Minute by Minute Spanish

Spanish Lessons

Three Steps to Help First Year Teachers Step Off the Class Routines Struggle Bus.

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Three Steps for Struggling Teachers Can Make All the Difference in Their Classes!
Three Steps to Help First Year Teachers Step Off the Class Routines Struggle Bus.
Lavon, a first year teacher with three preps,  asked for help with “Many of the teachers say that their classes have many routines that help make class run smoothly. My students know to expect to have bell work every day, but beyond that, I don’t think there is enough structure for them, as my classes sometimes feel chaotic”
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Lavon, welcome to the most rewarding profession imaginable. I am so glad you joined us because you have the quality that most great teachers have, namely, you are reflecting on what you can do to improve your teaching craft and create a teaching voice that will support smoother classes.
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First get a hold of a ‘clicker’ either a remote mouse or remote presentation device. This will help you to walk around the room and stand near students who are off task and yet still proceed with the lesson.  Once you start using it, you will never look back!
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Second, make an outline for each class of the day’s activities and make one slide for each activity.  If you use a book, show the page and the page number.  If you are using movie talk, show an image from the clip, if you are doing embedded reading, show the completed sheet, if you must teach from a vocabulary list, show the list, etc.  I call this a “Daily Tech Guide” and it can be created in any software that you choose.  The software doesn’t matter, the visual support to your daily class activities does!
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Third, take charge of your transitions.  Things fall apart with transitions.  I have found that by using musical transitions in the target language, students can’t help singing along with these catchy tunes and slip into the next activity without the off-task behavior.  See an example here for Spanish. French, Italian, German, Mandarin, English and Latin.  I know you mentioned turning to TeacherspayTeachers to help you create lessons for your three preps. I love TpT because it helps new teachers to deliver lessons from veteran teachers and accelerates their learning curve while giving them time to have a life outside the classroom.   I think you will find that these videos can be used every day unlike most activities.
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After a week of making these outlines, you will be able to quickly make your three a day for your three preps by starting with the ones you have created.  It will be worth the initial time investment.
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As a 30 year veteran, I can share with you that I want to go back and apologize to my first year students and also thank them for making me a better teacher.  Many of my former high school students are now in their 40s and one is even a grandmother.  Being a part of their education has enriched my life tremendously.  I feel that 30 years from know you will be saying the same.  Welcome to the World’s Most Important Profession!
Here are the cuts from the Top 21 I use every week.

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

You, Teachers, Can Help Suffering Venezuelans Today.

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You can help some families with your TeacherspayTeachers puchases of MBM Videos.
Support Five Hardworking Families in Venezuela by using their videos in your classroom.

Venezuela is spiraling out of control.

Good-hearted people around the world  are wringing their hands and posting videos on Facebook about the protests.  (Below is the latest Google for protests in Venezuela.)

But if you want to do more than wring your hands, please read below.

Purchase Transition Videos to help Venezuelans
You can help five suffering Venezuelan families today.

 

Venezuela lacks jobs, food and medicines.  I used to live there and heard of a friend’s son losing his teaching position because the school was closed for lack of funds.  So last year I started to send work to him and four other  Venezuelan families to help them survive.  They were hardworking middle-class families slipping into poverty as prices soared and basic necessities became scarce.

They create and record songs, create graphics for my classroom, and create videos for classroom use in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Mandarin and soon Latin.

If you want to help them, please purchase some of our Transition Videos, Spanish Birthday Song Video or the National Anthem Video packet on Teachers pay Teachers and the money will be forwarded to them.

Last month we made $200 on TpT and a retired  teacher donated $200 and I added another $100 and sent $500 to a family that is trying to establish residency in Colombia because the wife was born there and has legal Colombian citizenship.

 

When I first started helping them,  the wife was pregnant but there was no food to be purchased in their part of Venezuela and the pregnancy wasn’t thriving.  With my help, she and her husband, one of the singers I employ, made it to Colombia where they could purchase food and the baby was born.  Colombia has cracked down on naturalizing Venezuelans because the flood of immigrants is more than they can absorb.

