The Art of Presenting

Over the last two days, my students have been presenting their ideas from the environment project they've been doing that was described in this blog entry. As I sat watching their presentations, I was struck by how lightly most took the presentation portion of their project. I started to think about why. I wondered if it was because I did not stress the importance of doing a good job or because they didn't think I was serious when I told them they had to memorize their Spanish sentences.

Granted, this was the first time I have done this project with my students so I wasn't really sure what I was looking for or expecting. I admit that my directions were not clear nor specific. I did inform the students that they should each say two sentences in Spanish and as much English as they wanted. I directed them that they should tell what their idea for helping the environment was, where that idea came from and how it will help people.

Literacy & Language

Literacy.

What is literacy? I have taken many classes on this and I remember when it first became really clear to me that literacy is not simply the ability to read. Literacy involves understanding the world's communications as well as the cultural and social contexts of those messages. We receive these messages via written texts or images as well as through body language and facial expressions. When we speak of literacy, more often than not, we are referring to the written texts or images of society. However the message and context are not mutually exclusive. In order to read these messages and interpret them accurately, one must understand how you create them and why.

The Intersection of Creation, Collaboration & Chrome

Having the Chromebooks in my classroom has really afforded me some interesting opportunities the past six months. I've had the students taking online quizzes, visiting websites for information on traveling and collaborating on chapter summaries. I am only now beginning to understand the power of technology to facilitate true collaboration and creation in my classroom.

I have long been interested in the project-based learning models. Certainly when the possibility of Chromebooks was presented to the faculty, project-based learning was mentioned as a use of the technology. Though I have not studied extensively about it, I had considered it but never found the time to think about what it would look like in the classroom. The presence of the Chromebooks and my desire to have my students create something complimented each other perfectly.

My Spanish 4 classes, a combination of sophomores and juniors, were approaching the second part of the environment unit in which the vocabulary lends itself to social activism. I gave the students a double-sided sheet, that I dubbed their "Trash Journal," on which they were to record anything they discarded. They were to keep track of their trash items until both sides were filled. They wrote the item, where they were when they discarded it and where it went (ex: trash, recycle bin, compost, or reuse). When I created the trash journal, I hadn't even decided what the project was. I knew I wanted them to analyze their trash in some way but I hadn't thought that far ahead. I avoided writing the project description until the last minute because I had no idea what it would be. When I finally sat down to write it, the night before I wanted to give it out, I still had no idea but needed to get something down for the following day. The description that I wrote can be found here.

The Single Story

I have once again, for the third year in a row, embarked upon The Single Story. This two day lesson is a product of my summer spent with the Capital District Writing Project. Each year, a layer has been added based on what I've learned from previous years and new experienced I've had. This year, it begins with some journaling and then will move to the Chromebooks.

It is my hope that you might use this lesson as a guide. If you are an educator reading this, please feel free to use this lesson plan exactly or take it and change it to meet the needs of your learners. Please comment or email me any changes you make so that I might learn from those experiences.


It starts with the first prompt wherein my students receive three minutes to journal a "sound off". I told them to sound off in English about anything on their minds, anything bothering them, anything they're looking forward to- anything swimming around in their head. I told them to swear if they needed to and if they don't want me to read it later, to color it over in black crayon or marker. Then I asked them to set those things aside and bring their full attention and thought to our work today.

What Matters

When my mother passed away in April of 2010, it fell up on my sister, my niece and myself to clean out her house. The task of undoing someone's life and deciding if their knickknacks are meaningless to you or not is extremely daunting. She had a house full of belongings she thought treasured. It was so packed with things that our shock and disbelief at her death turned into anger and rage as we discovered thing after thing that she had saved.

The more we cleaned, the more we found and the angrier we became. I believe we ended up getting rid of a lot of things that perhaps, now, I'd want but it is too late for that. As we emptied out my mother's life and pulled apart her existence, we found many things that were expected and many that were not. The numerous school projects and photos were lovely to find. However, the drawer of every pen or pencil we've ever owned was extreme. We found a bag of bags and a suitcase with another suitcase inside with another bag inside of that and smaller bags inside that with yet smaller bags inside them.

