Category: Tips & Tricks

10 Time Management Tips for Teachers

7/5/2016

I recently wrote a guest blog post for an awesome Spanish Teacher known in the internet world as La Profesora Frida. She is a fellow Teacher-Author who has super fun and creative lessons that I have used in my own classroom. If you haven't checked her out yet, you should.

Now, onto the main event...

I never realized how much time I spent on my teaching job until I didn’t have the time to spend anymore. In December of 2012 my son was born and after a short maternity leave, I was thrown back into the world of teaching. My job was the same, but my life was completely different. I had to learn how to better manage my time, and I had to do it fast.

We may not all have kids, but we all have people in our lives that we want to spend time with, personal interests that we want to attend to, and places we want to see. The more effectively we can get all that other stuff done, the more time we can save to add to our personal time bank accounts. So, here are 10 things that I learned during my crash course in teacher time management:

Prioritize – it will never all get done. Look at your tasks and ask yourself if the classroom will fall apart if it doesn’t get done. If the answer is no, either don’t do it or push it to the end of the list. It is okay to throw away a stack of homework papers or an activity they did in class. Trust me, they won’t notice; I’ve been doing it for years.
Use a Planner – if you haven’t already developed this habit, you need to. Every time I check my e-mail I do it with my planner sitting right next to me. Anything and everything important goes into it and I always know where it is. I open it every morning and I take it with me every night. My planner has events, times, phone numbers, reminders, alternate schedules, meeting notes, makeshift lesson plans, and brainstorming. If I have a question, my planner has the answer.

If you are looking for a new planner, here are a couple to check out! La Profesora Frida made this great Editable Teacher Planner and I made this Digital World Language Teacher Planner to help teachers manage their classrooms and plan proficiency-based lessons.

Take Breaks – teachers need brain breaks too. If you are embarking on one of those marathon-grading sessions, you can take breaks after you finish grading a class or two worth of papers. I try not to work for more than an hour without getting up for at least 5 minutes. Then, it’s back to work I go.
Just Say No – Only someone who works in a school could ever understand the number of requests there are for your money and your time when you are a teacher. There are clubs to be run, dances to be chaperoned, detentions to be supervised, and extra help to be given. I agree to probably about 1 in 5 things that I am asked to volunteer for. I don’t feel bad saying no because I say yes too – I just say no more often.
No Distractions – Everyone has different things that distract him or her, so this one takes a little self-reflection. If you like listening to music while you work, maybe that is not a distraction for you. Unfortunately for me, much of my work involves being on the computer, which means there is a high danger of my falling into the “Pinterest Hole” – you know, when you click on one thing and it makes you think of another thing and then you need to see this thing and that thing and…yeah, just stay away from those situations you know will get YOU off track.
Small Chunks – Setting small, easily reachable goals feels way better than facing a stack of papers that seems insurmountable at 10:00 on a Sunday night. Try to complete one small task every other night. Set a limit to the time you want to spend and complete a task that can be done in that time. If you do this 2-3 nights a week, you will find that you suddenly have most of your weekend back.
Throw it Out – Teachers are some of the biggest hoarders I know. It must come from the fact that we are always begging for supplies to make our classes run more smoothly. When we get them, we don’t let go easily. However, “stuff” takes time to manage. If you decrease the amount of “stuff”, you decrease the amount of time it takes to deal with it. Doing your job effectively really doesn’t take as much “stuff” as you think. For the past two years, I have taught out of a backpack. Think about your essential things – your backpack things – and get rid of some of the things that don’t make the cut.
Let Go of Perfection – This is the toughest one for me. A lot of teachers are perfectionists, but don’t feed the monster. “Perfect” takes a lot more time than “really good” takes. The only person who would notice how perfect you are is you anyway (and you already know you’re perfect).
Delegate – See if you can get a student aid or two to handle the monotonous tasks of checking off homework, sorting papers, filing, etc. When I don’t have time to create something for my class, I delegate to the fantastic teachers on TeachersPayTeachers. Why would I spend an hour creating something that I could buy for a couple of dollars? My time is worth more to me than that.
Group Tasks – You will work much faster if you group common tasks together. The less time you spend jumping around from task to task, the more your brain settles in to what you are doing and the more efficient you become. Grading the last 10 papers in a set is much easier than grading the first 10. Planning for the end of the week is much easier than planning for the beginning. This is because your brain likes to stick with the same task and gets better at it as you go along.

