Time to share what you've learned - Flipgrid

As we rushed to shift our classroom into the cyber space, a lot of us had to learn to use a variety of new tools as we went.  It's mind-boggling looking at all the tools available to us.  I don't know if you do this, too, but I tend to find a couple of tools that work well for me and narrow in on varying its uses to serve my objectives.  In other words, I work them to death.  Years ago, when recording homework became popular amongst Chinese language teachers, I tried out Voki, Google Voice, Voicethread, Vocaroo... Now, a lot of people use Flipgrid.  They are all very similar, but I'd like to explore what we can do in addition to recording and presenting ourselves using these applications.  Again, it's not about the technology, but how we use them. One thing that I love about Flipgrid is that it has the capability to read aloud the prompts to my students.  So my prompt in the target language can be delivered not only textually, but also aurally.

Recently, I assigned a Flipgrid for students to present about one thing they learned to do since all schools went virtual.  They may show us "how" by doing that task, or simply talk into the camera.  I guess, other than getting the students to use the language, it also helped to shed light on the "silver lining" of this indefinite, unstructured period of time at home.  We all have more time at home to try out things we never thought of.

I love making demos to model for my students.  More than showing them how to complete an assignment, I also get to experience challenges just like my students trying to complete this task for the first time.



What can I do with my tens of Flipgrid presentations?  My students can now pick one thing they want to learn from their peers.  I can post listening comprehension questions.  I can teach them proper online etiquettes for complimenting someone's post so they can "react" appropriately to others' online feeds.  My students can also use this opportunity to appreciate the little things in their daily life.  The opportunities are endless.

Let me tell you a story - in our digital classroom

One morning this week, after working late into the night without having made my plan for the following morning, I was giving up being the creative teacher.  But some caffeine, a hot shower, and a deadline worked wonders in getting me out of the rut.  As I showered, I remembered a workshop I attended on teaching language through stories.  Before I knew it, I was telling myself a story about my little dog who did not like to go for walks.  I was able to use all the vocabulary words, language structures from the current unit, and it's a very believable story (other than the fact that there's a dog in this world who does not like to go for walks).

Straight out of my shower, in 40 minutes, I wrote my story, revised it, and put it into a presentation on Google Slides.  That first effort was pretty crude, but it got the job done.  The story spanned about seven slides, I made sure there was some nice photo on each slide.  It helped that I had many cute pics of my dog.  Then, I made my lesson plan around it.

Basically, the lesson was in three chunks:  1) I did the storytelling with a lot of Q&As that demystified the new content, sort of like TPRS, 2) My students read my story to each other in breakout rooms to reinforce their reading fluency and character recognition, and 3) They rewrote their own stories keeping the same structures and keywords.  It's sort of like MadLib.  A student got pretty silly and wrote about his good friend the "giant bus," who wanted to sleep all day.  Some more straight-laced students wrote about some of their friends or family who only likes to watch TV above all else.  They went to town with gifs on their own slides.  I think the key to do this online is to assign this on Google Classroom where each student has a copy.

I was reasonably happy with the process as well as the product, because they heard the new content, interacted with it, read it, used it in their own writing, and eventually came up with their own stories.  (Gradual Release - I do, we do, you do)  Their next task was to practice telling their own versions of the story for a followup presentation.  As for me, I made my original story into a video (now with even nicer photos) using Screencast-o-Matic, and then made it into an Edpuzzle to assess my students' understanding.  Can I use it again when we eventually return to the classroom?  O yes, you bet!

Seven years

What can one do in seven years?  Start a Chinese language program, see it grow, nurture it, and integrate it into a school's curriculum.  This year, I am saying goodbye to a robust, healthy, rigorous Chinese language program, which will probably be one of the most rewarding experiences in my working life as a teacher.

It is important to reflect on what worked and what contributed to the health of a language program.  Unlike other academic subjects, a school's language department is unique in that one can never predict enrollment in specific subsets of classes, if students are given the choice of languages to study.  Even when the teachers have done everything, there is no guarantee how many students will choose any language in any given year.  There are so many factors that contribute to the students' choice that are not within our control.  Some people put all their eggs in the fun and game, bells and whistles; some swear by doing the food-inspired cultural activities; some think it's about the easiness of the courses; some believe language choice has everything to do with global economy and politics.  I think they all seem like contributing factors, and yet nothing really stands alone in causing programs to fluctuate.

