We have a new curriculum and new books! The downside to this is there is sooo much new material to sift through. I like the way the new program is very skills-based and my teaching practices won’t change.
First few days!!!! Actually, I don’t plan to use the book until week 2. We have so many transfers schedule changes in the first week. My first few days are going to be the same as they always have – we practice talking, we review some basic structures, and we write our first essay (autobiography).
On day 1, I take pictures of each student. 1) I give them a wallet sized photo to put on their final drafts before posting them on my wall. 2) I print an index page of the pictures with their names under them for substitutes to use. 3) I use the pics in the first few days to help me learn their names faster.
This year, I’m moving us into “stations”. My room is set up into four groups anyway. I’m really using the stations as a way to establish my expectations and have them practice some of the basic things we do in class regularly. At station 1, they will write the first paragraph of the autobiography. They will have a master verb and master adjective list on hand for inspiration. I will sit with station 2 and we will practice conversation. My goal there is to get them accustomed to talking with each other, not with me. Station 3 will be working on the “colección de cognados”. I have a large collection of magazines in Spanish in my classroom. Anytime students finish work in class, they have to get a magazine and search for cognates. They have a sheet that is due at the end of each quarter that lists all of the cognates they found. Station 3 will be used to get them started on this practice.
Station 4 is for practicing numbers. This is always a weakness with my Spanish 2’s. They have 50 cards with Spanish numbers spelled out. They put them in order as a group. When finished, they copy the letters from the back of the cards and figure out what it spells. If they have them in the right order, it spells out a sentence about how useful Spanish is. 🙂
These are all things I’ve done in the past, but this is my first time doing stations on day one. I think it will make the activities more time efficient.
I will be moving into my visuals activities on day 2 – I want to start those quickly so that it is a regular practice in my class. Refer to post Aside
Adventurous Educators 
Follow up… It went well. I was afraid using stations on day one would be too chaotic, but they did well and it let me establish a standard for stations that is still in effect. I will post specifically about some of my stations practices later. I’ve had some that I’m really excited to share!