The Back to School displays are already being set up at my local Target, which means that the new year will soon be upon us. I hope that at least a couple of these tips got your wheels turning. Ultimately, I hope will give you more time to spend with the people that you love, doing the things that you love.

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Essential School Supplies

6/17/2016

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There have been times when I have questioned whether I became a teacher because I wanted to teach, or if I became a teacher so that I would have an excuse to feed my school supply obsession. Heck, it's probably both.

When your job required that you interact with school supplies on an almost daily basis, I happen to think that finding something you love is priceless...something little that makes your day a bit more joyous or your job a bit easier. So, I wanted to share with you the Top 5 things I have fallen in love with over my 15+ years as a middle and high school Spanish teacher.

1. POPPIN! I think that the poppin line of office supplies is awesome! Not only do they look cute and modern, but they hold up sooooo much better than any other supplies I have had in the past. I first discovered their expandable files as I prepared for returning to my status as a traveling teacher, knowing that I would need a way to keep all my papers organized inside of a backpack. Since then I have branched out to try many other products by poppin - their jumbo sticky pads and letter trays are two of my other favorites. They come with a bit of a price tag, but they have already lasted more than 3x longer than any expandable file I have had in the past and they will be gracing my backpack again in the coming school year.

2. IKEA STAMP MARKERS - These were a fun find during our annual summer trip to our local IKEA (2 hours away in Pittsburgh). I use them for quick homework checks when I know I am going to review the assignment but I want to make sure that they at least attempted it before the review. When I collect the papers I look for my stamp (which means it is on time) as well as attempts to make corrections. They are perfect because they are unique enough that the kids can't forge them but quick and easy enough that I don't waste a lot of class time.

3. UNI-BALL SIGNO PENS - These are the kind of pens that you DO NOT lend out to students. You will grow to love them so much that you won't let them out of your sight. At times, I have become so obsessed with these pens that paranoia has set in. You know, when you can't find something and you immediately begin interrogating your students and secretly blaming that one kid? Yeah, it's that kind of pen.

4. CLIPBOARD PADFOLIOS - These have been the key to my organization for a long time. I have one for my attendance & seating charts, one for my homework log,and one for my hall pass log. They are perfect because you can keep the information you need frequently clipped to the top, but then you can also write things down in the notebook for later reference.

5. STUDENT GROUPING PENCILS - I actually have two sets of these and I use them all the time. They are notorious in my classroom. Whenever my students see a note on the board that says "escoge un lápiz", they start to squirm. Since the pencils have different colors, different numbers, and different shapes, rigging your group so that you are with your friends becomes a bit more complicated because they never know how I am going to group them - though that doesn't stop them from begging me to tell them. I love them because they are a quick and versatile way to group kids, especially if you ever do jigsaw activities in your class where you switch the way students are grouped several times during the class period.

There is it! My Top 5! The bins and bins of Back to School supplies will be arriving shortly, so keep an eye out for one of my favorites or take a chance and discover a new favorite of your own. Until then though, just enjoy your summer!

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Surveys in Spanish Class (Part 2)

6/13/2016

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Since many teachers begin by implementing surveys as a way to reflect on their teaching, I thought I would share some of my survey results and how I plan to use them to inform my instruction. Hopefully this will give you some ideas of how to interpret your results and glean the useful information from the sea of student responses.

1. Do my students feel they are learning in my class?

Despite what many government officials think, the learning process is not the sole responsibility of the teacher. After all, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. I am happy that the vast majority of my students recognize that they are learning in my class, but I am concerned about the 13% who either aren't learning or don't think they're learning. Next time I ask this question I will have to drill down a bit by asking anyone who responded a 3 or below WHY they feel they aren't learning. It could be me or it could be them, I really need more information.

