Preaching to Acquire

Hey guys! Sorry it's been so long since I've posted.  I had a busy summer, and I'm just starting to think about school again.  I wish I could be writing a post about how I would start my year on day 1 with CI, but this year and every year to come is probably going to look different than I imagined it would.  In mid-July, I was diagnosed with vocal cord polyps.  I had heard of these before because many famous singers have this issue, but the idea of me, a teacher, having polyps was crazy to me.  You can watch my video at the bottom of this post to see more about the what my journey has been so far... but I'm also hoping some of you can help me with ideas for starting my year with no voice or possibly not even being able to be present. Here's a summary of events: -Fall of 2018: started using CI in all class and became very dramatic with story telling -Feb. of 2019: began easily losing my voice and becoming hoarse -May of 2019: voice was so bad I couldn't even...

One of the things we stress in our CI classrooms is the need for community.  It's something that I've put more focus and effort into building this year, and I think I figured out one (pretty obvious - duh!) place to start... being vulnerable. If we want our students to share about themselves in class and grow closer together, we must model that for them.  Many of them may come from situations where being open, honest and real isn't what is expected.  Some of us may come from backgrounds where that is just not what our families expected from us.  Sometimes this is an adjustment for both teacher and students. Here are some ways that I've tried to model vulnerability in front of my students:  1) I ask them how they are and actually care about their responses.  It might be before school or during lunch duty when I see a student who looks tired or doesn't have their usual bubbly smile.  I always try to ask them how they are doing.  If they respo...

I'm going to share a little bit of my heart with you all in this post.  My teacher heart has this crazy passion fire burning in it, and I want to challenge those of you who teach language using comprehensible input. Obviously, this is going to differ from state to state, but I will speak from my experience as a Wisconsin teacher. In my methods classes, we read about Krashen and his research, but we did not spend time discussing or practicing how to use that in our language classrooms.  Therefore, I had graduated college and started teaching using the same methods that I was taught.  I LOVED my Spanish classes and assumed that all students would find success the way I had.  Wrong. So I started looking for more resources on how to teach certain things because my students weren't getting it.  I knew I needed to make a change.  I stumbled upon The Comprehensible Classroom by Martina Bex  and from there started swirling down the rabbit hole of ALL OF ...

I'm sure I'll get asked why I decided to call my blog "Preaching to Acquire," so I figured I'd just make a post about it! Well... I imagine most of the people who decide to read my blog will be language teachers, many of whom already teach for acquisition and proficiency in their classrooms.  It which case, I'm literally preaching to the choir about how I teach. Ha! If that isn't you...welcome! If you are a language teacher, I hope I can help you find some joy in your journey as well.

Dear Kaitlin, I know you are SO excited to finally get out into the real teaching world and teach Spanish.  I  know that you want to teach Spanish to help build connections and community between cultures and languages.  I know that you felt successful in Spanish classes and LOVED all of the games and activities you played to memorize the many vocabulary words and verb conjugations.  I know you still have songs and chants memorized and can’t wait to teach those same things to your students. ...but what if I told you that they way you were taught isn’t equitable for all students.  You don’t even understand what equity is.  I get it.  You grew up in a community of people who looked and lived almost exactly like you - in a privileged community.  What if I told you that many of the students you work with will not grow up in a household that supports their education?  What if I told you that the way you learned Spanish won’t work for many kids ...

Before I dive in sharing about the roller coaster journey of a language teacher, I wanted to introduce myself! I started my teaching career in Baltimore, MD.  I taught Spanish grades 6-12 for two years.  After those two years, I decided to move back home to Wisconsin.  I've been teaching 5th-8th grade Spanish (and a little spelling, math, and reading along the way) at a public charter school for the past 5 years, and I love my job. Two years ago, I was ready to quit.  "Wait. I thought you JUST said you love your job?!" I do.  Now. Honestly, as each school year came to a close, and I had to sign my contract for the next year, I would seriously consider if I wanted to return to my school or teaching in general.  What changed? ME.  I'll save some of those stories for another post, but it's been quite a journey.  I'm so thankful that I didn't throw in the towel as I firmly believe that I am exactly where God intends for me to be.  The peace...