Preaching to Acquire

If you're a Spanish teacher and you focus on providing Comprehensible Input (CI) to your students, you probably know of Señor Wooly .  If you don't, do yourself a favor and check it out here . Many of us LOVE Wooly because of the ability to play fun songs in the target language, to engage students in a love for the crazy stories, and to take a break (or use for sub plans) and assign students "nuggets" to work on independently that provide them with great input. BUT! Last year during Wooly Week , I learned SO MUCH from the Wooly team about how to milk a story and really get kids HOOKED on the story before you even showed the video.  Now, when I plan to use a new Wooly song, I keep these ideas in the back of my mind.  I try to really get to the heart of the story and push past the surface of the songs and use them for everything they are. Of course, using the nuggets, and the supplemental materials like the embedding readings and the pre/during/post viewing activi...

Sometimes it's easier for me to express my thoughts and ideas while speaking, so I started a podcast 😁 It's called Preaching To Acquire and it's available on Spotify, Apple podcasts, and this link !

The honeymoon phase is over. At least for me, in my classes.  The excitement of the new school year has worn off, the cooler temperatures and gray skies of winter are becoming more frequent, and we are definitely in the thick of the DEVOLSON (Dark Evil Vortex Of Late September, October, November) season.   I just want to take a moment to encourage those of you that are trying new things or trying to become better teachers for your kids to NOT GIVE UP.   I say this all the time, but I think it bears repeating.  Almost every single time anyone tries anything new, they're going to suck at it. (I mean... there are a few prodigies out there rockin' it on the first try, but for the rest of us, it's just not the case).  The first time Aaron Rodgers threw a football was most likely not a perfect pass.  The first time Michael Jordan shot a basket, it probably missed.  How did these INCREDIBLY talented athletes get to be where they are? BY PR...

I'm so exhausted, but I just had to write this post about how much I am in love with Tina Hargaden's daily instructional framework! I'm including a video of my first day with my 6th grade class (I had them last year in 5th grade).  I spent about the first 20 minutes or so of class laying out expectations, discussing needed supplies, hiring a videographer, and allowing them to share about one thing they were looking forward to and one thing they were nervous about for this upcoming year. Here's what happened in this video: Norming the class (for 80 years lol... whoops) Reading Workshop: library tour Guided Oral Input: calendar talk Scaffolded Oral Review: oral questions Shared Writing: Write and Discuss Shared Reading: I read in L2, students chorally translate in L1 Student Application & Assessment: WHOOPS ran out of time Check out the video if you'd like!

The past 2 weeks have been a whirlwind! I was finally able to get my surgery scheduled for August 14th.  Surgery was a success and I am talking again! YAY! In time for the first day of school! YAY! I will be filing away all of your (and my) ideas for when I need to take some vocal rest.  Thank you so much for the support.  This community of teachers is more than I could have ever dreamed of.  Check out the videos below for more of my story/journey (and to hear my brand new voice!), and if you're brave... keep scrolling to check out the before and after of my vocal cords! It's not too creepy or scary... no blood. I promise. Before surgery, large polyp on right side, small on left side After surgery... brand new voice!

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...

I went live in the CI Liftoff Facebook group on Monday, June 10th (in case you want to search for my name and find the video) to talk about what exactly CI (comprehensible input) is. I really feel like we, as teachers, have a tendency to over complicate it.  There is information overload out there, and because of that, I hear from many teachers that are unsure if they are "doing CI" in their classrooms.  Let me blow your mind for a second here. What is CI? 1. Messages that are being understood by students in the target language (Spanish for me). via GIPHY Okay, there is more to it than that, but pretty much that's what it boils down to. Are your students reading in the target language? Are they understanding what they read? Are you students hearing (and listening to) the target language? Are they understanding what they hear? If you answer yes to those questions, then you are "doing CI"! Of course there is a lot more detail when it comes to sp...