teacher mrw

educator. writer. social activist. blogging and linking knowledge.

Archive for the tag “Student”

20 Feb 2012

Having Our Hands on the Right Things

The following is a reply I posted on the now-defunct MFL blog.  Due to a lot of flap, the blog has since been taken down.  Thus, I am glad I preserved my comments.

I don’t think that Mr. Picardo espouses a die-hard tech-only point-of-view.  We tweet from time to time. I am also an occasional reader and poster to his blog. We don’t agree on everything, and nor should we. But, I respect him and his work, and, I think he feels similarly about me.

Additionally, I think your argument does have some merit. Like most things, there are some tech tools which can promote modern foreign language learning, and some that are, in my opinion, pure garbage. I’m also not a project girl, or what a former colleague dubbed, “a showboat teacher.” If that’s one’s inspiration, then live and let live.

Seven years ago, I inherited a group of students from a so-called, “showboat teacher.”  Those students had had a good time, and liked their teacher, but, in my first minutes of teaching the students in question, I observed that  their spoken Spanish was terrible, their vocabulary knowledge, recall and application was poor, and their grammatical base was weak. This, however, happened via paper, pencils and books. So, depending on how one uses the tools available to him or to her, tech or no tech, ineffectual teaching and learning can and do take place.

I think that most teachers strive for mastery of content and proficiency of skills. At least, I do. Students need to be able to demonstrate what they know and what they are able to do. Tech tools, when carefully considered, taught, and implemented with the end-goal in mind, can provide a rewarding learning and teaching experience.  That said, I have met very few students who by the time they’ve graduated from high school can order a meal or ask for directions in a modern foreign language, and I am talking about students who have aspired to Advanced Placement Spanish Language (I reside in the United States; I know not what the equivalent of AP is in the UK, if there is an equivalent).

Moreover, I think the capacity to speak, aurally comprehend, read and write another language is largely dependent on the student’s desire and motivation, not to mention their cognitive capacity. Good teaching, however, does play an important role. But, at the end of the proverbial day, learning disabilities aside, students decide to learn or not to learn.  If there are quality tech tools, however, which can promote and assess mastery and proficiency, then I say that teachers should use them. But, tech should not be a substitute for teaching, no more than the television should be a substitute for parenting. No amount of tech tool usage is going to make a mediocre teacher, or student, for that matter, a better one.

Posted in At the Schoolhouse Door, The Five Cs: Foreign Language Teaching and Learning and tagged , , , , | Leave a Comment
11 Feb 2012
2 Comments

Weekly Wrap Up #2

Before the clock strikes midnight, and before I fall asleep on the living room sofa, I figured I had better write my post.

This time last week, I was in the early stages of what was diagnosed two days later by my primary care physician as a muscle spasm. Its greatest impact was to the neck, preventing from moving my head in any direction. I also had referred pain in the right shoulder. What followed was four days’ sick leave from school, and two visits to outpatient physical therapy. Yes; the pain was that bad.

While I have a distance to travel on the road to recovery, I am feeling significantly better. I have learned more about muscle spasms than I had ever hoped to learn. Additionally, I am blessed to have a wonderful family and wonderful friends – both virtual and in-person – who checked in on me on a daily basis. I am also blessed to have a talented and personable physical therapist who has made my first phyisical therapy experience a pleasant one thus far.

Consequently, I have not much to report from the trenches of the classroom. That said, I had gotten my students far enough along in their respective new chapters for them to take the first in a series of short mini-vocabulary quizzes, complete writing exercises where they used the vocabulary in context, and, enjoy a lesson on the history of chocolate. I returned to school on Friday, which was, to my utter surprise, remarkably stress-free, and far better than I had anticipated. I am always reluctant to face the piles of paperwork that an absence generates, which was easier to organize than I had feared. I was even able to mark two sets of vocabulary quizzes, and note which student had (not) completed which assignment (s).

I also learned several things during my time away, which bear noting in list form:

1. Students and colleagues manage fine without you. Also known as, “Out of sight, out of mind.” As much as we would like to think that our presence or, in this case, lack thereof, has a significant impact, think again. A rather sobering realization, but, one that made me even more grateful for having taken those four days off to rest and recuperate, and even more blessed for my family and friends.

