I'm moving!

I'm moving!

Posted by Caleb Bloodworth

In my real life, I am in the process of (sadly) moving from California back to the Southeast. And now my blog is moving, too! I've decided to use Wordpress rather than Blogger. I found that I liked the templates and features available better than Blogger, so I have now set up my new virtual writing home at http://espanolinthesouth.wordpress.com. I hope to see you all there!

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A birthday gift from me to you!

A birthday gift from me to you!

Posted by Caleb Bloodworth

It just so happens to be my birthday today... and I have a gift for YOU!

As I am transitioning into my new job as an HS Spanish teacher, I've encountered a delightful yet problematic issue I did not face as a university instructor: I have my very own classroom for the first time! *happydance*

The problematic part is that I don't exactly have classroom interior design money in the ol' family budget. So, long story short, lemons becoming lemonade, I created a series of posters of my own, based on quotes that I liked. I'm sharing them with you all now, so you can also have a cost-efficient (um, i.e. free) way to bring some brightness to your classroom.

These are all designs I just roughly cobbled together in Photoshop (though the last "Keep Calm" one is clearly just a replication of a poster I saw online...), so feel free to use them however you like; just don't try to sell them! That would violate some of the typographer's creative rights, I believe. Click on a poster to see it larger. Then, in the shadowbox view, right click the image to save it to your computer. Enjoy! I know that they are certainly going to add a lot of color to my windowless room!

"Think outside the box"—Riffing on this design on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/pin/84583299222661292/

My two main rules for my classroom, "No laziness" and "No meanness" (Thanks to Dave Burgess for this second one!).

"If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door." (Thanks to @SpanishNYC for sharing this quote on Twitter!)

"I do not study to know more but rather to ignore less."

"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."

"Keep calm and speak Spanish"

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On Student Evaluations

On Student Evaluations

Posted by Caleb Bloodworth

As I anxiously anticipate beginning my new job as a high school Spanish teacher, I've spent the last few days truly beginning to plan in earnest for the upcoming year. As I've done so, I've been not only trawling my PLN's tweets on Twitter and looking at the wonderful resources beginning to appear in the #wldropbox, but also looking back on my own teaching at UC Davis to consider which practices I wish to continue and which I feel I would be better off leaving behind.

One such practice involves a polarizing aspect of teaching at the university level that seems to be slowly but surely trickling down to secondary and even primary schools: the Dread Pirate Roberts Student Evaluation. Now, it may just be me, but my experience with evaluations my first few classes led me to react something like this:

continued after the jump...

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World Languages Dropbox

World Languages Dropbox

Posted by Caleb Bloodworth

Hola a tod@s,

Just a quick update to let those of you not on Twitter (and if you are not, what are you waiting for?!) know of something exciting that has just started today. Language educators in the UK—the "#mfltwitterati"—have had a shared Dropbox in which to share lesson plans and other resources for quite some time.

Now, Kristy Placido and I thought it was high time for the rest of us teachers in the Americas to get in on the collaborative fun. As the account was literally just opened today, we do not yet have a lot of resources to share... But that will change with YOUR help!

If you are a world language teacher in the US, Canada, Latin America, etc., and would like to join the shared Dropbox, either comment on this post OR send me (@cbloodworth) or Kristy (@placido) a direct message on Twitter with your e-mail address and what language(s) you want to collaborate on. See you there!

Edit #1 (7/8/13): We will be using similar guidelines to the aforementioned UK Dropboxes, which may be found here. Of particular importance is that you only post materials that you have created (or that you have express permission from the creator to post) and that do not infringe on any copyright or other intellectual property regulations. Also, please include links in your documents to video or audio files stored elsewhere rather than uploading these large file types to the Dropbox itself. This will help us all have a little more space to share. Thanks for your understanding in this matter!

Edit #2 (7/8/13): I've just created a wikispaces account that we can use to upload larger media files. It is located here but is currently under construction. Feel free to go ahead and join, though!

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¡Bienvenidos!

¡Bienvenidos!

Posted by Caleb Bloodworth

Hola and hello! Welcome to my new blog, Español in the South!

My name is Caleb, and I teach Spanish. After spending two great years in California for grad school, my wife and I are packing up and moving back home to Georgia, where I will be teaching at a private high school. Though I have been teaching English as a second language and Spanish classes in different capacities part-time for about five years, this will be my very first full-time gig! I am very excited and hope to chronicle my teaching and learning experiences here on this blog.

As a new teacher, I feel it is all the more important to reflect upon and receive feedback on my teaching and learning. Here I plan to not only document the positive things that go on in my class but also the questions I have for you (my PLN!) and the struggles I face.

As I am a high school Spanish teacher, the posts here will be most often about secondary language classes. My particular professional interests include Spanish maintenance in the U.S., heritage language education, adult community language endeavors, linguistic human rights and language policy, and technology in the language classroom.  However, some of the discussions I look forward to having with you may apply to teachers more broadly, and I will likely post general and Spanish resources (in addition to reflections and experiences) here, on Twitter (@cbloodworth), and on Pinterest (@caleb).

Thanks for stopping by, and look for more posts over the next few weeks as I prepare to begin my teaching.

Muchos saludos,
Caleb

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