As I began my first week of a regular teaching schedule, I found myself landing in a familiar place-- utter face-plant worthy exhaustion. While yes, I have a full day-beginning with community time for 1-3 graders and teaching 4th through 8th classes, reflecting on the week, I've come to a pretty quick conclusion: I'm over working.

Not over working as in too much paperwork or grading. Overworking in that this week I was doing almost all of the work during class time, with the children along for the ride.  One of my goals last year and this centers on building my comprehensible input(CI) tool box--using as my guide this very helpful poster from Elizabeth Dentlinger. 

After my first few days of classes, which can only be described as performance art all day, Elizabeth sent me some words of support and her personal goal: Teach better, work less.

Teach better, work less.

CI doesn't mean me doing all of the work--talking, acting/gesturing--or always being the source of input. In fact, the students need to hear multiple voices. So, here I go--focusing on teaching better, working less.  Some things I have in mind to use as class opening activities(as students enter and get settled):

• Free and Voluntary Reading
• Listening apps, podcasts and short videos 
• Using children's magazines and age appropriate news sources in the TL(like Newsela)
• Kid friendly info graphics 

I've started using some of these the last two days and am looking to expand the opening activities list.  From there, I'll be using the Comprehensible Input Umbrella to help me form my class lessons.  

I'll be posting progress.  In the mean time, how have you worked toward teaching better and working less?  Words of experience most welcome!

Conference Going/Conference Burnout

Last weekend, I had the fortune to attend the Central States Conference here in Chicago--a great opportunity to network with teachers from the region, present and get in some needed learning.  I left the event feeling  energized and so positive about the work happening in our community.

That has not always been my professional learning experience though. Let's talk openly here about CONFERENCE BURNOUT.

I used to go to conferences wide eyed with eagerness and wanting to take in as much as possible--especially if the presenters were well-known. My preparation consisted of going over the conference guide, circling every possible session I could hit--highlighting topics that seems familiar and interesting.  Once there, I would go from session to session, collecting a pile of handouts, taking some notes, then moving on to the next.  Heading home I was awash in disconnected ideas of things I would/could do in my program.  However, once returning to my classroom, without any time to reflect or digest, and having too many topics to try and put into practice, those handouts and ideas made their way to my storage closet...and then the recycling bin.  It was too much to take in, and too unfocused for me to integrate into my practices.  In the end, I'm not sure how helpful those conference experiences were.

I left Central States feeling so good because I went in with a plan for my participation that was focused....and limited.  I knew going in that I was going to be presenting with colleagues, so I carved out plenty of time to prep and meet with them.  Then, I looked at my goals for this year.  I set out this fall to focus on getting better at comprehensible input,  becoming familiar with a variety of techniques to be able to provide lots of different kinds of input for my students.  One strategy I knew I needed more information on is using video content in a comprehensible, culturally relevant way.  With this goal in mind, I looked through the conference guide and found two sessions that fit the bill--one on an introduction Movie Talk  and another on making authentic film/video comprehensible in elementary(shout out to Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell!).

That's right, two sessions. I added to that a networking session with NNELL, that used an unconference format, allowing us in elementary language to meet in small groups to connect around topics we wanted to talk/learn about.   

When I came back to school, I met immediately with a colleague to continue processing and sharing--and she added some other great ways we could use the techniques from the sessions, and we're putting a plan in place to do it.  This was the first time I had used such focus going in, and let go of any guilt about limiting the number of sessions I attended.  In the end, this was one of the most meaningful  conference experiences I've had...and no handouts in the cabinet or recycling bin.

Update: Global Citizenship...in the TL

Last year, I shared about how we engaged the children in our school--ages 6-14 in Trick or Treat for UNICEF during Spanish classes. One of my goals this year centers around more comprehensible input and deeper cultural connections, and Trick or Treat for UNICEF again presented a great opportunity for both.

While UNICEF does offer some materials in Spanish, they do not offer them for the Trick or Treat campaign, so we made our own and used UNICEF resources from around the world to engage the children with the UN Declarations on the Rights of the Child and fundamental human needs.

Since I'm focusing more on comprehensible input-- old thinking about there being topics that couldn't be broached or explored because they are too complex is being challenged.  I'm more and more reminded of  Helena Curtain's words: complex thought, simple language.   

So, I slowed things down a bit, and gave time to providing lots of comprehensible input--through drawings, photos, acting and videos.  I used movie talk with the Trick or Treat for UNICEF videos, so that we would use TL rather than listen to the English voice over.  By narrating, asking yes/no questions and then either/or questions, the videos were useful for providing both the content and comprehensible input.   I also used this video to help my 4th-8th graders understand the rights of the child, with lots of checking for comprehension, either/or questions:

 As extensions in their homerooms, the children set classroom goals and tracked them as a class.  We were also fortunate because a fellow from UNICEF was able to come and talk during an assembly, which continued to build excitement and interest outside of our Spanish classes.

I've pinned some resources for exploring these themes in Spanish classes here on my Pinterest Board. 

 The children tracked their collections in their homerooms and as a community we celebrated raising $5000! Next year, I look forward to spending more time unpacking the Rights of the Child and defining need/want.