2. Have sub plans at the ready. This wasn’t always the case for me. But, it isn’t fun having to think of what the students are going to do when one is in the throws of an illness. We teachers are out for planned and unplanned events. The unplanned events call for sub plans that one can attach to an email to a supervisor, if one isn’t too incapacitated. Better, yet, have hard copies of sub plan activities in a folder in a desk drawer that can be photocopied. I was feeling blessed to be able to go to my laptop, quickly locate an activity, and send it on its way.

3. Use the illness or injury to make significant lifestyle changes. My bout with a neck spasm was the result of an injury, and/or stress. Not sure which. But, given the stressors that teaching inflicts, as well as the way most of us run around all day, I could have sustained an injury that I had forgotten about. I am also a rough sleeper, which could have had an impact. So, I have purchased a laptop backpack on wheels, will invest in a Tempurpedic pillow, and, I am going to make a more significant investment in daily self-care.

I felt well enough today to do some lesson planning for the upcoming week. Tuesday is St. Valentine‘s Day. So, fun activities are indicated for Monday and Tuesday.

Be well, and, remember: Take Care of You. :)

Posted in At the Schoolhouse Door, The Five Cs: Foreign Language Teaching and Learning, This, That and a Third and tagged , , , , , ,
04 Feb 2012
2 Comments

Weekly Wrap-Up

I’m introducing a new feature to my blog.  It is called, “Weekly Wrap-Up”, and includes some of the exciting things that went on in my classes during the week.

So, first up – online textbook.

Not a new form of technology, online textbooks have been around for some time. My place of employ, however, has been slow to embrace them, and my department in particular.  However, I discovered that utilizing the online version of the textbook, projected via the LCD projector, is facilitating better teaching and therefore better learning for my students.

The first example is the presentation of new vocabulary.  Showing the pages of the textbook which contain the lesson vocabulary and their corresponding visual images inspires greater engagement from the students, not to mention that seeing the textbook projected in such  a manner is “pretty cool” in their opinion.

The second example is the case of the textbook left at school.  In this particular situation, the student in question forgot his textbook at school, but needed it in order to prepare for a chapter test.  I downloaded the chapter he needed, and sent it to him in an email as a PDF attachment.

My department is currently in the process of reviewing a new Spanish textbook series.  I am strongly advocating for the purchase of a series which offers online textbook access. In 2012, purchasing a foreign language textbook series without such access is just plain silly.

Second up – online polling via Poll Everywhere.

Again, not a new form of technology, but, it is slowly gaining some traction in foreign language classrooms.  I admit that I don’t use Poll Everywhere nearly as much as I would like.  That said, I should use it more.  Students like to text, are good at it.  Moreover, students  like the novelty of using their cell phones in the classroom, especially when using them at school during the day is pretty much frowned upon at my place of employ.  I also thought it was a way to give the standard survey-type textbook activity a 21st century upgrade.  The thing, however, the students lose in the process is not actually speaking with each other to ask the questions.  That said, we do enough activities in class where students engage in face-to-face, 1:1 interaction.  So, doing a survey via Poll Everywhere made the most sense.

Third up – Not Re-inventing the Proverbial Wheel

While the textbook is not my curriculum, I am learning to use the textbook, workbook, and corresponding ancillaries, i.e. transparencies and lesson videos, to a greater degree.  I find that I very often re-invent the wheel, and then find myself resorting to worksheets, which very quickly becomes mundane and boring.  In my re-discovery, I am realizing that many of the textbook activities really are not that bad.  To the contrary, many of the textbook activities facilitate creativity, critical thinking and collaboration amongst the students, not to mention improved speaking, writing, reading skills, and the use of proper sentence structure.

The lesson transparencies also facilitate creativity and critical thinking in speaking, is somewhat novel (using the overhead projector, which I gather not many teachers use any longer), and, I can actually touch the images on the screen that are being projected to make a point or to ask a question.  The lesson videos are great with the sound turned off, to get the students to think creatively and critically.  I then play the video with the sound on to confirm their assumptions, and to sharpen their auditory skills.

