First Month's Reflections

Hello! Our class has been moving along well. Students are getting thoroughly involved in learning Spanish and it is so exciting! You can follow some of what happens on my Instagram as well: @davidgraef

The reflections that I share here are simply the quick notes I make to myself. Grammar is not a focus, only efficient reflection for future reference.

August - Raw Reflections:

8/15 Inside/Outside Rotating Circles for introducing yourself in Spanish went really well for learning Greetings

8/30 August is going well so far. Planning a big PBL Project around South american coffee with coffee tastings, field trip to coffee farms and more. Looking good. Opening event is a coffee tasting from Starbucks. Still need a driving question though; in the works-> "what are all the possible topics concerning south american coffee culture that we could look into? and which ones interests you most?" doing class presentations for AmLit Character Analysis. Introducing variable after first attempt -> choose your own groups, but I choose a lead student for group (Refer to Kahoot! survey from 8/29/17) Also doing group topic lessons - student chosen topic- group teaches topic to class. Needs improvement. Still processing/reflecting on how to make better.** Found Out I have a T.A. for Spanish. New element, and trying to figure out how to use him most productively. I fear treating him like a slave or like a fellow teacher on the same level; where is the Balance? He seems mature in some ways for his age, but I can't forget that he's still a highschooler. Provide opportunity for growth, expect much, be patient and understanding though. Don't go down to his level, bring him up to mine. [Personal Notes]

 **I also make notes concerning my American Literature courses along with my Spanish Notes. I cut those out for the purposes of this blog, unless I feel like the note shares something that could apply to my Spanish Classes. This group leader project has gone very well for my American Literature classes, and I am considering doing the same for Spanish. What's holding me back is that the Spanish classes are a little younger. They haven't reached the point where they need an authority in the group to arbitrate disagreements. Secondly, a major reason for implementing this system for American Literature is that they are bigger classes than my Spanish Classes. Manager 5 leaders over 23 students is much easier than handling all 23 on an individual bases. My Spanish classes on the other hand contain 15 students on average. This is much more manageable when they are in 3-4 groups of 3-5 individuals, so the need for a leader in the group is not as great. 

 The South American Coffee Module that I began to mention in these notes has been through a lot of brainstorming on my part. I am very excited to introduce the South American coffee culture to my students. I have high hopes for how this will turn out. It is my main PBLL Project this semester, and I hope to learn a lot about how to do PBL for Foreign Language Studies from the upcoming activities, lessons, field trips and presentations that I have planned.

 "Spanish Only Day" or, "El Día de Español," has been one of the best events I've implemented in my Spanish Classes. It is every Wednesday of the week that we take all 37 minutes of our class to only speak in Spanish. I don't teach any new lessons or grammar. It is a day 100% for practicing what you know; at least that's the purpose. I allowed Google Translate as a source to know how to say things early on, and I think that it proved valuable. It helped motivate the students because they could actually say something. After the first couple weeks, I'm stopping using it though, and transitioning to them using the dictionaries. They have a basic understanding of how to formulate simple sentences so they don't need to rely on Google translate to translate a phrase for them. They need to translate the sentence word by word and formulate it as a whole in their own mind now. So I give the students the dictionaries and board games and let them have fun and try to talk to each other. Each student gets 10 points for participation for that Spanish Only Day. If any student speaks in English, they lose one of those ten points. Those ten points are part of their grade.

Beginning Spanish Only Day

DG

First Class; First Year

Hola, y bienvenido a mi Aula!

My name is David Graef, and I recently have been hired as a Spanish Teacher. This coming year will be my first year teaching, and I'm very excited for this opportunity. I love learning languages, and Spanish is one of my favorites.

Here's just a little bit about me! I studied Spanish for two years in high school and fell in love with learning that language. My aptitude for learning Spanish stuck out to me, but I didn't think much of it; I just enjoyed learning it a lot. When I graduated, I moved to Romania right away as a missionary with my family. Within three months I was speaking fluently, and it took me a year to grasp understanding the language; I was kind of backwards from most people's learning experience. When I picked up Romanian so easily, which was something that my friends were telling me they had never seen done so easily before, I realized that God had given me a special talent for learning languages. Over the course of the next 4 years of my college career, I had the opportunity to brush up on my Spanish, pick up Portuguese, study Hungarian, Koine Greek, and French.

After I graduated from Moody Bible Institute with a B.A in Applied Linguistics and a minor in Foreign Languages, I moved to Oahu, HI to be near the side of the family that was in the United States still. Eventually I landed a job as a barista with Starbucks. I already drank coffee, but I didn't have a passion for it until I learned a lot from that job. When the Hanalani posted an opening for Spanish Teacher, I switched careers and took it as a blessing that God was providing a career that uses my degree. I learned that the barista can leave the coffee shop, but the barista in me and my love for coffee will never leave me.

This is where I am now, where God has me and I am content to do my best here. I feel blessed that God has given me this opportunity. Not everybody gets to use their degree in a career that they love.

This being my first year teaching ever, my goal for this blog is to use it as a way to reflect on how I am doing, as well as an opportunity to give and receive input. I intend for most of my posts to be just my reflection notes that I will be taking throughout the year. In order for my notes to make sense, it's important to note that the school I work at is College prep school that is attempting to incorporate Gold Standard PBL as a means of learning. I'm very excited for that, as I think that PBL is a perfect environment for language learning.

I hope you enjoy this blog as much as I enjoy teaching and processing our classroom experience!

David Graef