What can one do in seven years?  Build a lot of lifelong relationships, those with students, friends, and colleagues.  I started this post a while ago, and until now, I have avoided coming back to it because it took me down the memory lane of that first year when I was on all fours with my second graders on the carpet of my shared classroom planting sunflower seeds in Dixie cups, that second year when I went for a colorful autumn walk with my fourth graders collecting leaves, or that third year when I finally got to know all my middle school colleagues like never before.

In retrospect, it was really not about building the biggest and the most successful Chinese program in the area.  Learning a language is more than that.  It's about connecting with my students.  I often say to new teachers - If you want the students to speak your language, you've got to speak theirs.  My biggest hope and wish for all my students, past and present, is not for them to sit in my classroom and be good students, but rather, that they love learning languages, all languages, and all cultures that bring them outside of their everyday, in hope that one day they will be able to make their own connections.

In a recent conversation, someone asked me about the program, and whether I thought of myself as a "WOW" sort of teacher, and why I thought that.  It was very un-Chinese to talk about oneself this way, but I had to expand on it on that single occasion -- It's about the science and the art of teaching.  Anyone can learn the methods.  In teacher school, we learned how to incorporate backward design,  plan good lessons, implement differentiation, the list goes on.  But how about the art in the teaching?  It's the magic that happens when we interact with our students.  Can the art be learned?  Though I can't answer the question, I hope I brought the magic to my classroom seven years ago.

What can one do in seven years?  A lot of things I would say.

Thank you.

My first DIY vid

Sometimes you find yourself in a rut, in the classroom, in your personal life, trying to sort things out.  Then you get out of the rut and start doing things and feel alive again.  Thanks to my adorable 7th graders, I was motivated to delve deeper into technology and social media again this week.  What did I end up doing on a Friday afternoon, after a week of teaching, year-end obligations and teenage parenthood?  Yes, I made my own DIY Youtube vid for making Duanwu Jie satchet (端午节香包) all in the target language!  It's not academy award worthy, but I have kids emailing me and said they understood it and they finished their projects!  Can't wait to see those projects next week!  Here it is, and please feel free to use it ~

What I learned (2) - The Green Screen

I had the good fortune to learn how to use the green screen in movie making from Ken Hughes at this year's NNELL summer institute.  Luckily for me, GPS purchased three green screens arriving in the last week of this year's STARTALK Program, so I could try this technology right away!

What it is basically, is - film your subjects (persons) in front of the green screen, overlap the clip onto a background of your choice, and then remove the green.  That way your subjects will look like they are in front of the background of your choice.  

So, for our closing ceremony, I had the students introduce the performances in front of the green screen, and found appropriate background that showed what they were talking about.  Because I was able to add subtitles to the movie, we did not need the students to translate everything into English again.  We still had live performances, but the technology availed for a multi-media style presentation and those who did the introduction on the video could have more time in getting themselves ready for the live performances.

Instead of using our program introductions (since that has not been posted online), I have embedded a video from Youtube to demonstrate how the green screen is used in the filming process.  Look for the snow scene and living room scene in the middle of the video clip:

Thanks to Ken's tips and pointers at the presentation!

What I learned (1)

I was just getting disappointed that I didn't get to try out new teaching ideas at STARTALK this year, not having a class to call my own, when the opportunity presented itself in the last week.  One of my teachers suddenly couldn't come in.  Despite all the other things I had to do, I was excited about getting thrown a curve ball.  After finding out that she was going to teach about nationalities, I decided to try out something I just learned from Laura Terrill at the NNELL summer institute - "The Power of the Image".

Yes, we all use images, but my renewed idea about the use of images is refreshing.  We all use clipart, but is clipart the best form of images we can use in the language classroom?  I liked emotionally charged images, authentic images, images that convey inter-culturality.  (Did someone say "common core"?)  So instead of using clipart of stereotypical images that represented the different nationalities, I found pictures of less obvious but interesting authentic street scenes or natural sceneries.  I asked the students what they saw.  Together, they brainstormed what they saw and deduced where the places might be.  This process was intellectually engaging, perfect for the students developmentally.  I spread out the large world map for the students to place the flags of each country on the map, connecting our language instruction with social studies.  The next step would have to be using this to teach the continents, but I was only just subbing, so never mind.

