Agenda:
Announcements
Faculty shares
PLC article
Real-World Experiences Are Essential to Learning
Rethinking Silos
Addressing Assessment
Creating More Time
Changing Spaces
Up to the Challenge?
Here are some ways your school can increase real-world learning opportunities for students.
Here are some ways your school can increase real-world learning opportunities for students.
- Create or reimagine existing one- to four-week terms. These blocks of time allow for academic work to be done off campus without disruption to other courses.
- Weave longer block periods into the schedule with a focus on longer project-based or interdisciplinary work.
- Invest in satellite campuses. They can allow students to more easily learn from cultural institutions, diverse perspectives, and real-world challenges.
- Reimagine assessment through initiatives such as the Mastery Transcript Consortium, which measures and credentials growth in the complex skills that real-world learning challenges students to develop.
Read the whole article here
Project Based Education: ideas here
“Education is not preparation for life, education is life itself.”
These words were penned by John Dewey, the 20th century educational reformer and philosopher.
The educational renegade of his day, Dewey proposed that learning should have a foundation in experience and be driven by student interest. He maintained that “education is not an affair of ‘telling’ and being told, but an active and constructive process.”
Nearly a century later, educators around the world still hold fast to Dewey’s theory and have embraced the learning method that is now referred to as Project Based Learning (PBL). PBL boasts roots dating all the way back to illustrious educational figures such as Aristotle and Maria Montessori, and has modern educators tossing out their textbooks and turning to authentic, student-led learning experiences.
As Spanish educators, we are well aware of the benefits of authentic learning for high school Spanish students. The beauty of Project Based Learning is that it takes authentic experiences and evolves them into a whole new approach to the teaching and learning process.
Real World Homework
Creative Language Class
So one day a few years back, I was watching the show “The Real World” while lesson planning. I thought about how boring workbook pages are for homework. They just copy someone’s answer during breakfast or before class anyways. Their tag line “find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real…” made me think. What if homework was “real?” What would that look like? So then the Real World Homework was created!
I went to the coffee shop to meet my friend Rachel C. and the ideas started flowing! So for the food unit, they can bring in a box with cooking directions in TL (target language), print a recipe in TL, try a TL restaurant, order in TL, bring in a dish, find a TL song with 3 food words, etc. We tried to vary the modes and the multiple intelligences on the tasks. We realized that students were finding the resources that we spent hours finding! Brilliant.
Authentic Activities for the World Language Classroom
Do you ever feel stuck in a rut while planning your language classes? Perhaps you spend a lot of time lecturing at the whiteboard, use the same activities with different vocabulary for every unit, or rely on teaching students grammar because that’s how you were taught. No matter what your go-to activity is, we’re all much more engaging when we vary our activities and make them relatable. If the speaker is engaging, a good lecture every now and then is enjoyable. However, when faced with daily lectures, students dread class, and hence learn less. So why not mix it up?
Read the article here
Tech and Learning:
Read the article here
Tech and Learning:
IEARN- global projects
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Try Gimkit
TRY IT NOW FOR FREE »
A tour of Kwiziq- click on the orange button
Kwiziq is an “AI language coach”, a state-of-the-art tool for language learners designed to help you improve your language skills faster than ever. Kwiziq combines artificial intelligence with scientifically proven methods to dramatically accelerate the language learning process. In fact, during a recent survey, our students reported learning speed improvements of up to ten times!
Vista webinars: https://vistahigherlearning.com/secondary-webinars
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Introducing Flipgrid MixTapes.
Build a super rad, view-only collection of the best Flipgrid Responses from any of your Grids. MixTapes are the perfect way to share...
 Student portfolios with families Semester highlights Class projects
...and so much more! You choose what goes on your MixTape and you set the playback order. It's the easiest way to share mic drop moments with the ones that matter!
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Conferences and News:
Middlebury
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We are pleased to announce that enrollment is now open for our domestic Academies.
High school students have a unique opportunity to spend a summer immersed in language at a college campus studying Spanish, French, German, Chinese, or Arabic.
Academy students have proven to take strides in language acquisition during our four week summer language immersion program by taking the Language Pledge®—a commitment that every student, teacher, and faculty member takes to speak only in the target language for the duration of the program.
Take the Language Pledge® and experience a summer dedicated to language advancement.
Right now, you can save 15% on enrollment until December 15th, 2018. Secure your plans for summer 2019 today.
Questions? Please don’t hesitate to call our enrollment team at 888-216-0135 or email us at academies@
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 Click for more conference information |
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CARLA
(Center for Advanced Research for
Language Acquisition)
Save the Dates!
Eleventh International Conference on Language Teacher Education
May 30–June 1, 2019
The Graduate Hotel
Minneapolis, MN
The mission of this unique biennial conference is to address the education of teachers of all languages, at all instructional and institutional levels, and in all the national and international contexts in which this takes place, including: English as a Second or Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) instruction; foreign/modern/world language teaching; bilingual education; immersion education; indigenous and minority language education; heritage language education; and the teaching of less commonly taught languages. The conference thus aims to bring together a range of teacher educators to discuss and share research, theory, and best practices and to initiate and sustain meaningful professional dialogue across languages, levels, and settings. The conference will focus on the following four broad themes:
- The Knowledge Base of Language Teacher Education
- Social, Cultural, and Political Contexts of Language Teacher Education
- Collaborations in Language Teacher Education
- Practices of Language Teacher Education
Greetings from SYA Admissions!
With the successful departure of the SYA class of 2019, the Admissions team is now busy planning our fall travel schedule. If you haven’t yet heard from us regarding a visit, you will soon or please reach out to me and we will schedule your visit. If you will no longer serve as SYA coordinator, please let us know so we can update our records. Also, if you’re a new coordinator, Pam Eaton will reach out and schedule a training session for you.
If any of your students are interested, please pass along this blog from a student in Spain and video from Italy.
Spain- a year
Tour SYA Italy
I also wanted to share important admission dates, information and information.
SYA Admissions dates
SYA Application deadline: Friday, February 8th, 2019
o Financial Aid Application deadline: Friday, February 15th, 2019
Admissions Notifications: Friday, March 1st, 2019
Updates to our Scholarship programs
The merit scholarships are back. We’re offering one $25,000 award for each of our four countries. In addition to these awards, we will continue to offer the Halsey scholarship as well as the legacy and public school scholarship. Click here for more information on these scholarship opportunities.
The SYA Admissions team:
o Pam Eaton ES '76 Senior Admissions Office Manager peaton@sya.org
o Enrique Granados CN '11 Assistant Director of Admissions, egranados@sya.org
o Avery Steele FR'11 Assistant Director of Admissions, asteele@sya.org
o Shawna Campbell, Admissions Marketing Manager, scampbell@sya.org
o Alec Wall, Associate Director of Admissions, awall@sya.org (joined summer 2018)o Anne Kettler IT ’12, Assistant Director of Admissions, akettler@sya.org (joined summer 2018)
Please remember that Sebastian Harvey is our SYA student this year in Zaragoza, Spain. He is available to talk to classes in Spanish via Google Hangouts. You can contact him directly about times by emailing him at this Potomac School email address.
