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Check-off List for Substitute Teacher (s) during Substitute Shortages

January 2, 2022 By Personal thoughts and beliefs of E.B.Shrager - do not represent those of any past or current employer.

Spanish Teachers Preparing for Substitute during Covid

During our nationwide substitute-teacher shortage, we can no longer count on one person to cover  all of our classes.

After giving two months notice for a medical appointment, I left my usual sub letter and plans only to return to no notes and no names as to who covered which class.

To avoid future aggravation,  I created this additional form that you can download here.

If you need asynchronous Spanish lessons so that students can work independently with substitutes that don’t know Spanish, please consider my cultural lessons below.

Cultural Activities:

 

Colombia Hidden Pictures.mp4 from ellen shrager on Vimeo.

 

 

We have eight so far with four more in progress.

 

REVIEW LESSONS:

INTRODUCE NEW VOCABULARY:

 

Filed Under: Classroom Management, Improve Class Behavior, New Teacher Tagged With: Preparing for Substitute, Spanish Substitute Lessons

Thanks for Visiting For the Minute by Minute Spanish!
Thanks for Visiting For the Minute by Minute Spanish!

Spanish Teacher Summer Prep to “Just Prep During Your Prep” during the New School Year

June 29, 2021 By Personal thoughts and beliefs of E.B.Shrager - do not represent those of any past or current employer.

Summer is so precious.

Last year was so insane.  Take one hour to learn 5 Sanity Savers for this upcoming year and enjoy the freebies!

5 STEP CHALLENGE

 

 

Filed Under: 90% Target Language Class, Classroom Management, Comprehensible Input, Freebie, Improve Class Behavior, New Teacher, Uncategorized

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Thanks for Visiting For the Minute by Minute Spanish!

Just Prep during Your Prep Spanish Class Lesson Template for Daily Tech Guide

July 28, 2019 By Personal thoughts and beliefs of E.B.Shrager - do not represent those of any past or current employer.

How to create your own CI classroom using a PPT/Google Slides with links to CI activities .

Game Changer Alert! If you want to structure your class with routines and varied activities, stay in the target language and prep for each lesson during your prep and not at home, then use this PowerPoint template. Use it every day to establish routines and create an interesting class. Choose from among the 75 activity slides for your activities. Never forget something you wanted to do in class because you have a slide for it.

Save each day’s presentation “daily tech guide” in a folder with handouts and label it day 1, day 2, day 3, etc. and next year spend even less time prepping for the day’s lesson. If you have already purchased a bundle of videos or the videos included below, go here and I will send you the template.

Some of the routine videos are embedded. You can always add more by clicking on the icon on top of the slide. There are 75 suggested activities and many have links to blogs. This is a growing bundle. Follow instructions inside to join our group and share new activities that we can add to the resource. Or send me your email for monthly updated slides.

It doesn’t open in a Chromebook if you want a Google Drive™ version, click here.

After downloading, if you want to order a bundle of videos, email me and I will insert them for you and set up your custom bundle.

You should use a remote presentation device or wireless mouse so that you can stand anywhere in the room and click to the next slide.

You will need to be able to open a zipped file to find:

  • 1 PowerPoint to use in class with 95 + slides and appealing visuals
  • 1 La clase va a empezar video.
  • 1 Hoy aprendí video.
  • 1 Role video.
  • 1 ¿Cual es la fecha de hoy? video
  • 1 Saluden a tus compañeros video snip.
  • 1 Gracias por aprender video.
  • 1 Días de la semana video.
  • 1 Dedo roto video.
  • 1 Me siento fatal.

The PowerPoint is editable, but if teammates, coworkers or a school or a school district would like to use my resources, there is a multiple user license that is available at a reduced price.

Are you like me and wish for four things this school year?

 

13 Minutes of Instructions on how to personalize  your template.

 

If you would like to purchase the template with the videos, click here.

If  you would like to join our FB group and share new activities and slides, click here.

All net proceeds help three Venezuelan families – meet them in this video as they open three boxes I sent to them.

