Whew! Starting at a brand new school is pretty much all the feelings! First off, the above picture is my view from my classroom. Even after living near DC for many years, every time I see the monuments, I can’t help but feel amazed. Overall, I cannot express how happy I am to be in my new school, how inspired I feel and how much I look forward to meeting the students on Tuesday. I moved to a new room with my new and wonderful Spanish colleague, so that kept us plenty busy throughout the week. (Although it is done and I will share pictures later!) Also, overall, I have been focusing on what Amy has talked about for her change as well. I chose this school because I believe that it will make me better as a teacher. The foreign language team has taught me so much already, and I can tell how much we will collaborate. I cannot wait to see what will happen!
In other big news, one of my new interviews from We Teach Languages will come out with my colleague from my former school Kristin Kvasnyuk. She is the amazing teacher behind the medieval bestiary unit. She is also the one who told me about GimKit wayyyyyy before it was the thing. Not only does she inspire me by finding amazing things to share with me (and a lot of that we talk about on the show!), but I am always truly impressed with the relationships she develops with her students. I could see day in and day out the impact that she had on these students. My hope for the interview is that you can hear some ways of how she does it.
That was much longer than normal! I think this is my way of pseudo continuing my regular blogging, but on Friday. Here are some posts to catch up on over the long weekend:
- I love AnneMarie’s idea on how to include students’ pictures for PictureTalk. If you are looking for another free resource, you can check out linoit.
- Cecile wrote a helpful round-up of if you are interested in Special Person Interviews.
- Keith Toda discusses how he modifies Story Listening to work for his students. I have tried some of the tips, but I like the activities that he has done for the second day.
- This is a long post and full of links- but I always enjoy reading about updates for Google!
If you are catching up on some of my posts, you can check these out:
- 21 ideas to use with novels
- A sample syllabus for level 2
- Journaling with Seesaw (I am excited to use this with the younger students this year!)
- 15 ideas for warm-up activities in your class
Maris Hawkins 
What a view!! Wishing you a fabulous start to a new year at your new school with your new kids! They’re lucky to have you, Maris!
Thank you so much!!! I hope you have had an excellent start to the year!