Two days later, I was called in to cover the same class of 6th graders.  This time I had to teach the names of geometric shapes.  OMG!  I had never taught shapes in my entire Chinese teaching career!  I started asking myself why we put the shapes into the elementary curriculum this year???  Did I allow that?  What's the communicative purpose in learning to say the shapes?  Really stretching it now... How about connecting the shapes with the different flags they learned about in the past two days?  That was a weak link, but so be it.  It was okay as a mini initiation.  But once the class gets rock-and-rolling, I started pulling out Paul Klee's squares, P. Mondrian's rectangles, and many other modern art works on geometric shapes.  "How many rectangles do you see?"  "How about the big rectangle made up by two little rectangles?"  "Is this considered a square or rectangle?"  On the semi-circle image, the students said that saw more than just semi-circles.  They saw circles made up by two semi-circles and rectangles outlining a row of semi-circles.  They are pushing themselves to really "see".  The lesson culminated in a closure using another Klee print:

I never had a more engaging lesson teaching something that did not center around "social language".  We were using content-based language instead.  These are what the kids would be learning in their "normal schools".  They would be learning about geometry.  What a wonderful sight when all the kids swarmed up to the screen at the end of the lesson, counting the different shapes in the target language, agreeing and disagreeing with one another!  

On using these images from the master artists, we are stretching to teach "high concept" and "high touch" as noted by Daniel Pink in A Whole New Mind.  Are we not teaching 21st-century skills, incorporating ideas of the common core while teaching geometric shapes?

STARTALK! Here I come!

Wow, what just happened!  Another year has gone by, and I am back at STARTALK for the summer again?  This year, I am not teaching a class, but am taking on a different role at the program.  What is instructional lead anyway?  Hmmm... Better get those curricula all revised in three days... Someone is not done?  Do it yourself, quick... How do you write the lesson plans again?  Here you go...  You need some ideas?  Check out my blog... Don't be sad.  I will buy you a bubble tea... Can I borrow---?  Yes!...  I need to go to the bathroom.  Can you watch the kids?...  Don't speak English!!!

We have not even started, but all the scenes are already vividly playing themselves in my head.  The anxiety dreams are going to start soon too.  It's like stepping into a real-life classroom with teachers as students.  Despite all the uncertainly as I take on this new job, knowing how hard one needs to work as a STARTALK teacher, just makes me want to advocate that much more for my teachers.  As I work on the blog, the teachers are producing the draft lesson plans for the program's first week.  I think one is already sitting in my inbox.  Way to go, teachers!

First day of school

This is my third year at The Foote School and sixth at NHCLS.  What a nice feeling knowing you are returning to a familiar and friendly workplace!  You no longer need to impress your peers or walk on eggshells that may or may not cut your feet.  I have a different classroom this year, but the unpacking really does not faze me

There are now more detailed preparations I busy myself with: 

• How about some fun first day activity?  I decided to do the Name Game in my sixth grade class this year.  Thanks to Creative Language class!

• What will I post on the walls that will be more conducive to student learning?  Instead of glossy posters and excessive artifacts, I am going to be more critical about everything I put up.  I want students to be able to look up and find answers and clues everywhere.  Every time they search for these words, they are learning.

• What classroom commands are useful in helping my students stay in target language?  I listed stock phrases or "language chunks" that can make things "happen".  What better way do we show our students that language is real than teaching them things that make things happen! (i.e. 我可不可以___？  ___怎麼說？  老師, 我有一個問題。etc.)

• Do I do a review unit or go straight into the new content, and review along the way?  After planning a number of review activities, I joined last week's #langchat forum.  I wonder if it would be more productive to learn new materials right away, and "integrate previously studied concepts throughout the year".  Some thought-provoking ideas, games and thoughts were shared generously on langchat.  See langchat summaries for details. 

All in all, I love first days.  September is when we are the freshest, most prepared and positive, because we have all summer to freshen up, and we have yet to encounter new obstacles that bog us down in this 9-month marathon.  Even though some of us have had the same students, every September, they get bigger, more mature, and more eager to see us again.  I embrace September when it finally hits, and I can't wait to tell my students that!

Have a great year, my friends!

My husband the professor

Over the years, David and I have shared much about our own classrooms with each other.  I often comment on how lucky he is that his ivy league students soak up whatever he throws at them.  He can just 'talk', or read from a script if he wants.  There would be absolute respect for his status and indiscriminate acceptance for what he had to say.

Maybe it's a reaction, or maybe it's his natural tendency to better himself.  The professor started reading my recommended books on teaching, on brain studies.  Last year, he even attended an "education summit" for teaching undergrads.  I was touched that student-centered instruction has been introduced to university classrooms, and he is amongst the "reformers".  

