Keeping it organized

I know I've realized that I have a lot to learn when it comes to blogging, but it is my goal for the 2014-2015 school year to keep my blog updated regularly. We'll see how this goes.

Having almost 500 students can be a bit stressful. I see each class twice a week for thirty minutes, with the exception of therapeutic learning classrooms and preschool. I've been attempting to write a curriculum that properly spirals as the kiddos advance in grades.

Preschoolers are in the Who we Are unit for IB so I am attempting to keep kiddos talking about themselves. They are learning family words. I use pictures to associate an image with a word in English and Spanish. For our family unit I also use ASL to get kiddos moving. Preschool is loving their family familia song. 

Dad is papá
Mom is mamá

Family Familia 
Family Familia

Brother is hermano
Sister is hermana

Family Familia 
Family Familia

Grandpa Abuelo
Grandma Abuela

Family Familia 
Family Familia

Tío is uncle
Tía is aunt

Family Famila
Family Famila

For each family member, I use the ASL sign (with the exception of uncle and aunt since it is a u, we modified it to use the letter "t" and do the same sign -with the letter T-as boy and girl)

Right now my kindergarten kiddos are learning about classroom objects they may see in their home classrooms, other areas of the school, or in Spanish class. Think pencil, pen, book, marker, door, chair, table. In my classroom I like to associate an action with each word because if if someone cannot remember the word itself, they tend to remember the action which actually helps them remember the actual word. We recently played telephone with our words. We sit in a huge circle and pass the item around while whispering what it is called to a neighbor. This allows the students to actually touch the items they have been seeing as well as individually practice saying each vocab word. This can be tricky because you have to have a lot of random stuff to use. The kindergartners love it.

First grade has been working with our IB attitudes and attributes and comparing them to how we are feeling. These are ways that we act and show what kind of students we are each day. We have been focusing a lot on changing the ending to an a for chicas and keeping it with an o for chicos.

Second and third grade (second is my scaffold year this year because it's the curriculum year I am currently building) are reviewing body parts from years past. They are also learning how to change singular nouns to plural. They use el and la and change them to los and las. It works well with body parts. They are learning new vocab like los hombros, las rodillas, los brazos, and las piernas. We have a song we sing for eyes, ears, mouth, nose, body, hands, and feet. We added head, shoulders, knees and toes.

Fourth and fifth grade are in the process of learning each person's new Spanish name. Everyone got to pick a name and we are introducing ourselves using these names. We will be jumping into weather review and advancement later this week.

Woo! First post of the year and we're only in week four!

Almost a year in summary

This year has flown by without me even remembering to write anything.

School has been going quite well. It has been very busy with graduate school. I began with some struggling students and have really developed some great routines that have helped balance out the classroom.

I really believe that next year when I have more time I will get down to the nitty gritty and actually have an opportunity to write about my daily to weekly happenings in the classroom. Of course that is the type of thing that a teacher would say!

I've been given the opportunity to really develop my curriculum over the next 5 years and will be writing it over the summer. This way I can really be on track getting students proficient in the Spanish language by the time they reach middle school in 6th grade.

I visited my classroom for the first time since my teaching interview. I was really excited because I am ready to get it set up. The first thing I wanted to do was to check out what materials I had available so I could request what I believe I will need for this upcoming school year. The only problem is that all the cupboards were locked and I couldn't access any of the materials that were available.

The teacher before me used the TPRS method (total physical response storytelling). I do not plan on using this method in it's entirety. I believe that some aspects of the TPRS method could be used along with other methods to allow for students to learn the absolute most.

This upcoming school year will by my school's second year. I'm pretty sure an entire curriculum was purchased that follows the TPRS method. I feel kind of wasteful not using these materials that are available, but I do not think it is beneficial to the students to learn using solely the TPRS method. From my experience thus far in an elementary Spanish classroom (student teaching and practicum experiences), the teachers create the majority of their materials to use in activities with their students. Since I didn't actually get to see what materials were in my classroom, and I happened to forget to bring my camera, I measured using my feet to create a rough floor plan of how my classroom currently looks.

As you can see, it is very precise. I have a whiteboard and a portable whiteboard cart. A kidney bean table and seven rectangle tables. There is a small couch beside the kidney bean table and a lot of storage for my materials along the counter. There are also shelves along the wall (at the bottom of this picture) that can be moved. There are 38 student chairs in my classroom, four of which are preschool size.

I'm really excited to see my schedule of classes so I can arrange my classroom for all my students. I won't make it there for the next few weeks but I hope to actually get to dive in on July second, and see what materials are available, see a class list so I know how many students I will have in each class, and arrange the items I am bringing in. 

This is going to be an exciting year! 

Stereotypes of Spain

This is a Tagul that contains many of the stereotypes of Spain. If you can be aware of these stereotypes before learning about the culture of Spain it will assist in an unbiased learning process. This is also great for parents who are very interested in their student's learning. They will be able to communicate more effectively with their students about the Spanish culture if they come in without incorrect background knowledge. As you can see, many times when people think of Spain they think of wine, dance, fiestas, the flamenco, beaches, sunshine, paella, handsome and dark people, siestas, and bullfights. 

It is better for parents to think beyond these stereotypes. This way they can become familiar with the real Spain, as best as possible, through their students and their Spanish learning. 

So it begins

I decided to start this blog to document my first year teaching. I will be teaching at Council Bluffs Community Schools!! for the 2012-2013 school year. I will be teaching Spanish to every student in the building. This means Pre K-5th grade! It is going to be a busy year with so many students. I am terrible at remembering names, and I will have a few hundred names to remember! I am super excited to begin this journey. 


Since Spanish is not something that each elementary in the Council Bluffs Community School district has, I will be developing my own curriculum. I am excited to teach students about Spanish language and culture! It will be a big project, but I am sure that it will be rewarding to me and the students. 


I just began my graduate classes for the CADRE program. I am taking two courses for the month of June and three in July, which means that I will be even busier in July (especially with this wedding coming up)! This is going to be a very exciting year and I look forward to sharing it with everyone!