Ideas and Resources for Spanish Teachers
Does your school have a student aide program? Spanish class student aides can help with a lot of things that simply save a teacher time! Here is some information about how to get a student aide and what you should and should not ask a Spanish class student aide to do!
Centers for Spanish class are a great way to keep all students engaged at the same time and even to differentiate activities for the varying learning needs and skill levels we have in our classes. Centers are also called stations, and if you’ve never heard of them, here’s a brief overview!
Teacher friends- get ready for a bold opinion. If we want to have a happier teacher life, we need to say NO (politely) a lot more often. For most of my 23 year career, I was under the impression that teachers are martyrs and that we had to work almost all the time. A lot of things starting piling up. The pandemic, my own children getting older (and that saying- bigger kids, bigger problems), and the ever-growing list of things added to our day. Over the years, the exhilaration and joy of coming to work was being lost!
Though there are many Spanish teachers that no longer teach grammar discretely, there are many who do, or do some kind of mixture. If your students need to practice grammar, here is a fun list of grammar games for Spanish class! Students love games and often don’t realize that they’re even learning! Give them a try!
How do you start your Spanish classes? This year we have a new school-wide initiative to do bell-ringers, or do-nows, or schema activators or warm-ups… there are so many names for them! Research shows that if you have an academic routine to start each class, it increases time on task and readiness for new learning! If having students self-start each class, while you take attendance, check homework and help the new kid sound good to you, bell-ringer activities for Spanish class are for you!
Coming back from Winter Break can be tough, and for some, even depressing! But now is a great time to reengage students by giving them something interesting to learn about! How about the New Year’s Traditions of the Spanish-speaking World? Not only is it interesting, but it makes for a great cultural comparison!
Do you use the season to your advantage? In Spanish class, we can help our students reach greater proficiency levels by giving them LOTS of topics to speak and write about! Even if the current unit has nothing to do with a particular season, there’s no reason you can’t work that in! Try these ideas for Spanish Speaking Activities for Winter!
The AP Spanish Exam has a section called the Simulated Conversation, during which students hear a recorded person talk to them. In the 20 second intervals that follow, students must record their responses as if they are actually talking with the recorded person. Here are some tips for the AP Spanish Simulated Conversation!
The AP Spanish Exam Email reply is an open-ended task that requires students to demonstrate their interpersonal skills. They need to understand a short letter and respond appropriately. Looking for some quick tips to make this easier for your students? Keep reading!
Need some help with the AP Spanish Argumentative Essay? In my humble opinion, it is the most complicated task our AP Spanish students will have to complete. El ensayo argumentativo requires excellent reading skills, listening skills and writing skills. So how can we help our students do well on this part of the AP Spanish exam?
