KWLA wrap-up

KWLA conference as usual was fantastic. It's always nice to hang out with other World Language teachers to share ideas and re-inspire each other. Here's my wrap-up for 2014's conference!

I presented my own session first thing this year on Classroom Management in the Target Language (click the link to view the prezi.) It was so crowded we had to ask for extra chairs and there was still people standing.

My first session other than my own was the "NNELL session: New JCPS Elem WL Curriculum" with Jacque Van Houten and other presenters. They went over how they put together the curriculum and how they envision it in use. What I really liked was how they specifically addressed the question of students coming in and out of your program. And while it is designed with 90 minutes of instruction in mind (key to making proficiency gains) there are easy ways to adjust it for schools that get less than that (which is nearly all of us!) They recycle the same units each year but go deeper each time. AND they also incorporate the new interculturality standards that are now a part of the Kentucky WL standards. If you haven't checked these documents out definitely do so!

I finished Friday out with "Teach Really Well land Still Have Time for a Life." This session was full of great ideas for using technology in the class but a lot of them were geared towards high school or schools that have BYOD. I did decide during this session that my upcoming 90% And More Challenge between classes in 3rd-5th grade could be tracked using ClassDojo.

I ended Friday at the Wine and Cheese reception and then dinner with my northern KY peeps at Shakespeare & Co.

Saturday I was up early and had to decide between "Integration of Arts & Humanities & WL" with Alfonso De Torres or "Student Projects in the Target Language." After a game of janken, Japanese teacher and friend Eric and I ended in Student Projects. (Also I had already seen Alfonso's presentation this summer during my week of flamenco PD with the Kentucky Center.) Most of their ideas were also high school centric (the woes of being an elementary teacher!) but a lot of them could be adapted. I remembered my idea to do something with post cards this year.

Next up was "Teach Bell to Bell not Yell to Yell" with @TNSpanish aka Meredith White. It was another classroom management session and just like mine it was packed. Clearly management is an issue for us all. She had great ideas on organization and classroom set up. For example, put all of your supplies in the BACK of the class so you aren't having students constantly up front with you interrupting your instruction. She also advised us to think about our "hot spots" or what makes us crazy and then figure out a solution and fix it. We deserve to teach peacefully and our students deserve a peaceful atmosphere in which to learn.

I finished the conference with Meredith again in "What's the Story? Creating Engaging and Reusable Strategies for Vocabulary Input." This workshop was all about how to use story telling to introduce and reinforce vocabulary. She also showed the technical side on how to find pictures, crop them, and photo shop them into power point to make engaging and personalized stories for your classes. Did I write a story for my upcoming feelings unit? Why yes, yes I did.

@tmsaue1 I think organization, engagement, & confidence are the issues and they all roll up into mgt #kwla
— Jen Ken (@Sra_Kennedy) September 20, 2014

I also love being on social media during the conference. I found a bunch of new people to follow on Twitter and even discussed sessions with people in my session and sometimes with people not present. If you aren't on Twitter I highly suggest trying it out. You can follow me @sra_kennedy and/or use #FLESchat and #langchat to find new ideas and colleagues to collaborate with.

So that's it! Another great conference. I came back on Monday ready to teach to proficiency and in the target language - and some classes have already gotten up to 100%!

Classroom Management in the Target Language

The KWLA 2014 Conference started Thursday night. I've been the last two years and always come away with great ideas. Plus, it's always refreshing to talk/brainstorm/gripe with other language teachers. The teachers I work with every day are awesome but only another language teacher can really get me sometimes!

This year I presented a session of my own (click the link to see it!) - Classroom Management in 90% Target Language.

 
I'll post a sum up of the conference later this week!

Spanish Club - Virtual Field Trip to Mexico!

So Spanish Club has started again! The spring semester last year we did a virtual field trip to Madrid, Spain. This semester we are "visiting" Mexico. Our first meeting we found Mexico on the map and learned about its flag. 

We made cool flags that reminded us of pinatas - really we just tore up tissue paper, crumpled it, and then glued it down. And because you can't have a good club without a snack we ate Mexican flag snacks with grapes, marshmallows, and strawberries (I took this idea from Zapatitoingles- a great blog with lots of ideas.)

We also watched this cool video and paid attention to how we salute our flag versus how they salute the flag in Mexico.

All in all it was a pretty successful start for the new club. I've got a great bunch of kids this time around. Next time we'll make passports and "fly" to Mexico City. We will also be making some metal crafts, learning cumbia, and making a Day of the Dead altar (and possibly entering it in a local exhibition.)

En mi maleta yo necesito...

Spanish Club this semester is taking a virtual field trip to Madrid. Apparently I did a better job of "selling" it than I did last semester because in the end I had 75 kids sign up! I could only take 30 but my plan is to recruit Spanish students from the local universities (there are 2 local and another 2 slightly local) to volunteer so I can take everyone in the fall.

The first part of our field trip had us packing our suitcases. I introduced the new vocabulary by actually showing them a suitcase I had packed with some old clothes. I taught them the new word and then passed around the clothes to each student. They had to say the name of the item before passing it on. This turned into a noisy bit of throwing clothes around but since this is after school I let them have their fun as long as my clothes weren't being destroyed. They seemed to really pick up the words this way as well. Then we watched the following video on cómo hacer una maleta. 

  After watching the video we made a cute paper maleta. We took construction paper (pre-cut with rounded edges) and glued white paper inside - mine had a word bank on it but blank white paper would also work. Black construction paper letter C's, cut from the Ellison dye cutter, served as our handles. Then the students drew the clothing they wanted to take with them on the inside and labeled it.   In the next Spanish Club we will make passports and then get our plane tickets and "fly" to Spain! (I have an in-flight movie and safety instructions ready to watch and one student already begging to be a flight attendant!)