myself carried away by a vortex of new knowledge, spinning in the air and trying to hang on. New knowledge is coming at me at lightning speed, as only Twitter can make it happen, and I am having trouble processing the new information so fast. I want to be on the other side of this journey where I have mastered these new standards and it is comfortable. However, it IS a journey so I might as well settled down a bit because it will take me a little while to get to my destination.
I have used  my Spanish 3 kids as my alpha testers and they have been absolutely awesome about going on this journey with me. So, here comes the stream of consciousness writing so that I can get my thoughts organized.

This is what I was doing before, which was good.
1. I stayed in the TL about 80% of the time.
2. I taught vocabulary and grammar in context (though in a structured approach)
3. I am a performer type of teacher:very animated and passionate about the language and I love to work with teenagers.
4. I aimed for proficiency in speaking and writing.
5. I had great classroom management
6. I used PBL at least once a year.
7. I worked well cooperatively with my colleagues and like to share what I am doing.

This is what I was doing which was outdated
1. taught with a grammar and vocabulary list based approach
2. I gave grammar tests which a lot of kids failed.
3. I used vocabulary sheets and gave vocab tests
4. the readings were not CI i+1 (but maye +3 or 4) and were too difficult for students
5. I didn't differentiate but expected all students to reach the same level of fluency at the same time, if they didn't they failed
6. I didn't teach with a proficiency based approach (though I thought  I did
7. The rubrics were too harsh and didn't give useful feedback.