Are you in search of some ideas for how to plan your French, Spanish, or Italian City Unit? In this post, I walk you through how to plan for this unit. I include all of the instructional, practice, and assessment materials that you’ll need, and I give tips and strategies for how to pace your unit, what activities to implement and how, and ideas for assessing student learning.

Should we assess writing in World Language classes? Some argue no, but I believe assessing writing is crucial, even in beginner French, Spanish, and Italian classes. Ignoring writing skills overlooks an essential part of language development. In this post, I’ll share practical strategies for assessing writing proficiency that are both fair and efficient. You'll discover tips to streamline the grading process, and I’ll provide simple, effective rubrics to help you highlight your students' strengths and guide their growth—all while saving you valuable time for other teaching tasks.

Teaching often seems like a profession designed for extroverts—those who thrive in energetic classrooms and bustling hallways, and still have enough energy for socializing after school. But what about introverted teachers? If you're like me, the high-energy nature of teaching can be mentally exhausting, and the noise of the school day overwhelming. As an introverted teacher, I’ve had to find ways to protect my energy while staying present and engaged for my students. In this post, I’ll share the strategies I’ve developed to balance the demands of teaching with my own mental well-being.

Practice worksheets in a World Language class do NOT have to be boring! In this blog post, I share 5 ways to make the worksheets you already have more engaging for your students.

Do you know deep down that you need to assess your students' interpersonal and presentational speaking proficiency, but you're at a loss for how to get started? Do you already assess speaking but dread it because of how time consuming and laborious it can be? Then this post is for you! In this blog post, I talk about the importance of speaking assessments, how to assess your students accurately and fairly, and how to save time and energy in the feedback process.

Do you struggle with classroom management? Or are you looking for ways to tweak your current classroom management practices so that your classes run a bit more smoothly? In this blog post, I’m going to share some common classroom management issues that are unique to us as World Language educators, along with some tips and strategies for how to navigate them.

Are you interested in pursuing a career in education as a World Language teacher?  Do you already speak French, Spanish, or Italian, and have you always felt like your knowledge and passion for language and culture could translate (pun intended!) to a really exciting and rewarding career in the field of education? Click to read more!

Whether you are a classroom teacher with your own classroom, or whether you are a traveling teacher who teaches in multiple rooms, this technology hack will save you a TON of time and keep you super organized. If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you know that I am a huge proponent of creating systems that keep me organized, efficient, and that save me time and mental bandwidth. In this blog post, I’m going to share this easy technology tip and walk you through the simple steps that you can take TODAY to incorporate this system into your daily teaching practice.

Do you struggle with time management? Do you feel like your prep periods pass by in the blink of an eye, and you're left feeling stressed and overwhelmed because you still have SO MUCH work on your plate? In this blog post, I’m going to share the BEST tip that I have for minimizing prep time. This tip will save you a TON of time in your lesson planning, which will free up time for you to complete other tasks (e.g. grading papers, inputting grades, attending meetings, completing paperwork, etc.) and hopefully reduce (or eliminate) your need for taking work home with you on evenings and weekends.

Are you ready to unlock your students’ innate capacity for acquiring language? If you’re looking for an instructional practice that will move the needle forward in your students’ comprehension of the target language, you’re going to love this post! In it, I talk about Free Voluntary Reading, a practice in which students select a book from your classroom library and read silently and independently for 5-10 minutes. In this post, I’ll walk you through the research showing the benefits of FVR and give concrete tips, tricks, and strategies for how you can get started implementing FVR in your World Language class today!