I find the commands unit to be pretty fun to teach. Students love being bossy! 😂...

I like to include Spanish listening activities in my classes as much as I can. It can be seriously challenging to find good listening activities in Spanish for lower-level students, though. Textbooks only have so many (good) listening comprehension activities, and it can be tricky to find recordings of Spanish speakers who speak SLOWLY and CLEARLY . Here are five great websites that I've found and used in my Spanish 1 and 2 classes: ...

The whole point of a quiz or test is to assess students' knowledge. Not their eyesight of their neighbor's answers. 😒 If you have students with wandering eyes, I have a tip for how to stop students from cheating! ...

My first year of teaching I lived with my parents.  It was great because I worked 12 hours days and that meant dinner was hot and ready for me when I got home at 8pm. But also... I was working 12 hours days and living with my parents....

My favorite speaking activity is an A/B partner activity , but sometimes it's great to switch things up and give students actual pieces of paper that they will litter all over your floor .  This type of speaking activity definitely requires more prep, but it can be worth it in the long run....

Scenario: It's the end of Unit 1 in Spanish 1 and your school district requires you to assess each kid's speaking skills.  Individually.   At the end of each and every unit.  Oh and you have 35 kids in each of 6 classes. It's the stuff nightmares are made of....

You simply can't grade every piece of paper that students touch. It's too many papers and students don't need 857 grades at the end of each marking period. Besides that, your friends and family will miss you if you try to grade ALL THE PAPERS. Here are 5 tips for staying on top of grading (and having a life!):...

Bell ringers will get your students seated and working from the moment the late bell rings. Seated, silent , and on-task.  This activity does not actually include the promise of silence, but you can dream. ...

My 7th grade Social Studies teacher let us choose our seats.   On the very first day of school!   It was something I had never been allowed to do before and it was incredibly exciting.  We could all sit with our friends!  ...

This post could also be called "How to teach the Spanish Alphabet so good that you have to ban students from singing it" .  Or "For heaven's sake - it's March, please stop singing that Spanish alphabet song" . For the record, I've only had to ban one class from continuing to sing the Spanish alphabet song well into March.  That class was full of overly enthusiastic 7th-grade girls. 🙃 ...

It's so important to get your Spanish students actually speaking the language.   I like to tell my Spanish 1 students within the first week of school that no one ever says "Wow, you write Spanish really well."  They say "Wow, you speak Spanish really well."  ...

I'm pretty sure when I was learning Spanish in high school, we learned about culture in Spanish-speaking countries by reading blurbs in the textbook. Honestly, it's shocking we learned anything about how people live in Spanish-speaking countries. The internet is an amazing tool for teaching culture and truly letting students learn how people live in other countries. I love to use webquests to teach culture.  Here's how I create them!...

If you're looking for a great way to wrap up Spanish 1 and let students show off all they've learned this year - have I got a great idea for you! Meet the Spanish 1 Final Project . Students create a booklet about themselves and cover just about every topic they've learned throughout the year....

  I love a review game. I have blogged about bingo (lotería), dominoes , and charades . Let's talk about Memory....

Think about those tricky lessons you teach where the words change or move. Or where the words change AND move like with direct, indirect, and double object pronouns. I make a powerpoint that teaches my students what words change, what they change to, and where those pronouns move to....

I'm gonna go ahead and say the preterite vs imperfect is the worst part of Spanish 2. It's probably the hardest thing students have faced up to that point. And then they get to Spanish 3 and meet the nightmare known as the subjunctive. 😂 I have a few suggestions to make teaching preterite vs imperfect palatable and not pure horror....

Most beginning Spanish 1 students probably think that everyone in the Spanish-speaking world eats tacos.  And while it's true some people in Spanish-speaking countries do eat tacos - not everyone does. And there are other foods besides tacos! If you're looking for an idea to teach students about foods of the Spanish-speaking world and expand their vocabulary beyond "los tacos" , then have I got an idea for you!...

At least 99% of parents are super lovely.  It's just that last 1% that might attempt to make your life hell....

I love a good, engaging review game. Dominoes is for sure one of those games....

  Dia de los Muertos is one of my favorite culture activities because there are so many misconceptions about it. Students either think there's something evil about it, or they think it's some sort of Mexican Halloween....

Any other year, you can open the Microsoft Word documents you have from last year, print them, and voilá your lesson is done. But, if you're teaching virtually, you can't do that this year. You absolutely can still use those writing activities though! ...