The family has come down with pneumonia and our singer can’t be treated in Colombia because he is still awaiting his documents to be processed.  The last time he tried to authenticate his documents he was refused.  He left the building and another government official met him outside and offered to do it for a premium.  The bribe deprived him of the extra money for the electrical bill so services were cut and he relies on the kindness of friends with internet service to communicate with me.

Another graphic artist designs flash cards, family tree,  and other visuals  that I use in my class and will soon put on TpT.  She is pregnant and the money I send her goes for securing healthy food.

There are more stories behind these very talented people who just want to work and want to live without fear – fear of not being able to feed their families, fear of being assaulted in the streets as they try to buy staples, fear of being caught of up in the protests, fear of not providing basic medicines that we take for granted here in the United States.

Remember the starfish story about the boy who threw a star fish found on the beach back into the ocean so it could live and was told it was hopeless and unimportant because he couldn’t save them all?  He replied it was important to the one he was helping.  I can’t save a country but I can help these five families of  struggling, educated, talented Venezuelans.  They pray constantly for help and I believe that God answers prayers in the form of people acting as angels.  Sometimes  people acting as angels  have helped me in my own hours of need.  Sometimes I get to help them. You can, too!  If you can use these videos to in your classroom or to help someone learn a language, then please purchase them.  Answer their prayers for work and not charity.  Thank you.

Venezuelan National Anthem Video

 

5 versions of Spanish Happy Birthday

 

Purchse English Videos Here

Purchase Spanish Videos Here

Purchase French Videos Here

Purchase Italian Videos Here.

Purchase Mandarin Videos Here.

Purchase German Videos Here.

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

Spring Change-Up for Spanish Class Warm-Ups with Spanish Musical Videos

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Start each day with that day's song and different music to review the culture and vocabulary.
Start each day with that day’s song and different music to review the culture and vocabulary.

A Spanish teacher  asked how to change up the daily warm-ups to breath some fresh air into the class routine and, of course, my answer is musical videos.

Use a remote presentation device or clicker so you can start your class from the hall or any part of the room!

Start each day playing  the corresponding song – students quickly start using the lines in the songs to spontaneously express their feeling about the day!

 

 

For something different on different days, you can use the number song for higher numbers – my students 12 – 16 secretly enjoy the gestures that go with the song – but in public they only do it because I make them and am doing it.

You can also play the survey of music song to teach them about the different genres and then play a song from one of the genres.

 

 

You can play the saludos song and each day have partners learn two new greetings of their choosing.

 

 

You can have partners do the spontaneous speaking with numbers after playing the song.

Partners do the spontaneous speaking of guessing dates after reviewing with months song.

Purchase videos individually here or contact me to make a bundle for you.

 

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

Latin American and Equatorial Guinea National Anthems as Bell Ringers – Adiós to Boring Country Projects!

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Help students learn about the culture of 20 diferent countries and their national anthems in Spanish!
Students learn a national anthem a week from Spanish-Speaking countries during their bell ringers!

 

 

 

Gone are the days when students could spend a week making a country project and then another week presenting the country project in English to the rest of the Spanish One Class!

We need to use our class time for as much Comprehensible Input as possible!  So let’s deliver culture in the target language and in small chunks!

Start the pre-class or bell ringer activity with students listening to and watching  the national anthem of a Spanish-speaking country sung in Spanish with written lyrics and with over 20 pictures showing national symbols and country highlights.

Introduce the idea by asking students  if they think visitors should be familiar with our national anthem?  Most think they should!  So let’s have our students be equally informed! Appeal to knowing what is being said when the anthems are sung at soccer games, Olympics, and other sporting events.  Music is a great way to deliver culture – by Wednesday they are humming it, some without realizing it!

Monday: Lyrics in both English and Spanish

Tuesday: Wordsearch with pictures – this can carry over into next day or be completed at another point.

Wednesday and Thursday: Coloring book

Friday: Complete word search and coloring book.  The last 5 minutes of class we play a  Bingo game using the pre-printed bingo cards placed in page protectors and markers and the Picture PowerPoint.

I think using these in a Heritage class would be very useful.  I have the 20 anthems recorded and am now creating the videos.  So far I have two: Equatorial Guinea and Venezuela.  I’ll continue with the Central American and Caribbean countries that relate to our Heritage Speakers and then expand to the rest of South America.  I’ll add to this post as the others become available.

