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CLTA World Language Jamboree 2023
CLTA World Language Jamboree 2023
Have you registered for this year's World Language Jamboree located at Chino Hills High School yet?
This year we are presenting a stellar mini-conference on Saturday, September 30, 2023, featuring presentations by teachers from Southern California and beyond. Come join your colleagues for a day that is sure to be refreshing, rewarding, and stimulating. There will be five sessions of one hour each – three before lunch and two after lunch. Please click the following link below to register and to learn more:
Hexagon Activity?
Hexagon Activity?
Fun icebreaker to try!
Fun icebreaker to try!
How do you get to know your students on the first week of school? How do your students get to know their peers? This activity is a fun engaging way to get to know students at the beginning of the school year. Give them each a hexagon to design where they reveal some things about themselves. Give them six prompts and have them answer in the target language or using simple drawings. Then see if they can connect their hexagons to each other’s based on similar sides. For example, I put some of my “favorites” in my hexagon such as What's your favorite food? Favorite music? Favorite type of movies? etc. If someone else has a hexagon with pizza as a favorite, they can put their hexagon next to mine with those two sides touching with painter's tape doubled over to hold it in place. You could put this on a bulletin board, so you have the whole class displayed on the board, where there is at least one connection for everyone, and some of them may have multiple connections. Click the link button below to find out more:
Card Talk!
Card Talk!
Do you do Card Talk in the classroom?
Card Talk, a technique originally created by Ben Slavic, is a staple in many comprehension-based classrooms. In a nutshell, you distribute a notecard, ask students to write or draw about a specific topic, and then talk about this topic, using the cards and Personalized Questions and Answers (read my friend Ben Fisher’s post for a more detailed explanation of how to do Card Talk). Get to know your students more with Card Talks! Learn more by clicking the link button below:
Beep!
Beep!
Ready for the easiest listening activity you’ve ever rolled out? ZERO PREP!
“BEEP!” Is a simple listening activity in which students listen to the teacher read or describe a familiar text or familiar information that contains errors. Whenever the students hear an error, they interrupt the teacher with a loud, “BEEP!”.
Use the link below to see a video explanation of how the activity works.
Cal State University San Bernardino events!
Cal State University San Bernardino events!
Nominations & Elections for IEFLA
Nominations & Elections for IEFLA
IEFLA is in the process of accepting nominations for our IEFLA Board. The nomination committee will be chaired by our secretary Paola Wagner and includes our vice president Svetlana Lazarova and two other members. Their task is to a prepare a slate: President, Vice President, Secretary/Treasurer, and a minimum of three members at large.
Send nominations to paolapadilla23@gmail.com.
ACTFL 2023: Chicago
ACTFL 2023: Chicago
The ACTFL Annual Convention will be held Friday, November 17 through Sunday, November 19, 2023 (Pre-Convention Workshops will be scheduled on Thursday, November 16) at the McCormick Place in Chicago, IL. The 2023 ACTFL Convention will feature educational content covering a wide spectrum of the language profession. The ACTFL Convention is a national event bringing together over 7,000 attendees from all languages, levels, and assignments within the profession. The goal of the ACTFL Annual Convention is to provide a comprehensive professional development experience for language educators of all languages and levels. Click on button below for more info.
Coordinators Needed - Travel Abroad!
Coordinators Needed - Travel Abroad!
CIEE is looking for a few teachers that can help coordinate for them across the world! Being a coordinator can be a great side hustle for teachers to earn some extra cash, travel the world, and help to connect their local community with cultures from across the world.
Coordinators typically:
Are curious about other cultures
Enjoy spending time encouraging and working with teenagers
Want to share their community with other cultures
Love to travel!
Coordinators are paid for their help and go on some pretty amazing trips! In the next 12 months CIEE will be going on trips to Costa Rica, Mexico, Iceland, and Italy!
It isn’t much a time commitment, is really rewarding, and I bet you’d love the trips we go on! If you have any interest, please let me know. I’d love to hop on a call and tell you about it and answer questions!
For additional information click on the link below or come to hear Danny Velasquez tell about the program at the CLTA Jamboree, Chino Hills High School on September 30..
Flangoo
Flangoo
Flangoo is a subscription-based service for digital World Language readers available in Spanish, French, and German!! A sister company of Teacher’s Discovery®, Flangoo creates an affordable solution for World Language teachers who want to offer students a wide range of readers. One Flangoo account gives you and up to 150 students access to an entire virtual Free Voluntary Reading (FVR) library. Try it out!
Engaging Activities in the Classroom!
Engaging Activities in the Classroom!
How about some quick, fun activities to do with your students in the target language! Let’s start with...
Who's telling the truth?
Have them fill out a survey telling something strange they did as a child. Choose several of those answers and display them on your board or presentation.
This can be played online. Call on 4 people in the class, including the person who wrote the sentence, to read the sentence as if they wrote it.
You ask each person two questions, and they answer, acting as if they wrote it. Then the students type in the chat who they think is telling the truth, but the students wait to send until you say, "Send".
After they send, you ask each actor if they wrote the sentence to reveal the truth-teller. The actor with the most votes gets extra credit. The students who got it right get extra credit.
This is a great game to play with your upper levels, especially now with the fun Among Us game, students have to try to figure out who the imposter is! Here’s an example:
Example: When I was little, I used to hide in the kitchen cupboards.
Questions: Why did you hide in the cupboards? (asked to all actors)
or How old were you when you hid in the cupboards? (asked to all actors)
Who knows you best?
Choose a volunteer and have them select a question to answer (#1-12).
The teacher asks the question, then all of the other students guess what the interviewee's answer is.
They type it in the chat but don't send it. When the teacher says "send", they send it.
The teacher then asks the interviewee to send their answer. Everyone who gets it right gets a point.
Here are some sample questions. You can adapt them to any level, any unit:
What are you afraid of?
Where do you like to go on vacation?
What is it that makes you angry?
What are you laughing at?
Do you prefer to cycle, ride a horse, or drive?
What do you prefer: doing the dishes, mowing the lawn, cleaning the bathroom, or vacuuming?
At night, do you prefer to play a game, visit a relative, watch a movie, or read?
Who would you like to be lost with on a desert island?
Approximately how many pairs of shoes do you have?
Which public transport do you prefer (plane, boat, train, bus, metro, etc.)?
What is your favorite zoo animal?
What is your favorite holiday: Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Year's Eve, Valentine's Day, Halloween, Easter, July 4th
Scavenger Hunt:
If you're online, ask students to find something that makes people happy/sad/frustrated etc and show it to the camera. Ask students to find something hard/soft/wet/round/square etc and show it to the camera. Great for all levels and another great way to start some fun, personalized discussions!
Express Link to EdJoin JOB Listings
Express Link to EdJoin JOB Listings
Are you looking for a job? Know someone who is looking for employment? There are currently 9 positions open in San Bernardino and Riverside Counties for Spanish teachers. Click the express link below to go directly to all of the current listings by area in EdJoin!
The Polyglot is published 10 times a year. It is a publication of the Inland Empire Foreign Language Association. Editor of the Polyglot is Abraham Garcia, M.A., of Chino Hills High School.
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