First Week

Hola Parents!

Well, our first three days together are complete, and I have a lot to be excited about!  Mr. Gallatin said a few times in our opening day meeting that you only get one chance to make a first impression.  That is exactly what I wanted to do.

I decided to build a positive relationship with my students starting on the first day.  So, on day one I welcomed my students to my classroom by bombarding them in Spanish for about the first 5 minutes or so and had two interesting items on their desk.  I had two pipe cleaners.

What, you may ask was the purpose of the pipe cleaners?  I asked the students to make something that represented them.  I then had students introduce themselves to the others in the class and tell what their design was and why it was important to them.  As students worked, I moved around the room watching, asking about their design and guessing at some.

My purpose was to show the students that I wanted to know about them and what they are interested in.  Their interests matter.  Their lives matter.  School and learning are important.  However, I wanted them to know I wanted to know them and what made them who they are.  I firmly believe that students do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.

This is why I spent the first day getting to know my students.

Day two, we got down to work.  Spanish 1 jumped right into trying to figure out that I was asking their name and getting them to respond.  They got the idea and all did a fantastic job.  We them jumped right into working on the Spanish alphabet.   Spanish 2 got to see how much they remembered.  That was an eye opening experience.  Students got to realize how fast you can lose the ability of a language after not using it for a couple of months.  Then, we started working on descriptions of people and things.

Today, we continued with the alphabet and descriptions.  We also talked about using the text message reminder program that I use.  The following are how to register for reminders for level 1 and 2.  Send a text message to the number given, and in the message itself type the appropriate code, new users will be asked for full name (first and last are fine) and you are set up.  The following are the number and codes
     Phone number (for both)  513-429-7228
     Message body:    @mradkin (Spanish 1)   and @mradkins (Spanish 2)

Next week, we will continue working on our skills in speaking, reading, listening, and writing.  There will be quizzes and other activities.  I cannot wait to share how our week goes.

I would love to hear from you.  Feel free to leave a comment below, email me (shawnadkins@nelsd.org), leave a voice mail (my extension 1354), or message me on twitter (@sadkinsump).  I look forward to meeting and working with everyone of you!  Here's to a good year:

Here are a few pics of the pipe cleaner designs:

Thanks for reading!  Until next time.

Hasta Luego