Fourth up – the pre-assessment vocabulary checklist, and more frequent vocabulary quizzes

I am trying some new tricks adopted from a colleague.  The first is the pre-assessment vocabulary checklist.  Students check off the words from the new chapter that they are sure they know.  At the end of the chapter, they will re-visit their checklist, with the goal of being able to check off all of the words.  the second is more regular and frequent vocabulary quizzes.  I divide the words into ten-to-fifteen word chunks, and then assign those to the students to learn for the next class.  At the beginning of the next class, the students take a quiz on all ten or fifteen words.  As I said, it’s something new I am trying.  I am hoping that by giving the students more regular and frequent vocabulary quizzes will force them to learn the words, as opposed to waiting for two weeks to go by before giving a such a quiz.  So, over the course of a chapter, the students may have four or six vocabulary quizzes, depending on the number of words a given chapter may contain.  The vocabulary in the textbook I am currently using is divided into two parts.  So, I give the students the vocabulary lists for both sections and as the words are introduced.    When the students have been quizzed on all of the words on one list, we move to the second list.  I guess it’s something like the weekly spelling/vocabulary quiz many of us remember from elementary school, which I actually credit for my strong ability to spell today as an adult, and for my knowledge of words in general.

That’s all for this week!

Posted in The Five Cs: Foreign Language Teaching and Learning and tagged , , , , ,
29 Jan 2012

A Cultural Visitor

My school has a cultural exchange with Venezuela.  So, every year in early January, a small group of students and a teacher from our partner school in Caracas visits our school for about a month.  The students are usually in grades six and/or seven, and have been learning English from a very young age. They attend classes from 8am-3pm, and go on cultural excursions on the weekends.

I invited the teacher to visit with my seventh grade Spanish Onesies.  But, instead of the usual, one-way dialogue between presenter and students, or, even the use of the standard, “students create questions in Spanish” and presenter answers them, I made the experience more interactive for both my students and the presenter.

1.  Students spent some time in the Tech Lab conducting research on Venezuela.  Thirteen students were divided into groups of two or three, and assigned a topic.  The topics included: history, currency and economics, government and politics, geography, food, and tourist attractions.  Two additional students devised questions for the presenter.

2.  On Presentation Day, the students delivered their findings, to the delight of the visiting teacher.  She then spoke with the students, in Spanish, using lots of comprehensible input.  She gave them something of a history lesson about Venezuela.  Several of my students translated nearly every word, with their confidence increasing with the confirmation of every correct response.

3.  The questioners used Google Translator to translate their questions from English to Spanish, which was fun for them and for me.  But, mind you: It did not occur to me to instruct them to use Google Translator.  Actually, one of the students assigned to ask questions took the initiative to do so.  It was great to see the students to see not only such active engagement, but also the direct use of technology – on their own initiative.

Why the above lesson worked:

1.  As I mentioned from the outset, the lesson did not constitute the traditional one-way dynamic.

2.  High level of engagement

3.  Us of technology in a meaningful way, i.e. to facilitate communication in the target language.

A great way to end a unit. :)

Posted in The Five Cs: Foreign Language Teaching and Learning and tagged , , , , , , | Leave a Comment
21 Jan 2012
2 Comments

I’m Done

Are you able to recall an incident which greatly disappointed you, but, logically, it really should not have greatly disappointed you?

My eighth grade Onesies greatly disappointed me recently, and, the situation is one that I really should not have taken so personally.

The Situation:  Approximately 50% of the class (there are 13 enrolled in said class) did not fully complete the assignment due, or completed none of it at all. The culprits: Two major assignments for two other courses due on the same day.  But, the larger issue, at least to me, is ineffectual time management, organization, planning, initiative and follow-through.  This particular group of students as a collective seems to be weak all of the aforementioned areas.

The Problem, #1:  I allowed The Situation to impact me to such an extent, I took it personally.  I really should not have, because, at the end of the proverbial day, it its the academic progress and results of the students in question that is going to suffer.  Until they get tired of low scores, perhaps at that time they’ll raise an eyebrow and make the necessary changes.

The Problem, #2: Where are parents in all of this? Learning support specialists cannot do it all, no more than the subject area teachers can.  Mel Levine once said, and I paraphrase here, getting the schoolwork completed is the job of the parent, and not the job of the teacher.  Naturally, I am in whole-hearted agreement with this statement, but frankly, too many parents are not doing their jobs.

I discussed the situation with my Dear Brother, who said that the reason I took the situation so personally is because I care.  But, at the same time, he agreed that the students in question need to get their ish together.

Anyway, short of after-school homework detention club (which doesn’t currently exist at my place of employ, but ought to), and communicating with parents when the work is completed (I send so many homework-related emails that it isn’t funny), the situation is really beyond my control.

