What's the password?!

So if you walk by my classroom during passing period, you'll most likely see something a little out of the ordinary for the average classroom: a line of students.

In the window to get into my classroom there is a green sign that reads: "Puedes pasar" (You can pass) and "No puedes pasar" (You cannot pass). The latter makes me think of Gandalf talking to the Balrog in the Fellowship of the Ring. Although I am sure he would have said something like, "No pasarás" (You shall not pass.)

Last year, students had to shake my hand to enter and I would say "good morning" or "good afternoon" to them.

This year, I have followed in the footsteps of some foreign language teaching pioneers and I make my students tell me a secret code before they can enter.

The secret code is posted on a small white board in the classroom with the Spanish and English translation.

Responses to Comment - Pacing and Lessons

The following is part two of a response to a comment.

Someone recently asked on a comment:

Hola Jeremy - this is really funny and I've very impressed. I teach Spanish I and I'm in awe at the complexity and level you're introducing to students. I'm really interested in knowing more about how you pace your content and your lessons (in 90 min classes and shorter periods). Just a suggestion for a future blog post. Gracias!

Part #2: " I'm really interested in knowing more about how you pace your content and your lessons"

So what I worked on doing (as you can probably see in my blog) is that I worked at Backwards planning through TPRS novels last year and the previous years to help my kids be successful.  The idea was to load the kids up with Comprehensible Input (via PQA, TPRS, etc) all semester so when they got to the novels, they could read most of it with ease.