When the calendar year comes to a close, I often do a retrospective post looking back at new activities or tools I used during the year. Last year I did not incorporate a lot of new tools, but I did identify some highlights and focuses of the year, which I intend to continue focusing on in 2026.
Highlight: Presenting at the NYSAFLT Annual Conference
On October 17, I presented at the New York State Association For Language Teachers Annual Conference in Albany, NY on the topic of Creating a Diverse and Inclusive Classroom Environment and Curriculum. It was a great opportunity to connect with other language educators and share ideas. I also had the pleasure of attending my colleagues Sarah Shainfeld and AJ Kane’s presentations. Click here to read my blog post with the presentation.
Focus: Balance High-Tech and Low-Tech
I have always been passionate about incorporating technology in the classroom, and I still am. But last year, I made a pact with myself to make sure I balance the high-tech with the low-tech. This includes resurrecting some old activities I hadn’t done in a while, and also modifying computer activities that had little to no added benefit from being computer-based and bringing them offline. I’m still using tech in the classroom almost every day, but I try to block out portions of each class for low tech time. Above is a speaking activity that I recently brought back but retooled. It’s great for low-tech time.
Focus: Get Students Out of Their Seats More
This ties in with the previous focus, as many out of seat activities are low-tech. Spanish teacher Leah Grady (NYSAFLT Teacher of the Year) gave a fantastic presentation at NYSAFLT on the topic of getting students moving. It served as a great reminder to me and I came away with some great ideas. One of my favorite out of seat activities is organized chaos (pictured above). Students work in groups. The questions and answers in these dialogues are scattered all over the floor on crumpled up pieces of paper. One at a time, a group member grabs one piece of paper and brings it back to the group. The group figures out where it goes and writes the letter in the appropriate spot. Then they crumple it back up and throw it on the floor and repeat until finished.
Highlight: Classroom Jobs
Last fall, I attended my colleague AJ Kane’s session on elementary strategies for secondary classrooms at NYSAFLT. AJ presented a number of great ideas, but one that I implemented right away and loved was classroom jobs. My students love having jobs and it gives them a sense of ownership over what’s going on in the classroom. I plan to swap them out each marking period. I came up with six jobs: le gardien de la porte (door keeper – opens and closes the door), le distributeur (passes out papers), le collectionneur (collects papers), l’expert (knows what’s going on), le lecteur (reads directions), l’assistant (gets class started with the daily greeting and date). I asked students to raise their hands if they wanted a job. I put all those students’ names into a spinner wheel. I went through each job once. For each job, I would spin and when a name popped up, I would ask the student if they wanted that job. If they did, I took their name down and removed them from the wheel. If they didn’t, I kept spinning until someone did. After I went through all the jobs, I went through them all again, and a few for a third time (it’s helpful to have multiple of each job). The students were thrilled when they got selected for jobs. I definitely feel it has enhanced the community rapport in the classroom. Thank you, AJ, for sharing this invaluable idea!
Focus: Decolonize My Curriculum
This is a topic I addressed in my NYSAFLT presentation. It will look different for every language, but in French class, decolonizing your curriculum looks like moving beyond just incorporating France-centric materials and incorporating materials and perspectives from Africa, the Caribbean, and other regions where French is widely spoken. Sometimes this means talking about places you’ve never been, but that’s ok! For me, this has been an ongoing process that began in my first year of teaching and it’s still in progress. Click here to watch La Libre Language Learning: What Does Decolonize Your Curriculum Mean for World Language? (2021), which offers some great suggestions and perspectives. Some blog posts I wrote last year that addressed culturally diverse lessons I did were Making the Most of a Short Cultural Video, Introducing My Students to the Music of Angélique Kidjo (Plus, Other Ways to Introduce Authentic Music), and Mardi Gras and Carnaval in French Class.
What were your highlights and focuses of 2025?
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