I think that any student would love the idea of creating their own blog. A blog is much more special than a Word Document or a Google Doc because it can be personalized. Creative students will have a fun time making their page their own, and they will probably be more motivated to do well on their assignments if they know that anyone can see them. A blog may feel like social media to some kids, and they may be more willing to share their opinions and comment on other people’s pages because it is more familiar to them. Blogs are also great because they give students a chance to learn how to do more technologically advanced functions, which will help them tremendously in the long run. While they are creating a blog, they are learning how to embed a video, link a website, and publish their thoughts to a public domain. Blogs provide a great way for students to share their opinions, or also share with others a topic they have researched. Blogs also stay with students even after the class has ended. They can act as a sort of portfolio for them, so they can see what they did in the past and compare it to what they are doing now.
I could definitely see myself creating a blog for my future classroom, where I would post cool things going around in the Spanish-speaking community and also post extra credit opportunities or shout outs to students who chose to experience the Spanish culture in some way. This would be a fun way to bring the students together outside of the classroom, and would hopefully allow them to appreciate the Spanish language and culture in a new way.
I took a class in college where we had to volunteer with the Latino community and post several blog posts about our experiences. Every 2 weeks, we would share a post with our classmates and we would discuss what we had done. This was a great way to get involved with the community, and the blog made it easy for us to record our doings and share them with the class. This was the first time I had personally created a blog, and it was not nearly as scary as I thought it was going to be. I had a really fun time with that project, and I hope to do something similar with my future students.
The only constraint I would have with blogs would be the setup process. Setting up a blog, choosing a username, and selecting a theme may take a long time for a classroom of middle schoolers, and I don’t know how much time I would want to take to get things started. Also, I would want to make sure that the students had wifi outside of school so they could work on them at home as well. It wouldn’t be fair if some of the students didn’t, because they could so easily fall behind. These problems are not detrimental, and they definitely will not stop me from using a blog when I am a teacher, but they are still something to think about.
Blair Waldorf is a main character on the TV show Gossip Girl. Blair is an excellent student. She receives straight-As and expects to attend an Ivy League school. She comes from an extremely wealthy family; her dad is a lawyer and her mom is a fashion designer. She attended Constance Billard School for Girls, which is a private high school that is extremely expensive.
Although she does well academically, her snotty attitude is evident to nearly everyone, and she has a harder time getting into college and making friends than some of her more pleasant friends. This video shows her dealing with the consequences of her actions, while her friends are being rewarded for their positive attitudes:
Although Blair is a top student, she tends to care more about popularity and her social status than her classes. She makes several bad decisions in order to get revenge on her fellow schoolmates, and ends up being expelled from Constance. She is able to get back in (with an apology and a ton of cash) and tries to redeem her status as a good student. She does not play sports, and instead spends most of her time setting up glamorous brunch dates for her friends and family as well as enjoying her time as queen bee of the school (all while making sure no one gains too much social power).
If Blair were my student, I would do all in my power to make sure she doesn’t bully anyone in the classroom. Blair has a tendency to be extremely rude and demeaning to all she feels are below her (basically everyone), and I would do my best to change her attitude. I would assign projects that allow the students to think about different cultures and people in order to make them think about others instead of just themselves. Blair is a good student and she will do fine in her classes, but she needs to know that she is not the only person in the world.
Academically, I would say that Blair is college ready, but her childlike attitudes and close-minded perception of the world make her more of a child than an adult. She needs to lose her attitude before attending college, because professors and other college students will not put up with it like Constance students did. She will do absolutely fine if she just grows up a little bit. College requires deeper thinking, and she will not be able to do this if she is always thinking about herself.
Hello all! My name is Ally Kamphuis and I am finishing my final year here at Grand Valley. I study Secondary Education, Spanish, and English, and I am beyond excited to start my career as an educator of a foreign language. I am currently a teacher assistant in three 10th grade Spanish classrooms at Rockford High School. I learn so much about the students and about teaching in general every single day. In my free time, I absolutely love to exercise - especially running (it helps me to de-stress) - and I also love to play with my dog. I have been a waitress at Russ’ Restaurants (at one of the locations in Holland) for 5 years. I am probably one of the few people in the world who will admit to loving waitressing. I am such a people person, and having a job where I can talk as much as I want to AND get more money for doing so is something I never thought possible. I find the same joy that I find when waitressing while teaching, but I feel as if there are more benefits involved in teaching, especially the feeling I get when I help a child who has been struggling. This video shows a little more about me :). An interesting period of my life was when I studied abroad in Spain for a semester, and some of the pictures are featured in the video. Living in Spain and experiencing the Spanish culture firsthand was an indescribable feeling, and I am so glad that I was blessed with the opportunity.
FUN-FACT
I have always had a knack for languages; they make sense to me the way math makes sense to some people. When I was a child, I was so drawn to languages that I started to dissect them and put them together in different ways in my head. From this, I acquired the skill of talking backwards. Anything that I can say normally, I can also say in reverse. I used to do this involuntarily in my head for years, and for a long time I thought that it was something that everyone could do. Once I discovered that it was not normal, I shared this skill with my friends and quickly became a spectacle for many of my classmates. I can still speak backwards nowadays, but I don’t do it nearly as much as I used to.
EXPERIENCE WITH TECHNOLOGY
Honestly, I don’t have much experience using technology in the classroom. Sure, I have created many, MANY powerpoints and other presentations, but I have never used a Smartboard or any other advanced pieces of technology in the classroom. I would be interested in learning about more technological options for a Spanish classroom, because most of the equipment I can think of is more commonly used in math and science classrooms.