2. Do my students like my class? Do they like me?

In the minds of teenagers, these two questions often go hand in hand. When you teach an elective, how much students like you DOES matter because they have a choice whether or not to spend their time with you. While there are certainly other factors at work, many of them are out of your control. In a time when the number of students studying a foreign language in the U.S. is dropping, being an enjoyable person to spend an hour with may just be the deciding factor for a good proportion of kids.

3. Do my students think that what I am teaching them is or will be useful to them?

It is clear that despite enjoying the learning process, too many of my students still don't see the connection between the skills they are learning and real life. Compared to other places in the U.S., my students still live in area that has a relatively low number of Hispanics. While that is slowly changing and each year we see more and more Spanish-speaking families coming to our community, we still have not reached that tipping point. One of my focuses needs to be bringing in guest speakers who can share with students how they use Spanish for business and/or pleasure.

4. What types of activities do my students enjoy most?

Sometimes I am tempted to sacrifice cultural lessons when I am short on time and need to get to the "more important stuff". I am starting to earn a new respect for teaching culture - maybe it IS the "more important stuff". Realistically speaking, a small percentage of my students will ever reach a high level of language proficiency BUT they can still be culturally proficient. Being able to understand the perspectives of others will be important for all of them regardless of their future professions.

When you see new technologies - like the ear piece that automatically translates what you are saying to the language of your choice - you can't help but wonder if someday people won't need to know another to language to actually communicate in it. Culture, however, is something that can keep us relevant.

5. How many of my students are taking the next course?

This was a big one for me. For the past several years our program has been struggling. We lost 5 entire classes worth of kids and it meant that one of our teachers was let go. This is serious stuff and I wanted to know if I was contributing to the problem. This year we had 12 sections of Spanish 2. For next school year, we only have 6 sections of Spanish 3. Half of our students are choosing not to take the next level. Now, that being said, I have the toughies - I have the Spanish 2 students who are 10th, 11th, or 12th grade. This means that they were not permitted to begin the program in 8th grade with everyone else due to (usually) weak reading and writing skills in their English classes. Now, I completely disagree with that being a reason to keep them from studying a second language (though that is a discussion for another time) but it does say something about the message these students have received about themselves in relation to academics. I was happy to see that 62% of my students (more than the 50% average) were continuing, especially since for this particular group you would expect the number to be below average. It would be interesting as a department to look at this - not to point fingers, but to really get to the bottom of why kids aren't continuing their students and what we have the power to do.

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Surveys in Spanish Class

6/12/2016

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We are used to seeing surveys used extensively in business - you know when the cashier reminds you that there is a link to a survey at the bottom or your receipt every time you go to the store?

So surely surveys must be giving businesses valuable information, otherwise they would not offer rewards for completing them. But can surveys be used in our classrooms the same way? ¡Absolutamente!

Now, there is no reason you can't just write a survey and give it the pen and paper way, but I think it is worth a look at some of your more techie options. There are obvious advantages to having your students take surveys online:

easier to compile results as quantitative responses are calculated for you
students tend to be more honest since you won't recognize their handwriting

Of course the same anonymity that may make feedback given online more honest, may tempt students to commit indiscretions, knowing that it's not likely they'll be held accountable for it.

First of all, let's look at some of the best online survey tools available for teachers:

1. Google Forms - advantages: easy to use, great visual representations of results, and 100% free! disadvantages: students must have computer access to complete

2. Typeform - advantages: great style and format that would be easy for gathering feedback even from the elementary age student, disadvantages: set up is slightly more complicated, some types of questions are available in the paid service only

3. Surveymonkey - advantages: lots of options and ways to customize, disadvantages: you have to pay to get the full range of options

Once you have decided on your survey tool of choice, there are actually a lot of things that you can use them for...

