Doctopus

I work in a 1-1 laptop school. All the students were issued a Google Chromebook during orientation. Because they have Google machines, using Google Drive to its fullest extent seemed to be the smart way to go. I have decided to go completely paperless in my classroom meaning students will not keep binders or take notes on paper and all work will be submitted via Google. Once I made this decision, I had to figure out how to have the students organize their Drives. Then, our fabuous media application specialist told me about a ridiculously named, but powerful tool called Doctopus.

What is it?

A virtual teaching assistant that will copy, distribute, and collect assignments, all while keeping you completely organized! 

What can it do?

• Generate Class and Student Folders
• Re-use (and update!) rosters
• Sharing
• Individual: same (creates the same, separate individual Doc for each student)
• Individual: differentiated (creates a copy of a Doc based on their group)
• Project Groups (creates a shared copy of a Doc for each group)
• Whole Class (creates a single shared copy of a Doc for the whole class
• Standardize file names (so you don't get nameless "homework.doc" files)
• Monitor student progress on assignments
• Use Goobric to send grades to students
• Goobric is another add-on that lets you attach a rubric to an assignment and grade their work

It does take a few minutes to set up your rosters (there are plenty of how-tos on how to do it on Google), but overall I think it is a pretty awesome tool if you are trying to go paperless in your class. 

First Week Reflections

At the end of the first week at my new school, I am both utterly exhausted and filled to the brim with glee. The brand new school building has proven to be the great leveler; everyone is in the same boat in trying to find their way around our beautiful facility rather than just the freshmen and new faculty. The school year has started with only a few minor hiccups and the overwhelming awe and joy felt by students and staff alike is infectious. The building is incredible; nicer than many colleges. With state-of-the-art technology at every turn and a wealth of variety in courses offered, it's not hard to see why enrollment at the school has been steadily increasing. This, unfortunately, also means large classes. I have 150 students or so with some classes of more than 30 students.  Normally, this wouldn't bother me, but there aren't enough desks. The room already feels crowded as it is, so it will be positively claustrophobic if they add enough for all my students.

The novelty of the building (and everything else) has been overwhelming for me. My classes and the rigorous nature of the district have left me feeling a little out of my element. I find myself struggling to plan for such long classes: each is 65 minutes long (and longer still during lunch) and I am used to 45. The rotating schedule makes planning difficult as well as each day, two periods are skipped. With four sections of the same class, this means that on any given day, I will have at least one of the four sections behind all the others.

I always find myself struggling to come up with a good first week plan and this year was no different. However, I wish I had planned the first few days a little better. Next year, I vow to begin the year with a short TPRS story. I think getting right into the the Spanish would be a lot more fun. It would also get me out of speaking so much English. My goal is to be 90-100% in Spanish for all of my classes and so far I am far from fulfilling that goal. Day two felt a little better than day one. I like the idea of helping the kids discover their learning styles, but I really want to figure out something more to do with it.

Day three was a little chaotic. We had a fire drill (which was a complete disaster as I accidentally told my students to go to the wrong spot on the football field) and a lock down drill in addition to freshmen and sophomore class meetings. There were mixed reactions to today's lessons. We learned about Google Translate and Spanish 2 watched Puedo ir al baño by Sr. Wooly. Some of them really got into it, others not so much. I think I may just be so used to enthusiastic middle schoolers that the reactions or lack thereof of the high school students is underwhelming. I really hope that's what it is or this year is going to be painful.

In all, though, I am absolutely happy to be working in such an amazing place. My colleagues are incredibly supportive and welcoming and the students overall are well behaved and willing to be flexible as everyone gets used to new rules and a new building. I have no doubt that we will all get used to it soon and we'll get into the swing of things.

~Robyn

¡Bienvenidos!

Welcome to my blog! My name is Robyn and I am a high school Spanish teacher. I am going into my seventh year teaching at a brand new high school (previously, I worked three years at a high school and three years at a middle school). I love trying new things in my classroom to keep my students engaged and learning at all times.

In an effort to become more reflective in my teaching, I am jumping on the blogging bandwagon. I hope to update it at least once a week about the goings-on in my classroom. I also want to try and incorporate student feedback as much as possible to gauge the effectiveness of my lessons and activities. 

My goals for this blog are to reflect on how my class is going overall as well as the outcomes of specific activities, to share ideas with other Foreign Language teachers, and to force myself to try out new activities, even if they're not 100% in my comfort zone.

So bienvenidos a todos. I hope to keep track of my accomplishments as well as flops as I live and strive daily to become a better teacher.

~Robyn