I used to live in Venezuela.  It’s heartbreaking to see what is happening now to such good people.  The folks I still know there want work, not charity.  I am delighted to provide them this work. THe singer, the graphic artist and the videographer live in Venezuela.

The money goes straight to them – no charity administrative fees.

Purchase Video here.

 

 

I decided to start with Equatorial Guinea because I really know very little about this country.

Click here to purchase!

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

Nervous New Spanish Teacher Advice: Structure your class with transition videos.

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Overcome new teacher nerves by teaching like a pro with transition videos.
New teachers can teach like seasoned veteran teachers by structuring their classes with transition videos and slides for each activity.

Kim recently posted this on FLTeach:

I am a soon-to-be teacher and I’m very nervous about how classroom management will be. Since it’s nerve wracking for me to comfortably present in front of people, I fear my students will suffer through a boring, awkward first weeks with my nerves. Any recommendations/advice to a nervous first year teacher on how to make the classroom environment fun and interactive but also comfortable??

My response:

Kim, you have received a lot of good advice from wonderful colleagues about selecting a few important rules and sticking to them, getting to know your students, and having fun.

My advice is different. I am going to share with you what I shared with other teachers at the ACTFL conference: the magic of musical transition videos. It will give you the class  structure of a 30 year veteran, create a steady stream of released endorphins for you and your students,  and give you the kind of classroom management that a seasoned veteran creates.

I have been refining my classroom teaching voice for the past 30 years.    In 2012, my school gave me a projector so I can project on the wall what is on my computer.  It was a game changer.

I started using a remote presentational device, “a clicker” so that I can be anywhere in my room and change slides.  I make a slide for each activity and a slide for each transition into the activity.  I started with about 20 slides per class.  This signals my students that the lesson is planned, helps my visual learners to know what is going on, and focuses the students who need focus.  I call this “a daily tech guide.”

This past year, to help some pretty desperate Venezuelans, I paid them to sing songs that I have made over the years and put them to videos.  Next thing I know, I have a musical/voice over video for every transition.   With these videos I am enjoying the best year of my teaching career.  Here is what a typical class looks like:

  1. While in the hall there is a pre-class slide and a song playing.

 

2.  When I am ready to start, I play the class count down video – students know to be seated and quiet as they count down the 3 -2 – 1 ya!

3      I greet them, ask how they are, and tell them the objective of the day and the class activities of the day – all on 3 slides.

 

4. I play the take out the homework video and show the answers on the board while I quickly check for completion.

Check for questions and play the musical slide to take attendance – we get nasty emails if we miss attendance for any class!

 

4.  Play the daily review song and complete five minutes of review.  (There  might be the day or months video as part of the review.)

5.   Play take out the vocab list video and the self- talk musical slide that reminds students if they don’t get it right to tell them selves – I don’t have it yet!  I introduce a chunk of vocabulary, practice comprehension with gestuers and hen show slides with visuals.

6.    Play the video about finding a random partner of the week or if we already did it play the musical slide to find this week’s partner.

 

7. Practice with partner(s) usually some kind of spontaneous speech activity – there are videos that show the students how to play guessing games. If we have the computers then they will watch the take out the computer video, practice QuizletLive video, students practice on their own, play the quizlet live video and finally put away the computers video and rearrange the chairs slide.

8. Slide leading into next activity – could be a listening activity or a reading activity or Simon says.

9.Take out the Agenda video and students write down the homework.

 

 

10. Closure – students sing and then tell me something new they learned.

My public school seventh, eighth, and ninth graders thrive on the structure, sing the songs or imitate the voices even if they don’t want to – they can’t help themselves.  The activities are varied but the structure with seamless, even enjoyable, transitions make for smooth classes.

You can make your own slides or use mine.

You can even use  my videos,  created by native speakers, and offered here  on TeacherspayTeachers.   Click here for a starter bundle.  They help support several Venezuelan families. We are making them in French, Mandarin, German, and Latin.  What I love about TeacherspayTeachers is that it helps new teachers to quickly climb the learning curve by selecting tried and true activities from veteran teachers still in the classroom.

Welcome to the profession, Kim, and start refining your teaching voice by creating a daily tech guide.  You’ll be glad you did!

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