A) GATHERING FEEDBACK ON YOUR COURSE or your teaching is the obvious use and surveys can certainly help us to reflect on our practice through the eyes of our students. Some will debate the validity of student responses on surveys, but that's where I think you need to go into giving surveys with eyes wide open. There are always going to be jerks, and if you can't take the jerks (or at least what they might say) then you may not want to give surveys that are more personal in nature. However, if you really have an interest into gaining insight into how you might make the jerks a little less jerky, you may be surprised.

Here is an example of a survey I have given as an end of the year survey for my Spanish 2 course.

B) STUDENT INTEREST SURVEYS are often given at the beginning of the school year. They are a way to stay in touch with the individual personalities that are entering your classroom and are typically not related to the class. Instead, they try to find out what your students are engaged in outside of class - what sports do they play, what video games do they like, what hobbies do they have? These can be very useful to have if you want to be prepared to break down the barriers with more difficult students. Taking an interest in them as people, beyond the context of the classroom, is one way to proactively manage behavior problems.

Here is a survey I give at the beginning of the year that is kind of a mix between a student interest survey and a technology access survey.

C) STUDENT LEARNING STYLE SURVEYS are another common beginning of the year survey. These typically aim at finding out which type of learning your group favors - visual, auditory, kinesthetic, etc. It will help you gain an awareness as to where your students are coming from and is also great information to include as background knowledge when someone is coming in to observe or evaluate your class.

D) PERSONALIZING VOCABULARY to make sure it includes words that your students will actually want to use can be done easily by asking students to submit ideas for what they would like to know how to say and then using a tool like Wordle to look at the most common responses.

Here is a survey I gave my students before starting a unit where I was planning to teach them to talk about what they like and don't like now compared to when they were little kids.

E) TECHNOLOGY ACCESS SURVEYS ask questions about what technology your students have access to outside of school. If you are planning on using web based tools like Google Classroom, online textbooks, or Youtube videos it is a good idea to ask some basic questions up front. This will allow you to know who might be being honest when they say they couldn't get to an online assignment. This will also let you know how much of your class will need to have hard copies of internet assignments provided. You can also ask about social media use and cell phone access.

F) OPINION POLLS may be a good way to start a class discussion on a cultural issue. Talking about controversial topics like immigration can be difficult for students to do maturely. Having some information ahead of time about students thoughts and beliefs may help you to know exactly what the misunderstandings may be on a certain topic and help you predict what some of the arguments may be so that you can do some research to help further the conversation or debate.

G) STUDENT GROWTH MEASURES can be done at the beginning and end of a unit using an online survey tool. Decide on a small number of skill-based questions that you would like to see your students be able to handle by the end of a unit. Ask them those questions at the beginning and the end to show their progress. You could easily do this in the middle of the unit too as a way to gather data and shift your teaching towards the points students are having difficulty mastering.

How else could you see using surveys with yours students? Comment below!

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Addressing Religion in a Spanish Class

12/8/2015

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Many of us Spanish teachers struggle with how to truly teach the cultural content involved in our courses when it comes to teaching about holidays and traditions that involve religion. While this may be a non-issue for those of teaching in a Catholic school, teachers who teach in public schools or schools dedicated to other religious faiths may have concerns. I wanted to give a few tips to those teachers as to how you can handle this delicate issue.

First of all, let me start by saying that I do think that in order for our students to truly understand Hispanic culture, religion needs to be a piece of the puzzle. So many practices and perspectives of the culture are directly influenced by the beliefs of not only Catholicism, but of the indigenous cultures that preceded the arrival of the Spanish to the New World. To me, there is a clear distinction between teaching ABOUT something and teaching students to actually DO or BE something. Just as History teachers who teach about the Holocaust and the beliefs of Hitler are not encouraging students to practice Nazism, we are not trying to convert students to Catholicism just because we discuss the beliefs that they hold.

It is definitely possible to teach about religion in a way that enhances student understanding and perspective and does not get you (the teacher) in trouble. In 15 years of teaching in public schools, I have taught elements of religion as culture each year. I have never received a complaint from a student, parent, or administrator. Hopefully these tips will help you to teach the way you know you should without having to fear doing that.