 

 

If you want to read more about class structure and transition videos, read my blog here.

If your school won’t provide you with these tools, you may consider this:

Filed Under: 90% Target Language Class, Classroom Management, Daily Songs Improve Classroom Structure, Improve Class Behavior, New Teacher, Transition Videos, Visual Comprehensible Input Tagged With: ci, new Spanish teacher, new teacher, SOMOS, Spanish Class Routine, spanish class songs

Thanks for Visiting For the Minute by Minute Spanish!
Thanks for Visiting For the Minute by Minute Spanish!

5 Messages You Must Convey to Parents at “Back-To-School Night” or “Open House”

July 26, 2018 By Personal thoughts and beliefs of E.B.Shrager - do not represent those of any past or current employer.

5 Messages Teachers Must Give Parents at Open House or Back-to-School night.www.minutebyminutespanish

Back-to-School Nights can fly by in a blur. At our school, on Back-to-School Night, teachers have 10 minutes per class with parents. Use this time wisely. Don’t squander these minutes on technical information easily conveyed in a brochure, or by teaching a lesson in the target language — you have five more important messages to convey that will improve your relationship with parents for the rest of the year.

  1. You want to convey you are personable, friendly, human, and that they can trust you. Later on in the year, if there is an issue, you have laid the ground work that they approach you first with a problem or a complaint, not your boss.

After a brief sketch of my background and the advantages of learning Spanish, I mention my personal experience. I tell them about scholarships I have won, and how their child can also win scholarships, based on language skills. I share when I have made more money because of my language skills. Money catches their interest! I tell them how much I love teaching seventh grade right up until February when these twelve-year-olds turn into teenagers. I wink, we have a good laugh, I ask if the teenage alien has already entered their home, I have over 200 a day!  See, I’m personable!

  1. You must convey to them that you are the expert on this age group, compared to them. Even if you are a second year teacher throw out your statistic.

I spend a few minutes educating parents about adolescents and I assert my expertise with this age group. I tell them that in my experience of teaching more than 3,000 students in this age group, (here I pause and joke that I have the gray hair to prove it but you want it to sink in. Yah, they have two kids but you’ve had X amount in this age group.) I’ve seen some seventh graders try out some new—and undesirable—behaviors: lying and cheating.

Many parents are relieved when I depersonalize this shocking behavior. I reap many benefits throughout the year from this, as parents are more likely to admit their children’s mistakes to a teacher who doesn’t perceive these behaviors as a reflection of their parenting.

One unexpected behavior may be lying about homework, so I explain how I daily input grades into the grading program. I can help them put the app on their phones if that would help them to track their child’s actual homework turned in versus what they are told. Another lie may be that I haven’t handed back their make-up tests. My policy is to update grades and return them every Tuesday. (This slows down the compulsive parents who check grades online several times a day.)

As for cheating, many students use Google translate for their work and then flunk the assessments.  Excuses are made about being test phobic, but the reality is that post pandemic many students just want the grade and the assignment checked off so that their parents will let them be on their devices more than they actually want to learn.

I wrote 12 pages in my book about what teachers of other grades want parents to know. See below if you need more information.

  1. You must convey to parents to talk with you privately if something feels odd.

I tell them this, “If your child is trying to convince you of something that sounds unbelievable, email me to give you a call and we can figure out what is going on. Your child doesn’t have to know that you and I talked about the story that Mrs. Shrager is so old that every day she forgets to give me credit for my homework.”

      4.You must educate parents that their high school teachers will be writing college recommendations about the soft issues, including honesty.  (Update 2022 – you might want to swap this out for a few observations about cell phone addiction last year compared to pre-pandemic and lack of sleep.)

If your parents are like my parents, the thought of their child having good grades but lousy recommendations terrifies them. You can learn how to talk to parents about the Common App letter of recommendation below. Teachers love having this information to help parents see the importance of correcting behavior issues in their class.

5. You must convey that languages are learned not just taught, and you have practice available whenever their child needs help, at their time convenience.

