How to Be a Better Spanish Teacher
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There are 2 parts to how to be a better Spanish teacher: how to be better at Spanish, and how to be better at teaching! We chatted about how to improve your Spanish in the last post, so let’s take a look at how to be a better Spanish teacher from the teaching methods & pedagogy perspective.
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How to Be a Better Spanish Teacher
 When your goal is to be a better Spanish teacher, it’s easy to get hung up on your Spanish abilities, but remember that just because someone is fluent in a language doesn’t mean they know how to teach it! There are so many ways to learn how to be a better Spanish teacher:
- read books
- attend conferences
- seek out professional development
- join professional organizations
- listen to podcasts on teaching strategies
- check out Youtube videos for support
To keep you from wondering, “Well, WHICH books? Which conferences? Where do I even find PD?”, let’s dive into these in more details!
Read Books
Books can be a great way to learn about teaching strategies & methods! I’ve shared 5 of my favorites here, and I’ve linked them below for you to check out. Sometimes I struggle to focus on a book solo, so I do like to attend a book study for credit if I can find one! My state org, FLAND, usually hosts one a year. Check them out here!
- Unpack Your Impact
- Grafted Writing
- A Natural Approach to the Year
- Kagan Cooperative Learning
- Common Ground: Second Language Acquisition Theory Goes to the Classroom
I really loved the mountains of applicable strategies found in the Kagan Cooperative Learning book. Check out one of my favorites here:
Of course there are many great books on teaching, and more are being published all the time!
Attend Conferences
This one is straightforward: attend conferences about teaching.
That could be conferences about teaching world languages, and it could be conferences just for teachers, because there’s so many different aspects to teaching! You could be learning about technology in the classroom, classroom management strategies, guided reading groups- there’s so many different things you can learn about!
Attending as much PD as you have time, space, and energy for is going to make you a better teacher. Period. Because you’re going to be getting stuff that you hadn’t heard before or even if it’s stuff that you’ve heard before it might be a better time for you!
Sometimes you hear something and you’re not quite ready for it. Something else is happening or you’re already focused on another thing or whatever, and then it just kind of fades away until whenever you hear it again and your brain goes, “Oh! I remember that I wanted to try that!”, and then you apply it and actually use it in your teaching.
It’s like the seed that falls on good ground vs the year you heard it when you had some rocky soil, teacher overwhelm going on!
If you’re not sure where to find conferences near you, or digital conferences, I have a blog post where I’ve rounded up as many different state orgs, regional orgs, national organizations, that all host conferences, and have different opportunities for professional development.
Teaching Podcasts
We talked about podcasts for improving your Spanish, but there’s also podcasts for teaching.
These are some top podcasts for learning about being a teacher and they all have slightly different styles, but they’re a great resource to help.
- Growing with Proficiency
- SLAyyy
- Conversations about Language Teaching
- CI Diaries
- The Motivated Classroom
- We Teach Languages
- Tea with BVP
- World Language Classroom
Watch Youtube Videos for Support & Strategies
There are tons of Youtube channels for teachers out there! Like I mentioned with conferences, they don’t have to be specific to world language teachers in order to learn from them. I’ll link a few for you here, too!
So often, whatever topic or idea I’m struggling with, I’ll head to Youtube and see what I can find! From tech tips to home improvement, it’s really my first search. Videos can be so helpful to watch and learn.
How to Be a Better Spanish Teacher
I hope these ideas are helpful for you! Don’t forget, if you’re feeling overwhelmed, that simply having the desire to be a better teacher is a great first step. You’re putting in the time, energy, and effort to improve, and that sets you apart!
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More Tips for Teachers
- Why You SHOULDN’T Translate at School
- How to Handle Multiple Spanish Classrooms
- Tips to Support Blind Students in Spanish Class
- 7 Tips for a Better Work-Life Balance for Spanish Teachers
- How to Lesson Plan for Spanish Class
