ALWAYS FREE

Issue # 36

COHORT CORNER

D.C. REGION FOREIGN LANGUAGE / MAY 8, 2011

Action Items
EMAIL RECENT ASSESSMENT RESULTS
Remember to send your students’ most updated exam
results to my gmail address.

Announcements
PD OFFICE HOURS

When: Sunday, May 15th from 2-5pm

Where: Ebenezers (201 F St NE, near the Union Station

metro)
UPCOMING PDS (FOR 2010 CMS ONLY)

When: Saturday, May 21st

Where: Gallaudet University
2009 AWARDS FOR TEACHING


Want to recognize a fantastic 2009 CM? Nominate him

or her for the Edith Tatel Excellence in Teaching Award by

Friday, May 13th.
Sarah Myers’s students practice their Spanish by ordering food at La
2009 ALUMNI INDUCTION
Pupeseria de San Miguel

Who: 2009 CMs

Team Shout Outs

When: Saturday, May 21st


Where: Mayflower Renaissance Hotel
VISIT TO MARYLIN’S CLASSROOM


Who: Anyone who is interested in joining Kat, Campbell, Hillary Coleman: for Marylin Rodriguez: for


and I on a visit to Marylin’s classroom to see how she
teaching me things about agreeing to open up her


executes immersion style instruction
Spanish that I didn’t know classroom to host me,


When: 2pm, May 25th
existed, and for making my Campbell, and Kat on the


Where: Benjamin Foulois reading ten times better. afternoon of May 25th to learn


How: Contact Joaquin for details! Before your class, I read little about how she introduced
to nothing in Spanish and now immersion style instruction to
Resource Spotlight I read like every little thing
because it’s not that hard--
her middle school students. If
anyone would like to join,
SPANISH 1 FAMILY UNIT REVIEW Student in Hillary’s class please email me... I have a few


Help students review family unit vocabulary with Ilana’s spots left in my car!--Joaquin


family trees PowerPoint or boost investment by providing


them with an element of choice with Amanda G’s tic tac
Campbell Glenn: for


toe choice board.You can also reinforce content with Amanda’s facilitating fun and engaging Teresa Pandolfo: for


family tree project and performance task Spanish lessons for her pitching an inspiring innovation
SPANISH 1 UNIT 5 RESOURCES students’ parents!--Katie project idea at the PGCPS


Download Tori’s zip folder of Spanish 1 Unit 5 resources Tomlinson Innovation Challenge event last
REVIEW RESOURCES week which would revamp


Check out this bank of over 7,000 quick review activities Sarah Myers: for providing support for English language


(thanks, Katie!) her students with an learners and their families in
PEER REVIEWED RESOURCES opportunity to apply the target Prince George’s County. Her


Check out this site, which is filled with awesome peer-reviewed language in a real-life context pitch was so compelling that


resources for foreign language teachers (and also teachers of by taking them to a restaurant Dr. Hite said that it made him


other content areas). Hillary has found the listening videos at this


page to be particularly helpful! to order food in Spanish and rethink the entire ESOL
NEW VIRTUAL VISIT being resourceful in her efforts program in PGCPS. Check out


Watch how Campbell uses competition and realistic scenarios to to take students abroad by the PowerPoint to learn about


invest her kids in studying as well as how she models helpful hosting meetings with students her inspiring concept!--Joaquin


study strategies.You can also download the

resources that she and parents, reaching out to


used to facilitate this lesson on studying! 2nd years for advice, and
SPANISH 2 UNIT 4 EXAM launching her new Web site.-- Please see SHOUT OUTS,


Looking for a good Spanish 2 Unit 4 exam? Download Nichole’s Joaquin next page


nicely aligned exam and prom-themed performance task


(includes rubric)
 SHOUT OUTS
continued from front page
Campbell Glenn: for not punching
me in the face, despite my constantly
being a forgetful friend.--CJ Libassi
Sasha Guevara: she is so great at
putting up resources on the Facebook
site, and they are all so useful!--Kulsum
Vakharia
Betsy Leach: for taking her kids on a
highly successful trip to the Dominican
Republic over Spring Break and for
thinking expansively about what she
wants students to take away from her
classroom (as evidenced by the recent
lesson on self-advocacy that she
facilitated). By doing so, she is ensuring
that students are walking out of her
classroom more aware of the world
outside of the United States, better
informed about the expectations that
professors will hold them to in college,
and more knowledgeable about the ways
in which they can advocate for
themselves in high school, college, and
beyond.--Joaquin
Meredith Ackerman: for thinking
creatively about ways that she can help
make the content come alive for her
students. From the work she has done
to help her students build a city in her
classroom to her students’ recent field
trip to a restaurant where they ordered
food in Spanish, Meredith has done a
tremendous job of investing her kids in
learning the language by presenting them
with interactive scenarios in which they
Our Cohort in Action
Betsy Leach and her Spanish 1 students
read aloud to children at an orphanage during
their Spring Break trip to the Dominican
Republic.
can apply what they have learned.--
Joaquin Top 10 Videos
Nichole, Meredith Ackerman,
Kat, Betsy, and Campbell: for
agreeing to work with me and TFAnet’s
of the Month
content community leader to pool
together, revamp, and add to our
cohort’s bank of summative assessment
1. Campbell’s Parent Night
items for Intro/Spanish 1 and 2. Please
let me know if any of you are also 2. Amanda and CJ Classroom
interested in pitching in and helping to Management
draft items so CMs our cohort has high-
quality test questions to pull for final 3. Campbell’s Stem- Changers
exams. Our meeting is going to be Song
Monday (tomorrow) evening at the TFA
office (free pizza included :))!
4. Ms. Earnshaw’s Strong
Meredith Ackerman: for helping Management and Culture
me with Spanish 2 planning when I was
having a freak out. She kept me calm and 5 . Strong Vo i c e ( T LAC
my lesson was a success thanks to resource)
her!--Amanda Gewirtz
6. 100 Percent (TLAC
Marylin, Betsy, and CJ: for coming resource)
out on a Friday afternoon to attend
Doug Lemov’s session on teaching
reading. It was inspiring to see them 7. Joy Factor (TLAC resource)
internalizing and practicing concrete
strategies that they’ll be able to use to 8. Do Not Engage (TLAC
help their students read and write resource)
better in Spanish and English. --Joaquin
9. Teaching Study Skills
Tori Hornstein: for accepting an
offer to work at the Center for
Education Reform starting in June. This 10. Repaso Oral w/ Indira
well-deserved opportunity will allow Cruz
her to play to some of her biggest
strengths as a writer, storyteller, and
compelling advocate for education
reform.--Joaquin
Sasha Guevara paints a mural on the Maria Ramirez poses alongside Ms.
walls of Davis Elementary School as part Sim and students from Benjamin Stoddert
of a service project with Hands on DC. during a trip to Howard University.