Parent conferences here we go!

Although it is a hectic schedule, I do like having the opportunity to talk to my students' parents during conferences. Knowing what is going on at home and connecting it to school is very important. I try to show the parents different ways on how they can help their child at home.  I begin my conference with a form that student fills one week prior to the conference, where the student evaluates their habits at school.  I absolutely love how honest my kindergartners are, and I also get to see which ones are too being hard on themselves. I usually have one or two students that have no behavior issues and they still say they need more work on one of the areas.  Click here to download this FREE resource:

 


 I hope you can use this with your students!  Have a great week,

Reading log freebie!

Teachers have two “New Year” celebrations: one in January and the other one in August. Start the year off right by establishing a routine for reading, even if your students are not able to read or write yet. 

This reading log is designed for beginner readers. It contains a parent letter (English/Spanish), and a reading log calendar (September-June). 

I hope you can use it in your class! Click on the picture to download. 

It is almost here!

Hi Everyone!

It is almost here!!! The day when we will get to meet our new "batch" of students is just a couple of days away for most of us.  It sure is exciting!!!

We teach a two way dual language model with a partner teacher. As we start gathering ideas of how we want our classrooms to look like,  we want to share with you a few tips that we have found to be key for our dual classes to run smoothly:

• In a co-teach situation, our goal is always to ensure that both classrooms mirror each other in order to make it easier for the students to learn academic content. Dual language classrooms that “mirror” each other are in fact classrooms where the lessons are carefully planned in a way that the content and skills acquired one day in one of the language classrooms enable students to build on and develop new skills in their other language classroom. 
• Plan with your partner teacher for similar routines and procedures so that your students feel more at ease switching back and forth between the two language classrooms every day. You don't want them to have to learn a new set of guidelines for each classroom. We actually have the same morning and afternoon procedures in both our classrooms.
• Always set aside a few minutes to meet with your partner teacher  at the end of every day. We meet to go over our lesson plan for that day and discuss how it went. Our meeting is short and sweet, but it helps us recap on what took place in both language settings and gives shape to the next day.

These are all simple tips, however they make a huge difference in helping our language learners experience success in a dual setting.

We hope you have an AMAZING school year! 

The Dual Trio

Motivated for Back to School

I know we are not ready (I am not ready). But with all the ads, pinterest and so on I feel like BTS is almost here.

I am still creating fun stuff for my kiddos. I will be fun having badges for our special days in school.

Feel free to print these badges for your students.

If you like them check my Back to School Bundle or my First day of School minibooks.

Have fun! 

Lita Lita

learning in Spain

Kelly Serrano from Learning in Two Languages

Excited, ecstatic, or just pure entusiamada to be here and share with all of you parts of my journey as a Dual Language Teacher in the upper grades.

My name is Kelly Serrano (teacher (aka super hero), sister, friend, travel lover, and not a very good cook). I just finished my first year as a dual language teacher at a 90/10 school (Spanish/English respectively) and I loved it. While I have been teaching for a bit over 7 years now, I think my journey in a dual language classroom has been the best one yet. I not only loved the challenges presented when teaching in both languages, but also getting to know all the people who make programs like the one I am part of...successful.

If you teach in a dual language classroom, you know you work TWICE as hard and our brains (at least I feel) are in overdrive the entire day as we think in both languages and switch back and forth between them. My journey as a blogger started as a need to connect with other teachers out there. I felt I was a bit alone when I started as dual-language programs are not the norm in Los Angeles, CA. Learning in Two Languages (my blog) is 'the cart in a roller coaster' that takes my readers thru my different journeys. There I share curriculum choices, materials, finds, and thoughts I have as I navigate the 'waters' of the dual-language world. Through blogging I have been able to meet amazing teachers/educators from all over, and together we are strong. This blog, Bilingual Teacher Clubhouse, is a testimony of that collaboration as we work together to bring you best practices and our overall experiences as teachers.

If you would like to know more about me, head over to my blog. I would love it if you stop by.

Abrazos,
Kelly