Your lesson, should you choose to accept it, is to teach students how to use a foreign language using authentic resources and relevant units, with the goal of making proficient speakers. The special agent assigned to help you with this task is Rebecca Blouwolff of Wellesley Middle School in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
Rebecca and I share a similar background: we both started our careers intending to teach Social Studies, and we both found ourselves teaching French instead! To make a long story short: in my second year of teaching I was given a contract that included teaching French because I was the most qualified of the unqualified, and then I fell in love with it. (If you’re interested in the much longer version of this story, I spoke about my journey to becoming a language teacher on Kris Broholm’s Actual Fluency podcast.) Along with going back to school to become qualified for real, I was able to become better by finding role models online who represented the kind of language teacher that I aspired to be, and Rebecca Blouwolff is definitely one of them. And I’m not the only one who thinks she is amazing; the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (or ACTFL) named her the 2020 National Language Teacher of the Year!
In this episode we discuss:
Lesson: Impossible’s Website: www.lessonimpossible.com
Lesson: Impossible’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/avivalevin
If you have suggestions for a teacher who would make an inspiring Lesson: Impossible guest, please email me at aviva.levin@gmail.com
MINI MEET A RESOURCE: Carey Furze of FamilyBookForm
MEET A RESOURCE: Gabriel Valdez of the Social Studies Network
Agent Emily Santiago (Trauma-Informed Teaching)
Agent Katelynn Giordano (Going Gradeless)
PART II: Agent Aviva Levin (Reflections on Season Two)
PART I: Agent Aviva Levin (Reflections on Season Two)
MEET A RESOURCE: Courtney Jones of ClearTheList
MINI MEET A RESOURCE: Patricia Clahar of Hands-On Entrepreneurship for Kids
Agent JoAnna Castellano (Conceptual Math)
Agent Marie Kueny (Teacher Mental Wellness)
Agent Jorge Valenzuela (Computational Thinking)
MINI MEET A RESOURCE: Rebecca Yaffa of GooseChase
Agent Shannon Anderson (Writing)
Agent Lauren Porosoff (Meaningful Curriculum)
MEET A RESOURCE: James Fester of Park Based Learning
Agent Dr. Marquita Blades (Teacher Burnout)
Agent Mandy Yom (ELL Kindergarten)
Agent Evo Hannan (Design & Innovation)
BONUS EPISODE: Agent Kwame Sarfo-Mensah (Reflections on COVID-19)
MINI MEET A RESOURCE: Valerie Cerra of Lesson aLIVE
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Navigating Life After 40
Teaching Learning Leading K-12
Regenerative Skills
The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast
The Mel Robbins Podcast