Blog - Spanish with Stephanie

How to Organize a Rotating Schedule in Outlook

Do you teach on a rotating block schedule and find it hard to stay organized? Maybe you are like me and have a 6 day rotation of classes. You always have a team meeting on C days, but C day is never the same day each week! You really want to put all of your meetings into your calendar but Outlook and Google Calendars only allow you to make repeating appointments based on a 5 day work week! "Every ... Read More about How to Organize a Rotating Schedule in Outlook

5 icebreaker activities for the first week of Spanish

Are you looking for ways to connect with your students and build community during the first week of class? Do you want to get to know your students, but also set the expectation of "Spanish only" from the start? Here are 5 games that accomplish both of those objectives! 1. ¡Corre, corre! Students form a circle with one person in the middle. The middle person makes a true statement about ... Read More about 5 icebreaker activities for the first week of Spanish

Helping students to write more in Spanish

Middle school Spanish students are still learning the habits of writing in English, so it's really important that we provide them with tools to write in Spanish. This can include providing sentence starters, word walls, or graphic organizers. In my classroom, students write about their weekend as part of Calendar Talk. For the first month, it's ok for them to write in basic sentences: I ... Read More about Helping students to write more in Spanish

How to teach Spanish 1 when you have no curriculum

You just got assigned to teach Spanish—and then you find out there’s no Spanish curriculum. Maybe there’s no textbook. Maybe there are a few random worksheets left behind by the previous teacher. Or maybe you’ve been told, “Just use whatever you want!” and you’re wondering where on earth to start. If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Many Spanish teachers, especially those teaching ... Read More about How to teach Spanish 1 when you have no curriculum

Unit Plan: Trains in Spanish

Navigating through a train station in a Spanish speaking country could be a real life task that students may experience. It was also a unit I needed to teach as part of our Spanish curriculum! Here are some activities I developed about trains in Spanish that I hope you find useful as well! Introducing train vocabulary in Spanish To introduce the train vocabulary to students, I told ... Read More about Unit Plan: Trains in Spanish

How to teach daily routines and reflexive verbs in Spanish

Reflexive verbs in Spanish are fun to teach because they allow students to talk about themselves! When we provide students with more ways to talk about themselves, they can share more with us in the target language. I love learning more about my students and their daily routines during this unit! Quick overview of the article: Introduce vocab with TPRDraw picturesRecall games (Quizlet ... Read More about How to teach daily routines and reflexive verbs in Spanish