I tell them that I have Quizizz and Blooket  games every week for practice that can be played on their child’s phone while on the bus to a sporting event. I also tell them that my job is to give them a love of learning Spanish which I do through music, current events, and by preparing 100 slides a day with my daily tech guide for visual support so that we can conduct the lesson in Spanish.  I ask how many have heard their children singing one of our songs already?  If time, I show a minute video of the class singing a song.  Parents love it and we end on a high loving note.

What do you want parents to hear first as a general observation so that they don’t take it personally when their student does it?  (This minimizes personal attacks on you for saying horrible things about their child.)  Prepare your presentation, use your time wisely to reap benefits all year long from it and enjoy Back-to-School night.

This post is a condensed version of one of the  sections from my book, Teacher Dialogues. Available  at Amazon.

Perfect gift for new teacher or any teacher refining his or her "teacher voice.
Perfect gift for new teacher or any teacher refining his or her “teacher voice.”

 

 

Filed Under: Classroom Management, Difficult Class, Improve Class Behavior, Reflective Teacher, Take Charge of That Class, Uncategorized Tagged With: back to school night, parents, Spanish Teacher, Teacher, what to share with parents

Thanks for Visiting For the Minute by Minute Spanish!
Thanks for Visiting For the Minute by Minute Spanish!

Unintentional Consequences of Social Media Clash with Appropriate Classroom Behavior

March 21, 2018 By Personal thoughts and beliefs of E.B.Shrager - do not represent those of any past or current employer.

Don’t blame the parents or the students! Blame social media surrounding our middle school students with the belief that every opinion is important and demanding of immediate attention.  The village needs to directly teach children and their parents to stop this or else the students will not deserve an excellent Teacher Evaluation when applying to colleges.

In case the parents don’t know, over 700 universities accept the Common Application. Its Teacher Evaluation will be important and students really don’t know who in their senior year they will be asking to complete it.  Acting like  jerks in ninth grade study hall may prevent students from getting the kind of recommendation they need. I described this in detail in books for parents and a book for teachers.  If you want the whole explanation and create a paradigm shift with your community, consider using these books: Seventh Grade Guide  Sixth Grade Guide  Teacher Dialogues

But if you just want the 10 minute explanation it goes like this.  Pick a time to have a heart-to-heart talk with your class.  Explain that their speaking out, whining, and interrupting, is becoming a habit that must now be broken in middle school because their high school teachers will be judging them and evaluating them.  Even if they think they will grow up when they are juniors – their senior teachers may have had them in a study hall or lunch room duty when they were freshmen.  Even if they are marked as being good – they are in column 5 of 7 – and not the best candidates.  The margin is very slender.  Show them the four areas indicated with the arrows that concern you.  Tell them that they have a great future, but not if they don’t have the social skills desired by adults writing and reading the college applications.

This usually stops students and parents.  I tell them that I will do my job by reminding them with the words, “social skills alert” meaning their lack of appropriate social skills is a problem.  I call their parents and tell them that I am doing this to help them and ask for their help.  I assure the students and their parents that this is so important that I am willing to assign detentions and work with their parents to get them back on track.

As for Spanish class, I have created three musical videos to demonstrate these skills.  The first is how to treat a new student in class.  The second is how to write an email to a teacher, and the third is the most important, asking if now is a good time before just talking at the teacher with different requests.

As

As I write these words in March, I see many teachers writing about classroom management beginning to unravel. Point systems are all about external validation that quickly loses its attraction and the external rewards need to be upped as time goes on. There is no magic bullet that will last the year. External rewards only last so long.

But internal validation is something else.  It’s about catching their vision of who they want to be and showing how developing self-discipline will get them there.  Connect with your students by sharing this information with them and their parents and relating their behavior choices to their future ability to have the things they want and the lifestyle they deserve.

Filed Under: Classroom Management, Difficult Class, Improve Class Behavior, Out-of-Control Class, Reflective Teacher, Regain Control of Class, Take Charge of That Class Tagged With: classroom behavior, classroom management, Spanish class, teacher dialogue with student

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