Ludwig Wittgenstein said, “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.”  In the classroom, I help my students see many possibilities, appreciate multiple perspectives, and employ a variety of practices to include all students.  My classroom is a world without limits.  

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I love being a cheerleader for my language learners! In the classroom I lead my students by setting high expectations for them.  I ask them to take risks with the language, and I encourage them to take responsibility for their own learning. 

 

As a language teacher I have the opportunity to share the world with my students.  Teaching the products, practices, and perspectives of so many different people and cultures opens doors to the rest of the world and to remote places most of us will never see.  I design instruction by incorporating the World Readiness Standards and I have my students plot their own proficiency growth.  

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My students and I interact on a daily basis in the three modes of communication - interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational.  We use the target language to share, learn, and grow together.  I ask my students to reflect on how and what they are learning so they can feel connected to what I am teaching.  I reflect on my own practices, always trying to become a better world language educator.  In doing so, I show my students that I am a student too!  

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I am a firm believer in building strong relationships with my students so that we can build trust and understanding together.  Because I am teaching much more than just Spanish, I also encourage my students to collaborate a lot, thus establishing the student/student relationship piece.  As educators we often teach soft skills like communicating more effectively with others, interpersonal skills, flexibility, teamwork, and problem solving skills.    

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I love bringing the rest of the world to our small microcosm.  My wish is for my students to continue their language study long after they have left my classroom.  I want them to feel part of something bigger, so they can make that something better.

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The principal motivation behind learning another language is to be able to communicate with others.  Having that ability helps shrink our world and strengthen our ties.