Rebecca Blouwolff's guest appearances

Rebecca Blouwolff

Inspired Proficiency

Lesson: Impossible - An Exploration of Educational Innovation

James Fester

Lorraine Connell

Craig Frehlich

Katelynn Giordano

Jorge Valenzuela

Shane Lawrence

Charles Williams

Robert Kaplinsky

Gale Stafford

Lauren Porosoff

Jade Collins

Nate Bowling

Shannon Anderson

Drew Thompson

Tyler Rablin

OwlTail

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: Rebecca’s transformation to a proficiency based teaching model Why she chooses to use authentic resources How she’s still learning how to let go of accuracy in favor of proficiency How to help parents understand new ways of language learning Her favourite unit: “Un Meilleur moi” (“A Better me”) Why she’s so generous with her resources Her experience (so far) with distance learning What she looks forward to for when she’s back in the classroom Advice for beginning teachers Areas she’d like to improve in Rebecca’s inspirations: Lisa Shepard, Amy Lenord, Natalia DeLatt, Creative Language Class, We Teach Languages, ACTFL books, Paul Sandrock, Leslie Grahn How listeners can contact Rebecca through Twitter or her Blog     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

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 <a href="https://actualfluency.com/143-aviva-levin-french-teacher-canada/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Actual Fluency podcast</a>.) 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 <a href="https://www.actfl.org/news/press-releases/actfl-names-2020-national-language-teacher-the-year" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">2020 National Language Teacher of the Year</a>! In this episode we discuss: <ul><li>Rebecca’s transformation to a proficiency based teaching model</li> <li>Why she chooses to use authentic resources</li> <li>How she’s still learning how to let go of accuracy in favor of proficiency</li> <li>How to help parents understand new ways of language learning</li> <li>Her favourite unit: <a href="https://mmeblouwolff.weebly.com/thematic-units/pbl-un-meilleur-moi-intermediate-low" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">“Un Meilleur moi” (“A Better me”)</a></li> <li>Why she’s so generous with her resources</li> <li>Her experience (so far) with distance learning</li> <li>What she looks forward to for when she’s back in the classroom</li> <li>Advice for beginning teachers</li> <li>Areas she’d like to improve in</li> <li>Rebecca’s inspirations: <a href="https://twitter.com/mmeshep" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Lisa Shepard</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/alenord" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Amy Lenord</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/natadel76" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Natalia DeLatt</a>, <a href="http://www.creativelanguageclass.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Creative Language Class</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/weteachlang" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">We Teach Languages</a>, <a href="https://www.actfl.org/publications/books" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ACTFL books</a>, <a href="https://www.actfl.org/publications/books-and-brochures/the-keys-assessing-language-performance" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Paul Sandrock</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/grahnforlang" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Leslie Grahn</a></li> <li>How listeners can contact Rebecca through <a href="https://twitter.com/MmeBlouwolff" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a> or her <a href="https://mmeblouwolff.weebly.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Blog</a> </li> </ul> Lesson: Impossible’s Website: <a href="http://www.lessonimpossible.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.lessonimpossible.com</a> Lesson: Impossible’s Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/avivalevin" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/avivalevin</a> If you have suggestions for a teacher who would make an inspiring Lesson: Impossible guest, please email me at <a href="mailto:aviva.levin@gmail.com">aviva.levin@gmail.com</a>

Agent Rebecca Blouwolff (Teaching Language Authentically)

Welcome to Inspired Proficiency and thank you for joining us for episode 2 of season 3. As always, please tweet any takeaways and inspirations to #inspiredproficiency. On the second episode Ashley continues her conversation with Rebecca Blouwolff, the NECTFL 2019 teacher of the year, about high leverage teaching practices. Rebecca teaches 7th and 8th grade French at Wellesley Middle School, a suburb of Boston, MA. Ashley also chats with Jennifer Bilby about her fame among Spanish teachers who use Señor Wooly. Ashley is offering her 3rd annual 3 day workshop this summer 2019 in Tyngsboro, MA. 8/14 Proficiency and Target Language Strategies 8/15 Assessment and Feedback Practices Through Proficiency Portfolios 8/16 Community Building Themes and Team Challenges in the Target Language   Episode: Rebecca has already shared with us about Facilitating Target Language Comprehensibility and today she continues today with Building a Target Language Discourse Community. All her ideas come from reading the book Enacting the Work of Language Instruction: High Leverage Teaching Practices by Glisan &amp; Donato.   Building a Target Language Discourse Community describes talking to your students and getting them to speak to you in the target language. Several strategies involving visual assists to hold kids accountable are discussed to promote target language use. It is a culture that needs to be built and cultivated within the classroom and that takes time. See more details at www.deskfree.wordpress.com  Variety Segment: Ashley also interviews Jennifer Bilby and her new found fame after being in the new song released for Wooly Week. She teaches Spanish at Pequea Valley High School in Lancaster, PA. Jennifer Bilby won Wooly Week 2017 two years ago and has been patiently awaiting her original song written by the genius himself, Señor Wooly. He shared the song with all of those participating in Wooly Week for an engaging week (or two) filled with excitement for students and professional development for teachers. Her favorite part of her original song is the dancing in the limousine. She also answers some listener questions from Facebook to talk about how her life has changed since the song debuted. Señor Wooly is a great to bring joy and fun to the learning of Spanish with great music and stories. Jennifer also mentions how great Wooly Week was for teachers and even though not everyone could complete all of the activities, they work with ALL stories and you just modify the activities to work with what you are doing. The activities shared during Wooly Week help teachers to pull out all the elements of language from the song and story. Resources and links mentioned on the show: Guests: Rebecca Blouwolff on Twitter @MmeBlouwolff and her blog https://mmeblouwolff.weebly.com Jennifer Bilby Books:  Enacting the Work of Language Instruction: High Leverage Teaching Practices by Glisan &amp; Donato  While We’re on the Topic by Bill Van Patten (BVP) Other resources: Rebecca’s  blog post on her 6 hour session on High Leverage Teaching Practices with Dr. Catherine Ritz (on Twitter @ritzforeignlang) and their  slides #langchat on  Twitter (What is LangChat?) TALK  rubric Episode sponsors:  Wayside Publishing  ACTFL Center for Assessment, Research, and Development (CARD) Voces Digital: Nuestra Historia Señor Wooly El  Mundo de Pepita Tina Hargaden Puentes books from A.C. Quintero &amp; Jennifer Degenhardt 

