Alright, so not actually bringing James Bond, but starting the unit off with an activity that pulls learners into the theme and motivates them to want to learn what we want to teach.

There is an exciting movement underway. Fewer and fewer teachers are exposing students to meaningless drill and practice to help them acquire new content, such as vocabulary.

In Part I of our series, Acquiring vocabulary: 5 strategies to create meaning in learning vocabulary, we set the scene for a movement in which teachers are shifting from meaningless drill and practice exercises to help students acquire new content, such as vocabulary.

When it comes to designing and curating interpersonal activities, especially at the novice levels, I used to feel like I was setting students up to hit tennis balls against the garage door:

At the beginning of the school year I like to ignore the old advice “don’t smile before Thanksgiving” and start with a big smile on my face and a lot of community building.

Christmas and the end of the year are two important events for most of the Western world, but of course there are differences in how they are celebrated in different countries and cultures.

This month, as our language warriors are out there fighting for legislation that affects all teachers, it is also our role as classroom teachers to advocate for languages within our communities and classrooms.

We just created a new library of activities related to Spanish songs for your mid- to intermediate-high Spanish learners. Activities for each song can be posted all at once for students to complete at their own pace, or posted daily for completion as a class exercise.

This has been a year full of unprecedented events for students, parents, and teachers. Teachers and students were asked to move their active learning from the traditional brick and mortar classroom to a virtual environment.

We as teachers act as anchors for trust in our schools. Administrators trust us to do our jobs, parents trust their children to us, and students come to us because they trust us. In the world language classroom, we need to work even harder to build that trust with our students if indeed we want them to be engaged where it matters most, orally.

Want to get your students excited to start class? Start by having them join a Jam of the day! When I first started using Jamboard, it felt much clunkier and lagged more than Slides, so I did not use it very often. However, Jamboard has received some significant updates the past few months which has made it more functional than ever.