So, short of what is within my power to control. I AM DONE. And, it is only January.  ::SIGH::

Posted in At the Schoolhouse Door and tagged , , , , , , ,
10 Dec 2011

Get ‘Er Done

As part of my campaign to raise the level of expectation in my seventh graders – both academically and behaviorally, I’ve instituted the following. Strategies are courtesy of Teach Like A Champion.

1.  Procedures for Entering the Classroom*

a.  Go directly to seats.

b.  Set everything out that is needed for class.

c.  Place homework on the teacher’s desk.  Name, date and assignment must be on the paper, with pages stapled together, if necessary.

d.  Sharpen pencils or **take a sharpened pencil from the teacher’s desk.

e.  Use the bathroom and/or water fountain during the first 10-15 minutes of the block, or the last 10-15 minutes of the block.

*There was too much trickery and foolery taking place at the beginning of class.  The new procedures seem to be working well.

**I’ve given up on the pencil hunt.  If a student needs a pencil, he/she takes a pencil.  If he/she needs it for the next class, then he/she keeps it.

2. Procedures While Teaching and Learning

a.  I no longer ask for the students’ “permission” to teach, e.g.  “We’re waiting for So-and-So.”  When students are taking too much time to get themselves together, I simply let them know that class time is valuable, and that they are either contributing or detracting from that time.

b.  With respect to students talking when I or other students are talking, I simply say, “What I have to say is valuable, and I expect to be heard”, or, “What So-and-So has to say is valuable, and she/he expects to be heard.” That puts the onus on the student causing the problem, and eliminates the rest of us for having to ask “permission” of the student causing the problem.

3.  Homework Rubric

I collect every assignment at the beginning of the class, and correct it according to a homework rubric I created.  I borrowed from various homework rubrics available on the Web to create one that accomplishes what I need for such a rubric to accomplish, which are: Presentation, e.g. name, date, assignment, condition of the paper, and quality and quantity of the work completed.  The Homework Rubric is not only holding me more accountable for what the students know and are able to do, because I am assessing each assignment, but, it also presents students with a standard by which their assignments are being assessed.  So, it’s 360 degree accountability – for teacher and for students.  During the last 20 minutes or so of the class, we discuss the assignment from the previous class, and I make note of common errors and common successes.

4.  Do Now

The “Do Now” has been the single most effective change to the classroom routine.  Why is the “Do Now” effective? For several reasons:

a. It requires students to put pencil to paper, which raises the level of expectation and accountability for the work.

b.  It is brief: Five minutes.

c.  It relies completely on the student’s capacity and initiative, thus promoting independent learning.  The student needs neither me nor a classmate to complete the task.

d.  It encourages the student to review previously-taught material, thus encouraging accountability for content and lesson concepts, and promoting skill-building and practice.

e.  It gets the students into the proper mindset for the learning that will take place.

f.  It allows me to take attendance.

I  will be rolling out more strategies in the coming weeks.  One of the strategies I am road-testing is “Exit Slips”, or, the activity that the students perform before or as they leave the classroom.  Additionally, my efforts to raise the level of expectation with my seventh graders has had positive residual effects with my Twosies and eighth grade Onesies.  While I have not rolled out the program to full-effect with the two latter groups, I am using the Homework Rubric, collecting every assignment at the beginning of class, and starting each class with a “Do Now” exercise.

Posted in At the Schoolhouse Door, The Five Cs: Foreign Language Teaching and Learning and tagged , , , , , , | Leave a Comment
23 Nov 2011

The Bane of My Existence

Fair & Balanced graphic used in 2005

Image via Wikipedia

As a teacher, two things I detest the most are marking student work, and, computing end-of-trimester grades.  Along with lost keys and mislaid eyeglasses, they are the bane of my existence.

As much as I strive to be fair and balanced in my approach to assessment and evaluation, I feel that I always somehow fall short.  I tried Proficiency-Based Grading for a time, but, it hasn’t proven to be a successful approach for me.  While I embrace its philosophy, I haven’ been able to come up with the requisite number of assessments for the various skill and content areas.  BTW: Scott Benedict, is a sweetie, and has provided me with ideas and support with respect to grading and alternative assessment. I then happened upon this website, and this document guidelines_instructors(2), which offers another approach to assessment and evaluation.  Again, the philosophy supporting it intrigues, but, I would perhaps need a summer’s worth of time to plan the appropriate assessments.

