Increasing student engagement without over engaging my free time

This year I try to keep students engaged without spending hours planning a fun activity that may or may not work out. I thought of the easiest review game ever after I was forced not to do my modified version of the fly swatter game when the poster machine broke one morning. It took me all of two minutes to think of the game and ten minutes to get the supporting materials together.

Modified Fly Swatter Game

I let students pick a partner. Each pair gets an answer board with scrambled phrases in the target language. I call out a number and translation of one of the phrases on their answer board. Students work with their partner to write the correct number beside the phrase on their answer board. The group that gets the most correct wins a prize. 

Why is this review game awesome?

1. Students are engaged

2. Students are quiet (they don’t want neighboring groups to steal their answers)

3. Students are practicing listening

4. I can easily assess listening comprehension

"Is we doin' work today?"

I never knew kids could be so lazy until I started teaching. Last year when I taught a state tested subject, I kind of understood why they complained about doing so much work. This year I teach an elective; Spanish 1. Just to be clear, this is Spanish for kids who have NEVER taken a foreign language class in their lives.

This means we're learning things like the ABCs, days of the week, numbers, weather, classes, and colors. You are officially the laziest person on earth if you think learning the ABCs in Spanish is too much work. We even watched a video and sang a song!

New classroom management

I actually give out a tangible reward!

I make it rain raffle tickets for participation. This is crucial since I require 100% participation every single day in my classroom. As a foreign language teacher I need to hear my students attempt to speak the language to gauge how they're doing orally.  To reward their bravery for trying they get tons of verbal praise and raffle tickets.

And I do a class raffle every two weeks with 3 winners from each class period.

Off to a great start

Reasons why this school district is better than the last one

1. the vision statement is catchy. “All students will be successful”. I didn’t bother remembering the vision statement was at my old school because it was too long. 
2. they gave us paper to start the school year! 
3. my kids can read (most of them anyways)
4. I get a break for lunch (last year I had to escort my kids to lunch, walk them through the lunch line, sit with them, and escort them back from lunch)
5. school starts at 8:00 instead of 7:30
6. there’s no snack time (seriously why do high school students need snack time?)
7. I’m "in civilization" (still no target though)
8. I’m teaching an elective instead of a core subject (I get to teach whatever I want however I want to teach it)

Inspiration

These three signs will be featured in my classroom this fall since it is my job to encourage and inspire young people to stay on task and do their work. 

Things you can only enjoy in civilization

One of my favorite productions

You may only enjoy the luxury of seeing the fantastical musical Wicked if you are in/traveling to New York, London, Louisville, Salt Lake City, or Winnipeg.

What will I see the next time I venture into civilization?
Aladdin? Chicago? The Book of Mormon?

The possibilities are endless!

Random things students ask/say...

1. What you is?
2. How you get your hair like that?
3. You natural, aint it?
4. Where you from?
5. You Spanish, aint it?
6. May you please give me a pencil?
7. We aint never learn this!
8. I need for to go to the bathroom. 
9. We must finna go. 
10. You got kids?
11. How old you is?

You never know what's on the mind of a teenage student.