Stacy Witkowski

Who else is reviewing ACTFL proposals the night before they’re due? 🙋‍♀️

Thanks for sharing!

My students:

“Bro!”
“Bru”
“BRUH 👀”
“Bro.”

None of them are brothers.
Sometimes they’re not even boys.

😂

I just heard a kid say “six-seven” but in an ironic tone of voice, like, “we all agree that we would never say that, right?”

No temas a las mariposas. 🤣
@senorwooly.com

Finally, you can control one more thing: choose the right people to work for. Some bosses are better than others. Look around. You might find someone else hiring who is able and willing to give you the conditions where you can be the best you know how to be. /🧵

You may have noticed I haven’t given any suggestions on talking to your principal or HR or the union. You can’t control what they do. And anyways best case scenario they won’t change things till the next academic year. These are things YOU can control.

I also don’t take home piles of papers to grade anymore. If Wednesday is the day students write essays, then Thursday is the day I sit in class and grade those essays while they do something independently. Maybe watch a movie. Maybe type those essays. Or illustrate them.

So I show a short 10 minute video or have them read independently at the beginning of every class while I check my email, enter student grades, clean off my desk, etc. If I’m not given enough student-free planning time, then I’m going to take time while students are there.

Not a mantra, but a really useful tip I wished someone had taught me early in my teaching career: build some down time into every class so you can get your own shit done. Yes, I know, circling the room and being engaged with students 100% is best practice. And exhausting.

This mantra helps too:

This is done. It’s not perfect, but I can stop now. Done is beautiful.

And then this mantra too:

My free time is mine. If I choose to continue to work without pay on evenings and weekends as my hobby, that is my choice. If I choose instead to meet a friend, take a bike ride, clean my house, play with my cat, watch a kdrama, that is my choice.

Repeat after me:

I am doing the job they have hired me to do. If they wanted the best teacher I can be, they would have put fewer students in my class / given me more paid prep time / hired two people for this job (whatever you need).

I taught through the pandemic of 2020 and there was NO WAY to do everything to meet my students needs. Before, I was a perfectionist. That year, even if I had worked 24 hours a day, I could. not. do. it. all.

A mantra I said to myself every day that year:

*Dramatically* lower your standards.

Teachers are easy marks for unsustainable workloads without extra compensation because we see how what we do affects our students, and we care about them.

Siobhán asked for advice on workload. This is something many teachers struggle with! I don’t know if any of this thread will help academics, but maybe. My wife will tell you I used to work late every night and on weekends too. Not anymore. 🧵

Photo of a classroom. There are four large bottles of juice on a desk. Grape, guava, pineapple, and Clamato

@senorwooly.com
My Spanish 2 class spent 2 weeks on El antídoto del dragón and ended with a celebration where students illustrated the parallel stories they wrote while singing along to the song and sipping 3 kinds of “jugo” (and one kind of “veneno” 😉)
10/10 loved this unit.

Listen to them greeting their audience in Spanish.
Language learning icons 👏

Same goes for #BadBunny fans who don’t speak Spanish.

Photo of graffiti on a cream colored wall with weeds growing in front. Text says “⭐️ P FKN R se representa” and “gringo go home” and shows lines that suggest the head of a bird

As she handed me the book, my English speaking wife said “I have no idea what the title means, though.” I told her it was a Bad Bunny lyric and reminded her of the graffiti we saw in Puerto Rico.

Photo of the cover of the book P FKN R by Vanessa Díaz and Petra R. Rivera-Rideau shows a stylized illustration of Bad Bunny wearing a straw hat and holding a microphone before a background of a Puerto Rican flag.

My sweetie got me this for Valentine’s Day. I’m looking forward to reading it.

A student made poster on green construction paper. A student drawing of a monkey with claws riding a surfboard. Text in Spanish includes “Mi personaje favorito es Mono porque es cómico.”

My Spanish 1 students made posters after they read Llama en Lima. I no longer grade this type of activity, but kids loved making them anyways. I used this as a springboard to a reading activity (read each others posters and find the quote) and later assessed with a speaking quiz.

A group of at least three middle school girls sit around a table with papers on it. They talk, smile, and gesture with their hands.

Spanish 2 students playing the Es Posible game to review the book Peter va a Colombia. I love this game. Students are so engaged. I got the template from Comprehensible Classroom and I write my own questions for each novel.

To keep AI out of her classroom, this high school English teacher went analog Forth Worth teacher Chanea Bond says sticking with pen and paper keeps generative artificial intelligence out of her American literature classes.

Forth Worth teacher Chanea Bond says sticking with pen and paper keeps generative artificial intelligence out of her American literature classes. n.pr/4c3cdzs

Cover of Mexican Gothic by Silvia More o Garcia shows a woman from her nose to her knees. She is wearing a purple party dress in front of a dark green background.

I’ve been listening to the audiobook Mexican Gothic. I’m only in chapter 4, but whew, equal parts creepy and intriguing. What are you reading lately?

Mid-year is a good time to look back and look forward. Have you spotted anything you’ve outgrown?

Chart with three columns and 8 rows. Top row reads: English, Spanish, How it sounds. Second row reads: backpack, mochila, mow-CHEE-la

I was looking through my files today and saw this old document 😬
I used to send this home with elementary kids.

What was good about it: I was promoting a home-school connection.
What was bad: They needed a LOT more input, until they didn’t need the cringy “how it sounds” column on the right.

A grey cat with yellow eyes sits on the keyboard of a laptop. She has her tongue out as if mocking the laptop owner.

How am I supposed to write a quiz on Peter va a Colombia like this?

Pink paper. Typed questions and handwritten responses: Q: What has Mrs. Witkowski done that has really helped you learn Spanish? A: She has inturduced (sic) us to spanish websites such as senor willy.

More middle school student reflections. Señor Wooly is one of the most divisive elements of my class. Some students, like this one, say earning nuggets is very helpful. Others mention it as something that wastes their time.