In readying ourselves for our first classes in the fall, I reworked my first-week documents and tweaked some warm-up activities.  My husband spent hours "watching videos".  He was determined to find a video to accompany each of the 24 topics that he is going to introduce this semester.  I thought it was a huge undertaking, but he found them all.  Of all the video clips, there is a "Geology Kitchen"; there is a new-age mineral healing clip; the list goes on.  The rest were also unconventional for a geology class, but there is too much goodness to fit in my little blog.  How he uses these clips should go into another post.  All in all, I think he beat me in bettering one's own teaching this time!

But I guess I am the most impressed with the fact that a college professor can decide to take such drastic measure in improving his instruction and student engagement when he has been at the same job for the past 13 year!  He cares.  It's easy to get comfortable, lazy and complacent, or simply stop caring!!!  (You cannot lose your job when you are tenured.)  It takes a lot of reflection and courage.  I don't often give him kudos, but this time I have to say, "Way to go, professor!"

Back-to-school documents and "RULES"

A friend just reminded me that I have a blog!  It's been another working summer followed by complete relaxation, sneaking in thinking about some classroom management ideas and first-week activities while I sat bathing in the afternoon sun on the cabin deck.  Upon returning home, I got out my many versions of classroom procedures and policies (also known as RULES).  It's like reading a classroom diary, not about what happened in my classroom, but about how I perceived my classroom.  There seems to be a trend - The more of these I wrote, the more succinct they became.  I notice there are things I thought were important at the time, but the words and the "rules" carry no real significance in managing the classroom.  Moreover, I found that I sometimes stopped being consistent with reinforcing the rules.  Sad.

My New and Improved rules are all highly observable.  They are short commands  I can consistently hold the students accountable by them.  The rules cannot be too taxing on ME, otherwise I'd stop reinforcing them.  They have real consequences (like grades or rewards).  They can all be justified by being conducive to student learning.  Sounds like the guidelines you were given at teacher school?  I started looking at some archive resources from other amazing bloggers and came upon some syllabus ideas I promised myself to return to one day.  Many teachers combine their syllabus and rules.  Some examples I looked at are Senora Hitz's Syllabus post, Martina Bex's Syllabus, and all the exciting syllabi at Creative Language Class.  I like how friendly they look, but don't know if I will have it in me to churn out more documents.  

On my list so far:  

• Parent letter (email it when school starts)
• Syllabus (ready for open house)
• Classroom policies (first week)
• Classroom policies PowerPoint with more pics than words (first week)
• Classroom policies homework (first week)
• First week of lesson plans (now)

On first day of classes, I sometimes don't go straight to the rules.  In fact, the first day is often a "getting to know you" sort of day in my class.  It's also a good chance to impress upon the new students - It's fun to use only the target language!  For my friends who are entering their first "real" classrooms-- It is so important to get that first day down pat.  I remember my first day in a real classroom.  I rehearsed it for hours.  I was theatrical and playful.  I performed.  Out comes the TPR and exaggerated "Je ne sais pas" when the students were speaking English to me.  It was fun.  It brought us closer.  The rules may come later if you think your students and your management style can handle it.

For classes that I teach 'rules', I have had activities to check their understanding of the 'rules'.  Sometimes I give a homework assignment or quiz on it.  Sometimes I ask parents and students to sign off on a portion of the document (I don't do this anymore).  I have also drawn up rules that students suggest in my second year of teaching (something else I no longer do).

There are certain classes for which I don't explicitly teach the rules.  They are usually my youngest students, heritage students and students whom I have taught before.  My youngest students tend to learn the 'rules' as we encounter them.  My heritage students and I have some mutual understanding (and I know all of their parents very well!).  And students whom I have taught for many years know better.  Instead, I teach them what I call "procedures"- to smooth out the kinks in the working of our classroom. 

Teacher as Presenter

Yesterday marked my first 60-minute presentation at a language teacher conference.  How I worked myself up for that workshop!  I consulted good friends, my good boss, my dedicated protege, and my dear husband.  It's so hard to trust yourself to do something for the first time.  Is it like when our students give their first full-length presentation in Chinese in our class?  Probably.  I felt naked and elementary at the same time.