The evaluation dilemma always seems most prominent when it is time to compute end-of-trimester grades.  Perhaps I stress too much about such things. But, a conversation about the same with my Dear Mom prompted me to reflect, investigate and then reflect again. My goal is to move away from the traditional grading categories, e.g. tests, quizzes, homework, etc. and move towards performance-based grading categories.  Additionally, I want to integrate greater use of authentic assessment.  Both of these shifts would enable me to assess more accurately what students know and are able to do.

My dilemma, and the musings that it prompted, led me to re-visit Ken O’Connor’s writings on the subject of grading.  I say, re-visit, because I purchased one of his books several summers ago. So, I did have good intentions and great expectations.  Having done this re-visitation has allowed me to begin to devise a system of assessment and evaluation that I can live with, and that will be of greater benefit to my students.

Although I have a long proverbial row to hoe, I’ve at least begun to dig.  I think so many of us in the teaching profession aren’t really taught how to grade, how to assess, and therefore, how to devise systems that promote effective teaching and learning.  Moreover, those of us who were taught were indoctrinated into traditional approaches.  Neither of the aforementioned, by the way, work very well.

It seems that with every dilemma, there comes with it more thinking, and, subsequently, more work.  That’s the way life is. That’s the way teaching is.  I am hoping that my current dilemma with assessment and evaluation will eventually become more gratifying, and less the bane of my existence.

Posted in At the Schoolhouse Door, The Five Cs: Foreign Language Teaching and Learning and tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment
13 Nov 2011
1 Comment

The Culture of Expectation

I was talking with a friend recently – my asthetistician, to be exact, but I also consider her a friend – while getting my monthly professional facial treatment.  We talked about the recent days-long power outage, our parents – hers about the same age as mine- and life in general.  We then somehow got on the topic of high school, class reunions, and school life back in the day.  She and I are also about the same age.  I mentioned to her the struggles that I have with providing students with extra help.  There seems to be no culture of extra help at my place of employ.  I am constantly telling my students that there is rarely a time when I am not available to them for extra help.  However, students typically don’t seek me out on their own initiative.  Instead, they come by way of teacher or parent fiat.  Additionally, there isn’t time built into the school day for extra help, or after school for that matter.  Conversely, when my asthetistician and I were in high school, life after school was bustling with clubs, extra help, sports and band practices, and students doing research in the library or hanging out with their favorite teachers.  The “late bus” – the bus that served those who stayed after school – was even a culture all to its own.

Perhaps extra help just doesn’t happen in so-called, self-identified, progressive schools.  My previous place of employ was a progressive school, and there was no culture of extra help, or after-school activities, for that matter, save play rehearsal and sports, the two things which seem to dominate after-school life at my present school.  Mind you, my asthetistician and I attended garden variety, albeit good, public high schools, and extra help was a constant and regular part of the school day – before, during and after.  So, one would think that at an expensive, private, college-preparatory school, the same would be true.

Extra help, given the competing forces, seems to be offered on the proverbial catch-as-catch-can basis.  Do individual teachers offer extra help? Of course they do.  However, when there is no culture of extra help, how does this impact the culture of expectation for students and teachers?

Jaime Escalante, the great Bolivian-American educator who brought AP Calculus to an East Los Angeles high school populated largely with economically-disadvantaged Latino students, reportedly said that students will rise to the level of expectation that teachers set for them.  Mr. Escalante clearly had extremely high expectations for the students, despite the immense barriers the students faced on the basis of their race, ethnicity, linguistic heritage, and socio-economic status.

So…what are the barriers for well-to-do, predominately White, upper-middle class students who attend a very expensive, college-preparatory school? The dominant culture, i.e. White male culture, is a bankrupt culture in many respects.  Despite the immense privilege such a culture offers, it is fraught with a compromised value system, misplaced priorities, and ineffectual parenting which values neither education nor personal responsibility and accountability.  Therefore, extra help isn’t seen as  a way of doing better because it is the right thing, but more as a safety net for when things become so bad that extra help is the eleventh-hour solution.  Schools reflect the culture of the society in which they reside.  Private schools, despite the bubble shield they evoke, are not as immune as we may have been led to believe.  All of society’s ills exist with us as well.

I realize that my school isn’t going to resolve society’s many problems.  However, I would like for my school to find a way to make extra help part of a positive culture of expectation.  I would like to see more personal responsibility and accountability on the part of the students, and, to that end, we may have to teach these things to the students.  Additionally, I would like to see a school day that supports and values extra help so that teachers and students alike feel that it is not only an important part of the school day, but that it is also a necessary component to teaching and learning.