Tip #1 - Give a Disclaimer - It is not a bad idea to tell students prior to the lesson that there will be certain religious elements mentioned. Tell them that these things are only being mentioned to help them understand the perspective of the Hispanic people and the reasons behind what they do. Make it clear that the lesson is in no way meant to devalue other religions or beliefs that people in the room may hold.

Tip #2 - Offer Students an Opportunity to Express their Concern - Tell your students that if they think the fact that religion will be discussed will make them uncomfortable or would be a concern for them or their families to please come and talk to you. This will allow you to find out ahead of time who may find a problem with your lesson and contact parents to discuss it directly prior to the lesson.

Tip #3 - Be Careful with Your Pronouns - Remove your personal religious beliefs from the conversation, whether they are similar or different than the ones you are explaining. It is important to dissociate yourself from the religion. Do not make statements that start with "I" or "We" as these will give students the impression that you are speaking about your own beliefs rather than that of the Hispanic people. Instead, begin statements with phrases like "According to the Catholic religion..." or "Many Hispanics believe...".

Tip #4 - Preview Materials - If you will be showing a video on a holiday, a song, or even a lesson. Stay true to your word and choose materials that only share religious information with the direct goal of helping students understand the perspectives of Hispanic culture. Materials that share religious opinions that do not directly relate to the matter at hand should probably be avoided.

If you are looking for some holiday materials that address religion in a way that would be suitable for a public school environment, here are a variety of lessons that you can look through.

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Involving Native Speakers in the World Language Classroom

12/5/2015

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My high school has a vast untapped resource for Spanish teachers - native speakers! Being in Ohio, we don't enjoy the large numbers of native Spanish-speakers that schools in the larger metropolitan areas or southwestern U.S. do, but we do have a decent sized Puerto Rican population on Cleveland's west side. During the last 15 years I have seen the numbers of Hispanics grow in our schools by leaps and bounds. I know they are out there, but because they didn't need to step foot inside my Spanish class, I rarely got to meet them. Over the past few years I have been working on ways to identify these students and bring them into my classroom for some conventional and unconventional activities. They add definite credibility to the classroom because, unlike teachers (wink wink), they are real people!

Here are some simple ways that you can start to include native speakers from around your school building in your own class:

1. Guest Spot - get one native speaker per unit to come in and quickly model whatever topic you are working on talking about. If you are working on likes and dislikes, have them come in and talk about what they like to do or what they don't like to eat. If you are talking about family, have them come in and describe their own. I try to get the same student for each class period so that over the course of the year my students get to know them.

2. Grading Panel - Whenever your students give an oral presentation, get a panel of 2-3 native speakers to come and listen and give their opinions on how easy (or difficult) it is to understand the student when they speak Spanish.

3. Conversation Leaders - When you are working on interpersonal conversation, bring in native speakers to be the conversation leaders. Have them sit with a group of students and to help them keep the conversation going when it starts to falter.

4. Culture Share - Invite a student to share a person, place, or thing that is significant in their culture. Kind of like an older student's version of show and tell.

5. Peer tutor - Native speakers are usually very willing to help struggling students. This works out well, especially if you run a proficiency-based classroom.

6. Favorites - Have a native speaker share their 5 favorite Spanish language songs, books, movies, words or television shows. These things are becoming more and more accessible in the U.S. and may inspire some students to start exploring Spanish outside of the classroom.

7. Playground Games - have a native speaker demonstrate to your class a game that they used to play outside as a child.

8. Guess Who - give students facts about one of the native speakers in your school and give them a week to find out their name. To prove they figured it out, they must actually approach the student and have them write the "secret word" (which we arrange ahead of time) on their paper.

9. Guest Reader - Have a native speaker come to your class and read your students a children's book in Spanish. My high school students love this!

10. Survey - Have your students develop a survey to give to Spanish-speaking students in your school and have them make some observations about the results.

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10 Time Management Tips for Teachers

Essential School Supplies

Surveys in Spanish Class (Part 2)

Surveys in Spanish Class

Addressing Religion in a Spanish Class

Involving Native Speakers in the World Language Classroom

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