positives so far

     We're nearly 4.5 weeks in, though it seems both much shorter and much longer than that, so I thought I'd take a few minutes to catalog some of the things that have gone well so far. One of the things that my therapist emphasized was the importance of focusing on both sides. You must acknowledge the times that you mess up and the things you need to change, but you also need to celebrate your successes and appreciate your strengths.

1. My Spanish 1s did running dictation for the first time on Thursday. There was the normal amount of whining, but their spelling was on point and their cooperation (aside from the whining) was really high. I still have to check their papers for accuracy in terms of putting the story in order, but since I could hear their discussions while they worked, I think that most only have minor mistakes. I used a slightly adapted version of the story from "¿Puedo ir al baño?" and the students had to look up very little vocabulary. I'm also closer than ever to nailing down how many extensions are necessary so that the work takes up nearly all of the class time without becoming totally boring, while also getting in those useful reps with the high frequency language.
2. My Spanish 2s voted on our next book. I gave them a few options that included a short summary, the cultural focus, and my opinion of the difficulty level. To make things a little more fair, they chose whether they would be interested, might be interested, or definitely wouldn't be interested for each instead of putting them on a scale. Almost no one chose the easiest novel and it actually had more votes against it than the hardest two listed. Since their biggest complaint is often "But it's in Spanish!" I'm really proud that they actually took the time collectively to choose something that might be interesting instead of going with the easy way out. We'll do reading individually until after fall break, then dive in. They also voted almost unanimously to focus solely on the novel while we read, which surprised me, but I wouldn't have asked if I wasn't willing to allow their choice to stand.
3. Going back to my Spanish 1s, I'm frequently asked to just translate words for them, especially cognates for some reason, and I rarely do. Instead, I talk them through it. What does it look like? What does it sound like? Is there another word that contains a part of this word? I've wondered for years now if I sounded too sarcastic when I said these things, as I have a hard time with tone, but I wanted them to build the ability to think it through without me, by hearing me say it over and over. One of my students told me a few days ago that they like that I do this, that it does help them, that they're starting to see the connections themselves and they mostly want me to confirm it for them.