Take Advantage of Spanish Class Summer Vacation

Jonesing to Teach Spanish

Around this time of year, many of you are on vacation, although others are immersed in your summer intensive Spanish courses and you may have even administered the July DELE, if you're in Spain.

This post is for those of you who find yourself in the first boat. It is for those who are already on vacation and are attempting to adapt as best they can to teacher vacation syndrome; the ones who wake up in a cold sweat thinking they've fallen asleep and are going to be late for class; who walk down the street or read the news and can't stop thinking about how to use what they see to create new material for their Spanish classes; who talk about their students’ posts on social media because they're proud of how well they write in Spanish and of how much they have improved; for those who occupy their time organizing teaching materials for Spanish classes they've already given, putting everything into folders to see what they can use for the next academic year; those who write down the Spanish expressions their friends use, laughing out loud at the thought of how perfect they will be for their classes, while their bewildered friends look on with surprise and confusion. Sound familiar? Of course it does. We've all been there at one time or another (and some of us are always there, every day after class and during all of our vacations).

Get a Head Start Planning Your Spanish Classes

Well don't be shy about it! Vacation is the perfect time to update your teaching skills. It is the perfect time to take a Spanish teacher training course for teachers of Spanish as a foreign language for example, or for "playing" with ICT tools to create Spanish class material you’ve been meaning to create for months but which you simply haven't had the time for during the school year. It is the perfect time to make infographics, to create videos and audio material using all the creative material you’ve accumulated over the year but which you haven't yet shared with your Spanish students.

Take a look at just a few ideas for taking advantage of your need to work during your vacation without the fast-paced pressure of everyday life:

• Read, copy, cut and save. Any article or piece of news that you find interesting: things that are controversial or could create debate, stimulate students or inspire them to speak out and use all of the conversational resources you've gone over in class. If you have time, create a teaching unit with these materials. Divide it by levels, communicative skills and specific or general teaching points so that it is easier for you to integrate into your classes in the future.

• Pick up a camera and snap pictures of things that catch your eye. We lose a lot of time surfing the net for the perfect pictures to accompany descriptions (physical descriptions, descriptions of actions or of what people are doing), for series of images that we can use for students to create stories, or for that perfectly controversial picture that will start a debate.
• Recorded sounds. Then put them together and ask students to create a story based on what they’ve heard. This is a great activity for writing using the past tense or to describe and complete writing compositions, for example.

• Create fun videos or cartoons. Record yourself or record your friends in real-life situations for the perfect, most authentic teaching material.

Can you think of any other ideas? This is the place to share them; we're sure there are plenty of teachers out there who will thank you for them. ;-)