Collaboration!

Hola a todos,

I've been thinking about how we do activities in the Spanish classroom, and today (Friday, 4/27) seemed like the perfect day to think about it. Fifth and sixth grade are working on their Se Busca (Wanted) posters, and 7th grade are working on their preposition posters. Neither project is groupwork, but I want students to collaborate as they work on their individual assignments.

One thing I like a lot right now is how student desks are set up. We have six groups of four desks each, turned to make tables. With a configuration like that, students are forced to look at each other and I think they get into the habit of sharing ideas and information (mis estudiantes, am I right about that?). Even when they're working on individual assignments, they seem to be comfortable sharing books, handouts, supplies, and pointers for how to do things. I find that I'm repeating myself less because someone in the group has heard me and repeats what I've said for the other group members. So far, the groups seem to be keeping a pretty positive dynamic.

So the younger students are working on Se Busca posters. They make up an imaginary person (or flesh-eating animal, or space alien with tacos for hands, or whatever), they draw and color it, and then they write a detailed description of their character in Spanish that they will share with the class. It's a fun, visual way to get students to do a writing sample (most of them don't even consider it a writing assignment), and I'm always thrilled with students' imaginative ideas. This nine weeks, I've seen a number of mustachioed unicorns, two drawings that incorporate monocles, a one-eyed green farmer, a rainbow-haired ballerina, and a "man-eating flying squirrel with vampire teeth that sparkle" (Rico's words, not mine). Yes, to answer your question, my students know how to say unicorn, mustache, monocle, cyclops farmer, rainbows, flying squirrel, and sparkly in Spanish. And I didn't have to look up a single word. That's the scary part.

The cool thing about the Se Busca posters is that most kids really own the project. They take an idea and they run with it for two or three days. This group in particular, though, has been very group-oriented. When I walk through the room, I hear things like "I know where to find that word--look at your adjectives handout on the left-hand side," "I think you need a different verb," or "Wow that looks really cool, will you show me how to do that?" I love how they collaborate on the simplest tasks, making language learning easier for everyone. I'm not sure how we got to this stage of collaboration, but I have to figure out how to make it happen with every class! Fifth and sixth graders, if you're reading, you guys are awesome. Keep up the good work!

Seventh grade is working on preposition posters. The textbook we use pushes us through eight rather mundane prepositions as soon as we learn the verb estar ("to be," used for changing conditions such as location). As soon as the book presents the prepositions (under, on top of, beside, inside of, in front of, behind, close to, far from), it expects students to know all eight and it immediately moves on to other topics. Memorizing eight prepositions is an exercise in futility. They're very similar-sounding and memorization is boring to begin with. To make things a touch easier, I have students create a poster illustrating all eight prepositions using two objects of their choice. Students pick interesting object pairs, like a worm and an apple, a rock and a snail, a spider and a web, a brick and a spider, a penguin and a cookie, a dragon and a turtle. The girl who chose a rock and a snail drew a power drill in one of her illustrations. "It's for the snail to get inside the rock," she said. Brilliant.

The cool thing about the 7th grade class is that they're starting to feel like a team. They had a rough start to the semester, but from what I saw yesterday and today, they're learning to trust and rely on each other. That kind of trust and reliance is crucial in a language class--you learn language in order to communicate with others; you can't just sit around talking to yourself! We were able to joke around a little in class today and still reach our goal for the period. That felt great because sometimes I feel like I can't afford to joke around with them, or things will get out of hand and we won't get our goals done for the day. I can't wait for Monday, when they'll give their poster presentations and share their work with each other. That's my favorite part of this assignment, watching them talk about what they've done and laugh with each other.

I like walking through the class, seeing what students have chosen to work on, watching their decisions in action and listening to the learning conversations that happen. Certainly, silly things go on. When you put 20 13-year-olds together, silly things are destined to occur. My classroom is noisy. Between the student chatter and the Spanish-language music that I subject them to, my door is often shut in an effort to spare the rest of the school the insanity. When I see the kinds of ideas that students develop as they work together, I wonder why lecture and teacher-led instruction is the traditional method of education. I could never in a million years come up with the questions that my students ask--who am I to lecture them when I can't even predict the questions that they want answered? I like to give them the information they need to create something and then watch them create it.

Sometimes I think I might be having more fun than my students. Where else in the whole world could I speak Spanish all day long, guide students through the creative/language learning process, and then celebrate their achievements with them? The best part of my day is sitting at a table with students who are working hard at something and just talking to them about their work. They have so much to share, and they want to do and say everything in Spanish! They make my job easy.

