Reflecting on Fall Semester 2023

This year, I’ve had one of the smoothest classes behavior-wise—and while there are lots of reasons for that, I’ve made some intentional changes that I think have helped. From clearer expectations and more structured accountability, to explaining why we do what we do in a comprehension-based classroom, I’m seeing students engage more thoughtfully. In this post, I share how refining my classroom norms, adding content-based assessments (and rethinking them), and breaking down how acquisition works has made my Spanish 4 class feel more focused, more collaborative, and more like school—in the best way.