Without a culture of expectation, nothing else truly matters.

Posted in At the Schoolhouse Door, Independent School and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
17 Sep 2011

Delegating Up

“Delegating up” is my new mantra for the current school year.  I am learning to recognize my limitations on the job, which isn’t an easy thing for a perfectionist. Doing things, “right and in order” (a phrase courtesy of the head deacon at my church) is very important to  me, not only for myself, but also for others. Things like food and trash left behind on the lunch tables by students on a regular and consistent basis, piles of student backpacks heaped in front of the cafeteria entrance, the dress code, more precisely, lack thereof - for faculty, staff and students alike, and colleagues who don’t always do what they’re supposed to do, are but four of the things that frustrate me greatly about my school, and are things for which senior leadership has not been able to devise a solution thus far.

So…why do I concern myself with dress code, cafeteria trash, backpacks and slacker colleagues? Because I want my school to be the best it can be, and to be proactive, as opposed to reactive.  I am not suggesting that senior leadership does not desire the school to be the best it can be. However, it is clear that senior leadership and I have very different agendas and priorities.  That said, it is their job to set the priorities for the school, and I have to accept the fact that those priorities may not include a cleaner, neater trash-free cafeteria, or uniforms for faculty, staff and students, and a storage system that works for the students so that their backpacks aren’t part of a proverbial train wreck waiting to happen.

I have learn to be comfortable with my own sphere of influence, do the job that only I can do, and allow those to perform the tasks that are their responsibility.  Otherwise, I won’t survive much longer in independent school.  LOL!

Posted in At the Schoolhouse Door and tagged , , , , , , | Leave a Comment
03 Sep 2011
6 Comments

The First Day – Again

On Friday, which was yesterday, I officially embarked on my 18th year as an educator.  It was a good day.  Aside from the usual knuckle-headed behavior from a few 9th grade boys, the students seem interested in and willing to learn, albeit anxious, which may explain to some extent the knuckle-headed behavior from a few 9th grade boys.

Speaking of anxiety, it never ceases to amaze me that, despite all my years being associated with school  - as a teacher and as a former student – the first-day jitters always seem to plague me, and in some years, days and even weeks prior to the first day.  The one difference this year and last was that the usual first-day jitters was compounded by my dad’s health issues, thus ramping up the anxiety factor.

Now that the first day is behind me, I feel that I can begin the work with my students in earnest.  One of my primary goals for the school year is developing my knowledge of  and expertise in proficiency based grading.  I made an attempt about three years ago, but, was only moderately successful. I had not set up my grade book correctly, and, needed to have had more hands-on information about how and what to assess. Now that I have obtained those pieces of information that were missing for me, I have dedicated myself to undertaking once again proficiency-based grading.

My second primary goal is teaching for communication.  The focus of my classes is getting students to speak more regularly and more often. As much as I enjoy grammar, I realize that no amount of grammatical training is going to teach students how to speak, and to develop their skill and comfort level in doing the same.  The presenter of a workshop I attended several years ago said, ” Grammar and verbs are the glue which hold the language together.” Those words have remained with me since that time. But, like most things, I went with that which was, at least for me, easier and less messy to assess.  But, I realize that if I am going to help students to become more proficient in their functional language skills, I need to create learning opportunities which may be messier for me, but which will get them doing more of the work, and get them doing more of the work which helps them to show what they know and are able to do.

My third primary goal, which is related to the second, is using more alternative assessment, in the form of project-based learning, and rubrics, to assess reading, writing, speaking, and listening.  I admit: I have a love-hate relationship with projects.  I have long-viewed them as examples of less-rigorous learning, compared to an oral presentation, or, memorizing and reciting a poem. However, projects, when well-designed, clearly presented and carefully assessed, can help students to demonstrate what they know and are able to do with the language. So, I am going to strive to add a project-based assessment as the culminating assessment for most of the units I teach.

To gain a better understanding of my students, I created, using Google Docs, two online surveys: One for parents/guardians, and one for the students themselves.  I am looking forward to reading the responses. Love action research, and collecting data. :)

I am excited about the new year.  It’s holding lots of possibilities.  Besides, I have my Twosies back, and, that’s a very nice thing. :)

Posted in The Five Cs: Foreign Language Teaching and Learning and tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

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