Thanks to my teachers at Chinese school who drove me and supported me along the journey to give my first workshop in ENGLISH, it went remarkably well.  It was a presentation on how we use 21st-Century skills in our language classrooms.  I started with a little background, gave a few examples of activities I do in class that require 21st-Century skills, and ended with some tidbits.  It turned out to be a really interactive and well-received workshop after all.

I had a few participants who don't teach Chinese.  It's surprising how people really stick to their own designated language at conferences, even thought my talk and activities are entirely in English.  I am glad a few non-Chinese teachers joined us.  They seemed to really enjoy the workshop during which they were asked to give instructions about cooking, figure out one's mystery nationality and ask about different people's favorite foods.  My fan club of Chinese teachers (bless you) were not only participating in the activities -- they were asking many, many questions about the implementation of various activities.  I thank you for your inquiring minds and support.

Today, I went to Chinese school with a spring in my steps, losing an hour last night, but with plenty of chirping birds in the moist morning air, and a big smile on my face.  I took on my class of first graders ready to learn some more from my little curious friends.  

School Really Started: A reflection

It seemed like ages ago when we were getting ready for first day of school at New Haven Chinese Language School.  What a transforming year we had last year!  As more teachers with like minds joined us at NHCLS, we worked together on everything, from curriculum to school-wide policies, from scheduling to professional development.  (I love our teachers!)  This is only our second week back, and I am seeing a difference in the rigor each teacher is bringing to her classroom.  This is when I think it's rewarding being an administrator.  You see it in all of the teachers and students.

Some of our little successes include, the heightened enthusiasm in the entire community, an increased enrollment in all of the classes, the continuation of our afternoon class, a beginning adult class, and a large pre-K class that had to be split into two classes, and maybe three in the very near future!  How I hope all of our students will persevere through the years and keep up with coming to school every Sunday! 

As a teacher - I have a class of first graders this year.  They are so happy participating in game after game of character recognition.  I often ponder, what is the difference between educating heritage v/s non-heritage students?  Yes, heritage speakers often need more reinforcement with reading and writing, as opposed to syntax and oral abilities.  But is that all?  I ask myself, what do I want to see Chinese school teachers work on with my own children?  I think it goes beyond teaching them how to read and write.  I want my children to identify with their cultural heritage.  I want them to appreciate what my native culture has to offer.  Having said that, I care all so much too for my non-heritage students.  They show me that children have such open minds to new cultures and to things different to their own.  They show my children that our culture is important, interesting, beautiful and, most of all, accepted in the world.  I appreciate their motivation and their desire to venture into something different.  I learn so much from my students everyday.

My take on teaching tones

It's funny how we always think of tones as a huge 'chapter' in teaching Chinese.  This is the first year that I have not been so plagued by "how do I teach tones???"  I stopped teaching it.  No, that's not entirely true.  I just don't teach it explicitly after the initial introduction.  But how did my students learn them?  They learn the sounds experientially.  It is, after all, the most natural way we all learned our tones as native speakers. 

First, I cannot stress enough the importance of speaking in target language as much as possible in the classroom.  Even if students don't understand everything you may say in passing, they will get used to the sound of the language.  Have you ever been in a place where people speak a different language and you now have the 'music' of that language in your ear?

This is also the first year that I have stopped using so many songs in my classroom.  While singing in the target language helps with remembering sentence structures and vocabulary, I find that they obscure the tones completely.  Don't get me wrong, I still sing a couple of songs with my students, but I have now focused my energy on searching and writing highly rhythmic rhymes and raps.  A great resource is Practical Rhythmic Chinese published by Foreign Languages Teaching and Research Press (2009).  I haven't used any rap from the book yet, but it offers me a lot of inspiration.  Gao Jian also published a new book of teaching through rhymes Chinese Breeze that I am purchasing for next fall.  One of my own creations 你好吗？ is something I have used in the beginning of each year with great effect.  I like it with TPR as a warm-up routine.  Let me know if it works for you too.

Some of the other things I do to 'teach tones' are more about my practice in general and not so much any isolated methods or activities.  For instance, when I introduce new vocabulary, I sometimes group the words by certain tonal pattern, like huángsè, báisè, hóngsè / zōngsè, huīsè, etc.  Everything is intentional, down to the order I introduce each new word.

I like to make use of any 'teachable moments'.  Again, not explicitly, I would remind students that they have previously learned something that sounds similar but with different tones.  We almost have to anticipate that moment before it passes us by.  For instance, the students who already know wǒshì (I am) are now learning wòshì (bedroom).  I would make a point to have them differentiate the two.  It really helps my students develop the awareness for the tonal differences. 

