Looking back

Looking back on my second year teaching I can truly say I've grown a great deal on a professional and on a personal level. How?

1. I had a positive and productive relationship with my administrator
2. I was able to collaborate with colleagues
3. Colleagues were emotionally supportive
4. I loved most of my students
5. I focused on the things I could change
6. I focused on student growth in relation to our big goals
7. I earned a masters degree!
8. I was able to attend workshops for professional development
9. I've learned how to keep students engaged
10. My interactions with students are much more productive

Fun with conjugation

To lighten the mood during state testing, I am combining card games + mental math + conjugating verbs in Spanish. How? Our first game is 21 Blackjack. 

Students play the game in groups of 3's or 4's. After each round the winner doesn't have to conjugate any verbs, but the losers have to conjugate verbs based on the cards they have in their hand at the end of the round. Each suit (spades, clubs, hearts, and diamonds) corresponds to a given verb, and each card value has an assigned subject pronoun. 

This is how it works

Global perspectives

How do I connect topics I am teaching to the real world?

One of our recent units was "la comida" - food. Food can either be very mundane and basic, or it can be unique and exciting. In order to make learning about food unique and exciting, one of the activities involved looking at an ordinary activity like grocery shopping from a local and global perspective. 

We compared grocery shopping the USA to grocery shopping in Venezuela.

Why did I choose Venezuela? Aside from it being a Spanish speaking country, Venezuela has a government and an economy that is very different from our own. On paper Venezuela has a republican form of government, but in reality the government has socialist tendencies and an economy that increasingly socialist with pockets of capitalist industries. What does grocery shopping have to do with socialism? In order to make necessities like toilet paper, flour, sugar, meat, and cornmeal affordable, the government subsidizes local farmers and manufacturers who supply government run supermarkets. This means that privately owned supermarkets do not have sufficient food or basic necessities. As a result, people are forced to shop at government run supermarkets. This sounds great except the government supermarkets are also low on supplies like beef, chicken, toilet paper, sugar, and flour. Why? The government subsidized farmers and manufacturers are not making a substantial profit by exclusively supplying government shops, so they only supply select items. 

Food shortages in Venezuela

What does this look like for the average consumer? People stand in line for up to 5 hours to get into the grocery store. Once they are in the grocery store there is no guarantee that they will find what they need. Some people wait weeks to get basics like toilet paper. My students' minds were blown at the thought of cueing up just to go grocery shopping. 

Toilet paper crisis

What was our classroom discussion like? We asked and answered some revealing questions. 

1. What is socialism and how is it different from our government?
2. What is supply and demand? How is this an issue in Venezuela's supermarkets?
3. How do we feel about necessities being available at a reduced price that everyone can afford regardless of occupation? 
4. What would happen to the EBT program if the USA adopted socialist policies?
5. What are some extremes we saw in the Venezuela supermarket crisis? How is this similar to and different from a trip to the supermarket in the United States?

The teaching and learning format for this lesson featured several video segments followed by open forum discussion on the issues presented in each video. At the end of class students answered reflection questions. 

My students will never look at grocery shopping the same way. 

Bread from heaven...

School has been canceled for 3 days. Why? Manna is falling...

Así es la vida

Talented students revisited

I'm always amazed at my students' creativity even if its completely misguided. 

Will this one get an office referral? Most likely. We don't condone violence.

Así es la vida...

When the teacher is away...

When the teacher is away, the students will play. A few weeks ago when I was absent from school one of my classes took this opportunity to wreak havoc. Things escalated from verbal threats to flipping desks.

The end result...a broken desk (that still hasn't been replaced) and in school suspension for one of the students involved.

Así es la vida...

Talented students

Students are such talented individuals. It's amazing how they will always find an outlet for their creativity.

 

Should I have written this kid up for drawing on his desk? Probably.

Así es la vida...