I am currently starting the year with the Persona Especial questions. Last week, each class, I talked to only one student per period per day. I saw some issues that I bring to your attention and ask for help:
1. In Spanish I asked a kid, “When do you play basketball?.” That kid launched into an English paragraph…”Well, some days I play it …..and other times….and ….” New kid. New to me and my class. Did NOT want to shut him down. But he did not have the vocabulary to answer the questions (level one). How do you handle this?
2. The kid up front with me is fine. I look around at the rest of the class and they are bored. I can tell. They are jotting down info. but most of my kids have grown up together. They know each other well as it is a small community. How do you keep the rest of the class engaged? I had one girl tell me she lived in a big, white house. I played with that and asked if she lived with Obama. So, I ‘play’ when I can to make it interesting but….? They were bored. Do you use made up stuff with them at this point, or are you staying true to life as you ARE trying to get to know them.
You have a lot of questions on those pgs. Do you stay on one page till you get through the whole class and then move on to page two of the questions and discuss with the whole class, or do you randomly jump around? The second sounds smarter but then I would be constantly running back to my laptop to switch the page for the students.
I really want this to fly this year. My principal is a psycho who wants me to teach Spanish like math. She does not get this at all, and the Teach for June thing does not meet her expectations. Just adds a LITTLE stress to my world.