Error correction is a big one too.  When my students speak with inaccurate tones I would repeat what he/she says with the correct tones.  My students repeat it after me so much that it becomes second nature.  I do it so frequently to every student, that my students don't feel singled out.  Always keeping a sense of humor is so essential, that way you can lower the students' affective filter while correcting their tones.

Since I decided to speak in target language earlier on, I dramatize and exaggerate the emotions of most things I say to convey meaning.  By doing so, the tones, needless to say, are exaggerated and delivered in a clear manner.  When the language is spoken with conviction and with meaning, students are likely to learn the context and the sound pattern of the entire sentence.  Each sentence is like a mini musical phrase.  It is also easier for them to adapt to the longer sentences.  Both books I mentioned earlier talk about this.

There are countless practices in my everyday teaching that I think benefit my students' acquisition of tones.  My biggest piece of advice is -- nothing exists in isolation.  Listen diligently when students speak and set your expectations high, so everything you do in the classroom is purposeful and will help not only with students' sentence structure, communicative ability and pronunciation, but also tones and many other elements of Chinese language acquisition.

Please let me know your take on this by commenting on this blog.  I'd love to hear what you think.

一年又過去了 Another year...

Another year just ended for all of my schools, NHCLS, HSCLP and Foote.  For work that I will return to next fall, I feel all ready to go again (believe or not!), and for that I am leaving, there is tremendous sadness.  This is a transitional year for me both as a teacher and administrator. 

As a teacher, I have now gained a full scope of working with different populations, age groups and administrations.  How I wish I have more time to do more of everything!  The different students have different things to offer; some challenge you; some look for your challenges.  Every one of them has a different story that I care to discover.  The different age groups have different needs and give you different rewards.  While my little ones shower me with their hugs and cards, my big kids thank me for pushing them to achieve more.  The administrators also have their varying priorities, different styles and amounts of support.  It is always interesting to learn about the inner workings of any educational organization.

I love to see when learning is both rigorous and low-stress.

As an administrator, I look back to where we were a year ago, and where we are now.  It's mind-boggling.  See Revitalize thy school!  I enjoyed working with new teachers because I want to help them in the way that I wish someone would have helped me as I was once a developing teacher.  While I don't want my teachers to be reproductions of myself, I want to impress upon them values that drove me to persist as an educator.  

Helen is so conscientious and makes her students shine.

My reward is when the teachers believe that education is a mission; it is when they want to hold their students to high standards; it is when they can reflect on what they have done to make a lesson successful or not; it is when they are brave enough to confront their insecurities. 

Chien-Ju's class is always full of laughter.

The parents in all of my schools are the most encouraging as well.  I appreciate their kind words and support, as I embark on my first year as an administrator.  They are tolerant of my uncertainties and constant requests for their feedback.  They are invested as we are in their children's education and community.

As for my co-administrator, not only do I thank her for the opportunities she gave me to reflect, she also makes me a better communicator.  Without her, I would not have the courage to pick up our school alone.  She has been a confidant, a friend, a teacher and a little voice in my head reminding me of all the details of running our little school. 

Until next year！

Learning Centers - Yay!

If you spent any time in lower-grade classrooms, you'd see reading groups, choice time, learning centers, almost all the time, everyday.  With all the talk about differentiated instruction, student-directed learning, student choice... I finally took the plunge and set up my learning centers this year.  There are things I can definitely improve on, but I was very please with my centers for the most part.

To set it all up took some time and courage.  I discovered on the spot that no more than one person can sign in and record on one Voicethread account at any one time.  My tech center took a hit on day one.  It is very easy for me to abandon this project right there and then, but I got myself together and figured out glitches, requested more VT accounts, modeled before setting students off again.  Phew!  It turned out to be the most rewarding couple of weeks I have ever had as a teacher.

We would start our 30-min class in a circle.  One student would write the date on the board.  Another would lead the class in reciting the date.  Then we have 5 minutes of meeting, 'chatting' in the target language, in place of an oral drill.  I love this time with the students because we talk about real events in students lives, though the scope is sometimes limited due to their language proficiency.  However, this is when I see a lot of meaningful learning.

After our meeting, I walked through the centers again with my students.  Off they went.

As much as it's a great opportunity for students to learn independently and with a few others, learning centers also provide me with the opportunity to take a small group and work with them on what they need most.  I highly recommend it.