Check out the attachment for two great stories!

The new school year is about to begin... a perfect time for us to examine our motivating strategies, and find a few new ideas to borrow, steal, or tweak. Here are a few that have worked for me.

1) I take a photo of each student during the first week of school. Throughout the year, as the classes are assigned application projects, I post their work on the bulletin board WITH their photo next to it. This has succeeded for me in 2 ways: most students tend to do a better job (neater, more complete, more creative) when they know that everybody will know it's theirs; they take more personal pride in the product. It also helps to reward those who did the assignment; the extra photos that have no project attached tend to inspire the reluctant students to get their work turned in.

2) I found that by giving the students some choice on homework assignments and quizzes, they tend to complain less. For example, on a simple vocabulary quiz, identifying 15 of the 18 words will result in a perfect score. Likewise, on homework assignments, students may choose from 3 tasks. I discovered that, at first, most students would choose the "easy" task, but gradually, they took pride in taking on the more challenging task.

3) My school recommends using the "Ticket Out the Door" (TOD) strategy in all classes, which I now use. On the front blackboard each day, I list the day's bellringer, the homework assignment, and 1 brief TOD (so the students can prepare). When the bell rings, each student performs their TOD as they pass me. This could be a sentence using the day's vocab, an answer to a question, a "point and say", etc. all based on that day's work. This tends to keep the students more accountable for what happens in class and reminds them that they did learn something in class. If a student is unable to do their TOD, they simply return to the end of the line and try again.

These ideas are not new, and I'm sure you have dozens of great suggestions. Let's share.

Syracuse Post-Standard - July 16, 2010

http://blog.syracuse.com/opinion/2010/07/commentary_john_carlino_and_su.html

Hi Leslie -

Check in with NYSAFLT HQ - they maintain a database of programs in NYS.

Hi.  I am doing a year long FLES research project for my superintendent. I appreciate any help, advice you can share.  The Supt. wants to know benefits, what prog. there are in NYS, when they begin and the rationale behind beginning at a certain grade, languages taught and I am not yet sure if there are more things.  I would like recommendations for studies, books, other  info you think might be useful.  Thanks.  Leslie Kudlack

The Post-Journal ... Jamestown, NY

http://www.post-journal.com/page/content.detail/id/559471.html

Videosinspanish.com offers every middle school, high school, college and university the opportunity to view videos in Spanish made by young native Spanish speakers from the cultural setting of their Hispanic environment.
 
The site gives Spanish teachers a great supplement to their regular educational activities by providing videos accompanied by downloadable textos en español, textos en inglés, vocabulario, and preguntas sections.
 
Presently, there are ten videos from San Juan, Puerto Rico, and twelve from Valencia, Spain. They look forward to include videos from many regions of Spain and Latin America. By using these videos, students will greatly enhance their linguistic acquisition of Spanish and their cultural understanding of the varied Hispanic cultures.
 
The site is free and does not require either the teacher or the student to provide any information to access the videos.
 

http://poststar.com/news/local/article_c6bd8a4e-5544-11df-a0d9-001cc4c03286.html

Post Star - Sunday, May 2, 2010

Check out the latest news of the Half Hallow Hills Mandarin Chinese program. They were featured in January on NewsDay.com.
http://www.hhh.k12.ny.us/cf_media2/index.cfm?g=690