Being a Teacher

I visited Howe Caverns when I was five or six years old and I saw a book with a picture of a monster on it. The book was less than half a centimeter thick with a green border and I was fascinated. My mother purchased the book for me and I took it home to show my father. I sat with my father and we read the book together and I began learning all about dinosaurs. For about four years, I was obsessed with dinosaurs. My father took me on fossil hunts run through the state museum. My mother bought me every book she could find on dinosaurs. I amassed a bag of dinosaur figures, large and small. For about four years, my parents probably thought I would grow up to be a paleontologist.

I am not sure when that interest died out, perhaps when my friends started playing with Barbies or when I found Charmkins or She-RA. But when my students ask me why I wanted to be a teacher, I cannot say "I always wanted to be a teacher" because there were those four years when I dreamt of dinosaurs. However, I thoroughly remember enjoying telling everyone about dinosaurs. I knew all the different kinds and how big they were and what they ate. I loved telling my grandmother about them or talking about them at show and tell. So perhaps I really did always want to be a teacher.

The Sneetches

The most important thing I can do for my students is broaden their minds and their hearts. This has been apparent to me from the very beginning of my career. I remember it was my second year teaching when I had a Spanish One class third block which is when our lunch happens. Students would be with me an hour, go to lunch and come back for the last half an hour of class.

That day, our school newspaper had released an issue. They had printed an article written anonymously by someone about our school and how very divided it is with the haves and the have nots. My students walked into class that day and immediately said "did you read it?" because they were up in arms about the entire thing. I had a beautiful lesson planned that day to work on vocab and review for an upcoming test. But we did no Spanish that day. That day I allowed the students space to talk about the article and I was told to read it during my lunch so I knew more. The entire class was a conversation with twelve very upset students for different reasons. A couple were from the privileged end of the student spectrum and a couple were from the low end.

Station Day!

Every year, each class gets one or two Station Days a year. I enjoy Station Day a lot because it puts the onus of the learning on the students. For me, Station Day is usually spent running around because they have a dozen questions and one teacher and are constantly seeking approval before writing down an answer. But it's worthwhile time because I get to really answer their questions and see what problems the students still have. Every year on Station Day, I usually go home exhausted and tired but feeling pretty good about my students and my teaching.

Preparation is the key for a successful Station Day. You need to decide on how the students will work, create a filler for students who finish dramatically early, and create the stations. Each station needs directions the students can read independently and figure out as well as whatever necessary to complete the task.

I have created Station Days for the topics that I know cause students a lot of trouble because they need to be in the thick of it and muddle around with the complexity of the language. I suppose you could make stations for vocab practice but I prefer different cards games and activities for that. Station Day, for me, is a day when they can struggle and triumph. Topics that have lent themselves well to me are the preterit vs imperfect or subjunctive when the vocab of the unit drives the grammar points.

The Most Loathed Question of my Classroom

Being that I teach a "foreign" language in an ego-centric country that does not stress the importance of taking part in other cultures but boasts of being "the melting pot"- one would think that the most loathed question I could hear would be "does it have to be in Spanish?" I understand this question because it is steeped in the acculturation of "american" students growing up in the post 9-11 era.

No, the question I most loathe is: Is this going to be graded? Every time I hear it, it grates on my nerves. I've heard it at least once a week since I began teaching and I believe back in the early days of my career I was annoyed by it for very different reasons. There were many times I would bite back a sarcastic "what do you think, dummy? It's school." But other times,  I would answer "obviously" with an annoyed tone and an internal eye roll.

Every Page is an Adventure

Every day, I sit at my desk or in the library or at my table at home and I read. I read for an hour, sometimes more, sometimes less, but on average an hour a day. A lot of people do this. They read the paper. They read a book. They read online websites or journals or blogs or Facebook entries. Me? I read my students.

I sit for an hour a day and read their journals. I have had students journaling for two years and two months and never have I enjoyed reading them more than I do now. I sit and open my Chromebook. I open my journal spreadsheet and scroll down to the lines of the students I'm reading that night. I pick up a journal and open it to the correct place. I scroll through their line in my spreadsheet to see what comments I've made in the past and to remind myself of their writing goal. Each of them chose a writing goal a few weeks back. Common goals are: add more details, expand my vocab, write more or organize my thoughts. I review their goal so I know what I'm looking for and then I push the Chromebook aside and read. I flip the pages and check to make sure all the entries are there but I read.

I'm surprised.