Holy Moly! It’s that time of year already!

I’m back to school TOMORROW, and then I’ll meet my new little darlings on August 12. I’d be lying to you if I didn’t tell you that I’m feeling  anxious about this upcoming school year. I’ve got a really heavy teaching load waiting for me next year- 3 courses I’ve never taught before!!! At my high school I’ve got Spanish 1, Spanish 4 (which are my babies and I love teaching and have taught them for a million years) and Spanish for Heritage Speakers (I’m a little terrified and a little excited!) and Freshman Seminar (a brand new course for all freshmen to set them up for academic success, get connected to our school community and touch on some social emotional learning skills.)  And if that were not enough to keep me busy next year, I’m also really excited (and a tiny bit terrified but mostly excited!) about my newest teaching gig: Adjunct Professor of World Language Methods at the University of Nevada. Whooo Hoo! So here I am trying to get as organized as possible before the madness begins, taking deep breaths and praying a lot!

I’ve been back to my room a few times last week to get ready I’ve got 2 new things I’d love to show you: Check out this super sweet ACTFL Proficiency Time Line created by my querida amiga Rita Barrett. It’s proudly displayed across the front of my classroom and I’m excited to use it as we talk about my little darlings’ proficiency development. It’s Show my friend Rita some love and check out her brand new Teachers Pay Teachers Store: Siempre Positivo. (And if you do it TODAY or TOMORROW, use the promo code BTS19 for 25% off) Oh yeah, and I don’t think I’ve mentioned it on the blogcito yet, but I opened a little TPT store also, The Chase Place.    

(Love that cloud Fluorescent Light Cover?! You too can bring a bit of sunshine into your classroom…and, full disclosure, Amazon will give me like a five cent commission, so I’ll be retiring any day now!)

And I got kinda fancy making posters on Canva this summer! If you’ve never played with canva.com, it’s an easy way to make beautiful images, posters, flyers, business cards, etc for free, and then you can order them for cheap! I love how they turned out:

This one is inspired by the Classroom Management Ninja Jon Cowart’s Comprehensible Online session, to give the kiddos a clear idea of when they should blurt and when they should raise their hand:

This one replaces an old, ugly and faded hand-written version of my classroom expectations:

If you want to order or edit any of the posters, create a Canva account, send me an email through the “contact”  link and include the email address you used to create your account.   I’ll “share” the design with you, then you can order directly from Canva. The posters pictures all cost $7.50 but they have bigger and smaller poster options available as well!

Are you ready for the new school year? Feeling stressed or anxious? Excited to get started?  If Back to School is on your mind too, and you’re looking for a little light reading,  here are a few posts that might interest you!

Getting set up:

Syllabus, expectations and classroom procedures

Day 1 student interest survey

Proficiency Based Grading Letter for parents

Letter to parents: an explanation of  CI 

Magic Cards- a super simple way to assign grades for listening, speaking and reading, all semester long!

Organizational Life Savers for setting up your classroom

Classroom tour

Wanting to start a Free Reading Program this year?

Looking to order some new books for your Free Reading Program?

New to a Block Schedule? 

New to Comprehensible Input Teaching?:

 There are just 4 things to remember as you get rolling

How do you know if you’re comprehensible?

The first days of school:

Start of the year lesson plans – Spanish 1 with Celia Cruz

Start of the year lesson plans Spanish 1 or 2 with Jolly Ranchers

Start of the year Name Game for upper levels

Start of the year game El verano fabuloso for levels 2-4

Need a  little encouragement?

A few thoughts on classroom management 

And a few more thoughts on Classroom Management at the beginning of the year

Passwords and Check Ins- a practice to start right away

Need some encouragement? A Devotional as you get back into the swing of things

 

Here’s to our best year yet!