Nurturing a love of language learning, the pandemic and keeping it real

Like many teachers, my job changed in March, quickly and swiftly. I had to alter everything I was doing with my classes in the same manner. Quickly and swiftly. Even the most “techy” of us had to deal with the Zoom/Google Meet classes that were glitchy, video cameras on or off, the tried and true lessons that weren’t ready for the “all online” mode, ripped away from the classroom and our students. We all had to try our best to stumble through to the end of the school year. We all hoped that when we returned in the fall, the pandemic would be behind us. We would go back to the classroom. Sadly that was not the case. September rolled around to many of us facing the fact that we’d be teaching remote, hybrid, with cohorts with alternating weeks, or in another of the myriad of ways districts creatively instituted to try and educate our students. As I thought about how I planned to connect with my students, I decided I would continue to keep it real as I always have done for the past fourteen years. Life is not normal right now, but nurturing a love of language learning is what I am 100% committed to. Sometimes, though, keeping it real means letting go of what we did before and doing things differently to achieve the same results. So I’m coming up with new ways to teach and nurture a love of learning Spanish in the 30 minutes I have during this (hopefully ending soon ) new normal. I hope that in sharing my thoughts, lessons, and ideas, I can help others and in turn, they can help me as well and together we can maneuver through this very trying time.

My upcoming post is the unit I’m currently on with my 8th graders La Familia. I’ve revamped it and am excited to share some of the things I’ve done. ¡Hasta la próxima!