Good professional development for Spanish teachers, French teachers, and all world language teachers is hard to come by.
Here’s a list of the ten resources that I use to improve my world language instruction and will make you a better language teacher TOMORROW.
Don’t put your professional development off until breaks–you can use these resources during lunch breaks, commutes, and relaxed reading time to solve the everyday problems that bug you with quick and actionable fixes for real teachers pressed for time.
If you’ve got a commute and you’re looking to listen….
Try Podcasts!
- Talkin’ L2 with BVP – world language researchers and professors talking all things world language with a focus on research and edutainment. This is a spinoff from Tea with BVP-in a word, a gem. Check out their resource page for a full list of readings too.
- Inspired Proficiency– lead by the most positive human on earth and featuring world language teachers best tips and tricks with fun games–it’s got it all! The episode on 90% Target Language is my favorite. Search it wherever you listen to podcasts.
Put your phone scrolling habit to good use and occasionally replace it with…
Blog scrolling
Here are my favorites with some short articles that will give you ideas you can use tomorrow in your world language classroom.
3. The Comprehensible Classroom by Martina Bex
(Start with Dip Your Toes in CI)
4. Bryce Hedstrom
The legend himself. Stay tuned, on Feb 25th, I’m going to a conference to see him speak-post to follow. (My favorite articles: Special Person Interviews, Classroom Management for World Language Teachers)
5. Spanish Mama
A soulful wonderlady of all things language learning & even raising bilingual kids. (why CI series-breaks down the nature of language learning in a reader-friendly way)
6. Mike Peto
(sweet 16 verbs and other big proficiency ideas)
Need Some Classroom Tech to Help you Teach & Engage your Kids?
7. Duolingo Classroom
Completely free and teaches the language for you-instant differentiation that feels like a game? Yes please. If you’re totally new to Duolingo, check out this intro video and testimonial for Duolingo Classroom.
*By the way, Duolingo is a good way to brush up your skills too! Take a placement test to get to the advanced level and instant game-like free world language professional development! Wham, bam, thank ya ma’am. *
Social Media Junkie?
8. Follow LaMaestraLoca on Instagram
for a daily dose of positivity and kick-ass CI strategies. Her videos are the quickest and most fun professional development out there. She records whole classes sometimes!
Need Some Fresh New Games or Lesson Ideas?
9. Check out these teacher authors:
- Mis Clases Locas-her games and activities are a ton of fun and easy to implement. Although they’re in Spanish, you can implement the games in any language.
- Mme R’s French Resources-she has a ton of high-quality freebies and great speaking activities (I love her speaking cards).
- World Language Cafe-in my opinion, her specialty is culture, and she does all kinds of languages, including Portuguese!
- World Language Classroom-tons of languages, tons of lesson plans and ideas, pro speaker, he does it all!
10. Get a Pre-Made Lesson Plan
We all have those moments where we get in a pinch and need something fast and high quality.
For something that will last you year to year, I recommend TpT. I was a user for three years before a seller, and it has a healthy mix of free and paid, all made by educators.
You can check out my store here on the blog or by clicking here. But I’m one of many, explore all the options and find a style that matches your needs. My favorites are listed above-I/my district have bought from all of them.
For video and news-related media for educators, I use this website:
Share My Lesson is a collection of materials uploaded by educators and news/other media programs literally built to provide high-quality lessons for educators. There’s a ton of lessons for all languages here. FO’ FREE, Y’ALL.
What resources do you use to make you a better teacher? Post in the comments below!
See you in the trenches,
Devon @ La Libre Language Learning
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