Mememememe?

I don't really know what that means, but I saw Liesl's and thought I would give it a try!

What went well today:

German 1 was awesome (again) today. They worked well with remembering our work from yesterday and practicing their new verb (kommen). We did patty-cake today to try something different. One of the students even mentioned that she was singing the verb conjugation to herself the other day without thinking about it! Awesome! We also watched the Landeskunde video today and the kids did a great job of picking up on the age/how they get to school. I think I front-loaded it correctly with saying you won't get everyone... but listen for what you do get, leave some blanks and we'll fill them in as we listen more and more. They did great. I think they are listening well... not getting down on themselves when they don't know/hear right away... and being creative! That is awesome. I think I might implement the conversation groups with these kids right away. Keep those high standards high and let them scaffold the experience a bit. The babies of a new era.

German 3: We just could not get the German past tense down. Yesterday I had them tell a story about what happened on my weekend and only 2 or 3 had the past tense down pat. I was distraught. Yet I also didn't see them being creative or taking risks or anything... so I was hitting a wall. I knew I needed to do something... so I put the e-mail out to everyone with the hope that I would get some great feedback. I didn't. I think I need to explain it in the "I have done blah blah blah" words. Maybe that would help. But while I was waiting for other people to send me ideas, I came up with one on my own. I decided that I needed a purpose for them to make things easy. They needed to make an animated PowerPoint story that uses present tense and changes to past tense for the German II students to use when they learn past tense this fall. The beauty of this? The kids HAVE to keep it easy... they have every excuse FOR keeping it easy and not getting down on themselves! So they wrote their stories and did their thing. Tomorrow we put it on the computer. I think I just need to do more baby step scaffolding with them where they can feel proud of things at the baby step level... and then they'll move into the stuff they think they should be doing. But the key is I can't make it seem remedial. Baby steps are the way... better than not moving at all... "Habe keine Angst davor, langsam zu wachsen. Habe nur Angst davor, still zu stehen!"

What didn't go well:
German 2 must have been nothing spectacular today because I don't remember it. Oh yes... now I remember and this is a good place for it. We learned "Durch den Monsun"... not enough front loading... or perhaps not the right place for the song. They did not like it. At least the very vocal ones didn't... the same way they didn't like "Nie Wieder". Ah well.

Who I need to touch base with tomorrow:
Karsten and Edgar. Make sure they're still on track and feeling good about their past tense.

*One other note: Tave came in and worked on my LCD and such this afternoon for about 45 minutes... and the LCD projector works!! Now, seriously, we are just waiting for the SmartBoard!

*One MORE thing: I got approved for the conference and got everything figured out and sent in so I can go! WooHoo! I am looking forward to learning new tricks, tips and other things from educators just like me!