Traveling with students

Several times in my very brief teaching career, I have had the opportunity to chaperon student trips. It might be a simple walk to the high school for 9th grade orientation, a day trip to the city to see a play and have lunch, or a weekend in D.C. with 120 eighth-graders, and one time, it was a week in Costa Rica. I always take that opportunity. Always.

If you're a teacher, you know that kids act completely differently in the classroom than they do outside of school. This phenomenon can be difficult for others to understand ("Yes ma'am, your son did say that word in my class. Yes ma'am, I understand he would never do that at home. I guess I just bring out the best in him."). If you're a student, you might not even notice that you act differently at school than you do at home. I love my students, and I love watching them grow and learn in my classroom. I also really love to take them out of the classroom and watch them experience the world first-hand.

This past weekend, I traveled with 80 eighth grade students and six other teachers to Washington, D.C. It's roughly six hours from our school, so we take charter buses and go for the weekend. This is the third year that I've gone with students on this trip, and I have to tell you about the kids. They were fabulous. They were perfect travelers: they paid attention to their surroundings, they were on time (even early!) to everything, they were observant, respectful, positive, they asked questions, they tried new things, and they made me proud.

The highlight of the trip for me was seeing D.C. through my students' eyes. Our first stop was the Okinawa monument, which has a clear view of the Washington monument. One boy came up to me, pointed at the Washington monument, pointed to the Okinawa monument, and just stood there for a minute. I couldn't figure out what he was doing until his friend said, "He's speechless because we're seeing stuff we've only seen in pictures, and now it's real." And that reaction was exactly what I had hoped for.

We took the kids to a ton of museums and they walked around in small groups. I loved walking through those museums and running into groups of students huddled around a display, reading the information card out loud and saying, "Cool!" or "I saw that in our science book," or "I never knew that!" When I suggested an exhibit, they actually went to it, and we talked about it afterwards on the bus. It made me giddy to hear "Yeah, that human bones exhibit was creepy, but really cool. Thanks for telling us about it," and "I saw that photography display you told me about. Those pictures were amazing!" More importantly, I heard a lot of those same conversations happening among students as they compared what they'd seen. Books are great and the internet is full of information, but there's nothing like seeing the world first-hand and discussing it with the people around you.

Once some of the newness wore off, students learned new and different lessons. Some students were waiting at a checkpoint for the rest of the group, and a stranger started talking to them. They didn't know how to react--they know better than to talk to strangers, but they had to meet with the rest of the group in that place in just a few minutes. It's important to note that where we come from, it's incredibly rude to ignore someone, so that option might not have crossed their minds. We learned, though, that it's okay to ignore strangers, that we should never share personal information with other people we don't know, and the best approach is to look for a teacher or adult we know so we're not stuck in an uncomfortable situation. The kids handled it really well.

Another lesson we learned (and one I suspect our students already knew) is that a sense of humor and a positive attitude will turn any trip into an amazing experience. Pablo fell on a stone bench while diving for a frisbee and got a nasty bruise. As soon as he realized he was okay, though, he started laughing. He was in pain for the next couple of days, but he still smiled about his awesome dive and he never once complained about how much his leg hurt. What could have been a serious accident was just a bump in the road (sorry, Pablo!). In general, everyone was upbeat and happy all the time. I heard several kids say, "This is the best trip ever!"

We also learned to take care of the people around us. Every adult on the trip had a group of 10 students, and we checked in with each other to make sure everyone was accounted for. My group of ten fabulous students became the duckies ("patitos" en español!), and I'm a little embarrassed to say that they were more responsible than I was! When the trip leader announced that students had to find their adult, my duckies immediately found each other, counted to be sure that everyone was there, and then waited for me. They watched out for each other, and when one came up missing, we found him immediately because there were ten of us looking instead of just one of us. And when I was tardy to the party, they waited for me while the other groups moved on. I also thought it was hilarious when they quacked to get my attention. ¡Gracias, patitos!

We learned to enjoy each others' company, too. While seeing the White House and the Washington Monument was great, we had a lot of down time, and we were never ever bored. Six hours on the bus flew by because of great conversation and some really, incredibly funny students. I laughed so hard my face hurt for two days. Adults, when was the last time you had a long, meaningful, funny conversation with a 14 year old? And 14 year olds, when was the last time you had a long, meaningful, funny conversation with an adult? If you learn to enjoy the people around you, it won't matter where you are--you'll always have a good time.

Conclusion: 8th graders are genuinely funny and interesting people. Seriously. I'm so very proud of the students on the trip, and I'm proud to say I work with some of the funniest, most interesting, and most thoughtful people I've ever met. Thank you, 8th graders, for being who you are.