Last semester I stepped into a new role: the only Spanish teacher in a small coastal town in North Carolina. After 25 years in urban and suburban schools, this setting feels different—but I’ve been here before.
Back in 2007, I left a thriving program in Massachusetts to join a struggling California school under state supervision. Over ten years, my colleagues and I turned a failing program (0% AP pass rate) into a powerhouse (100% AP & IB pass rate). Same demographics, same community—with a new vision.
That experience reminds me: programs can be rebuilt. And since so many of us are facing declining enrollments, I hope that documenting this journey might help other language teachers too.
Project 1: Hooking Students with Authentic TV
This semester, my biggest goal is creating a student culture that actually enjoys learning languages. After years of fine-tuning my instruction, I’ve realized something: not every single activity in class needs to be laser-focused on acquisition. Joy matters too.
So, I’m piloting an authentic TV series with my lowest-level learners: Tierra Incógnita, an Argentine show streaming on Disney+. Why TV? Because professionals in media know how to captivate young audiences—why not borrow their expertise?
Here’s the plan:
- Watch 10–15 minutes per day (Spanish audio, English subtitles on).
- Scaffold with pre- and post-discussion, all at a level my students can handle.
- Build suspense—students should be aching to find out what happens next in Spanish class.
If you’re a subscriber to my CI Master Class, I’ll share all of my scaffolding materials. Not a subscriber? Check out Dr. Lake Mathison’s excellent posts about teaching this series with upper-level students.
👉 Have you tried authentic TV with beginners? What worked—or didn’t—for you?
Project 2: Movement in a Tiny Classroom
My classroom is small—so small that last semester desks were crammed in, making movement impossible. This semester I replaced most desks with chairs around the perimeter, creating a stage-like center. Suddenly, we have space for kinesthetic activities.
The results? In our first week, my principal overheard a student say to a friend, “That was so fun!”
Of course, I know that student to student chatter isn’t always the highest-quality input—what Terry Waltz once called the “McDonald’s of language acquisition activities.” But even if not every utterance is ‘nutritious’, it’s worth it for the student engagement. Because when students enjoy class, they come back eager for more.
👉 How do you incorporate movement when space is tight?
Project 3: Tackling Low-Frequency Vocabulary
Another challenge: students expect to know words like months, colors, farm animals, or body parts—low-frequency vocabulary that doesn’t always appear in my communicative curriculum.
My focus remains on high-frequency verbs (because those unlock fluency fast). But students can feel frustrated when they don’t yet know how to say “band-aid.” And frustration kills motivation.
So I’m experimenting with a painless solution: warm-up music videos.
- The video plays on a loop as students enter.
- Watching one loop is the warm-up.
- I weave those words naturally into our opening five-minute check-in (calendar talk, weekend chat, etc.).
The goal isn’t mastery of thematic lists—it’s reducing anxiety and showing visible progress. Even a small win, like learning how to say rojo or lunes, reminds them: Yes, I’m getting somewhere.
I’ll be linking these videos in the right-hand navigation bar of this blog for anyone who wants to try them out.
Takeaways
So far, three new-ish threads are guiding my work this semester:
- Hook students with story-driven TV (Tierra Incógnita).
- Make space for movement—even in tight quarters.
- Address vocabulary anxiety with simple, engaging warm-ups.
I don’t have all the answers, but I believe that if students leave class saying, “That was fun,” we’re already halfway to success.