Welcome to Inspired Proficiency and thank you for joining us for episode 2 of season 3. As always, please tweet any takeaways and inspirations to #inspiredproficiency. On the second episode Ashley continues her conversation with Rebecca Blouwolff, the NECTFL 2019 teacher of the <a href="https://www.nectfl.org/teacher-of-the-year/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">year</a>, about high leverage teaching practices. Rebecca teaches 7th and 8th grade French at Wellesley Middle School, a suburb of Boston, MA. Ashley also chats with Jennifer Bilby about her fame among Spanish teachers who use Señor Wooly. Ashley is offering her 3rd annual 3 day <a href="http://deskfree.org/workshop_listing.php" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">workshop</a> this summer 2019 in Tyngsboro, MA. 8/14 Proficiency and Target Language Strategies 8/15 Assessment and Feedback Practices Through Proficiency Portfolios 8/16 Community Building Themes and Team Challenges in the Target Language Episode: Rebecca has already shared with us about Facilitating Target Language Comprehensibility and today she continues today with Building a Target Language Discourse Community. All her ideas come from reading the book Enacting the Work of Language Instruction: High Leverage Teaching Practices by Glisan &amp; Donato. Building a Target Language Discourse Community describes talking to your students and getting them to speak to you in the target language. Several strategies involving visual assists to hold kids accountable are discussed to promote target language use. It is a culture that needs to be built and cultivated within the classroom and that takes time. See more details at <a href="http://www.deskfree.wordpress.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.deskfree.wordpress.com</a> Variety Segment: Ashley also interviews Jennifer Bilby and her new found fame after being in the new song released for Wooly Week. She teaches Spanish at Pequea Valley High School in Lancaster, PA. Jennifer Bilby won Wooly Week 2017 two years ago and has been patiently awaiting her original song written by the genius himself, Señor Wooly. He shared the song with all of those participating in Wooly Week for an engaging week (or two) filled with excitement for students and professional development for teachers. Her favorite part of her original song is the dancing in the limousine. She also answers some listener questions from Facebook to talk about how her life has changed since the song debuted. Señor Wooly is a great to bring joy and fun to the learning of Spanish with great music and stories. Jennifer also mentions how great Wooly Week was for teachers and even though not everyone could complete all of the activities, they work with ALL stories and you just modify the activities to work with what you are doing. The activities shared during Wooly Week help teachers to pull out all the elements of language from the song and story. Resources and links mentioned on the show: Guests: Rebecca Blouwolff on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/MmeBlouwolff" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@</a>MmeBlouwolff and her b<a href="https://mmeblouwolff.weebly.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">log</a> <a href="https://mmeblouwolff.weebly.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://mmeblouwolff.weebly.com</a> Jennifer Bilby Books: <a href="https://www.actfl.org/publications/books-and-brochures/enacting-the-work-language-instruction-high-leverage-teaching-practices" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Enacting</a> the Work of Language Instruction: High Leverage Teaching Practices by Glisan &amp; Donato <a href="https://www.actfl.org/publications/books-and-brochures/while-were-the-topic" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> While</a> We’re on the Topic by Bill Van Patten (BVP) Other resources: Rebecca’s <a href="https://mmeblouwolff.weebly.com/revolutionized-teaching" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> blog</a> post on her 6 hour session on High Leverage Teaching Practices with Dr. Catherine Ritz (on Twitter @ritzforeignlang) and their <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_yEDav49IonVAFlhLSWQyeXFhid7G3qY/view" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> slides</a> #langchat on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/langchat?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Ehashtag" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Twitter</a> (<a href="https://twitter.com/langchatpln?lang=en" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">What</a> is LangChat?) TALK <a href="https://mmeblouwolff.weebly.com/revolutionized-teaching/interpersonal-boot-camp-using-the-talk-rubric" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> rubric</a> Episode sponsors: <ul> <li><a href="https://waysidepublishing.com/inspired" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Wayside</a> Publishing</li> <li><a href="https://www.actfl.org/assessment-professional-development/assessments-the-actfl-testing-office" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> ACTFL</a> Center for Assessment, Research, and Development (CARD)</li> <li>Voces <a href="https://www.vocesdigital.com/trialreg-ip.php" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Digital</a>: Nuestra Historia</li> <li><a href="https://www.senorwooly.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Señor</a> Wooly</li> <li>El <a href="https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mundo-De-Pepita" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Mundo</a> de Pepita</li> <li>Tina <a href="mailto:tina@curriculumclub.com">Hargaden</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.puenteslanguage.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Puentes</a> books from A.C. <a href="http://www.teachingspanishmadeeasy.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Quintero</a> &amp; Jennifer Degenhardt</li> </ul>

Building a Target Language Discourse Community with Rebecca Blouwolff

Welcome back to Inspired Proficiency and thank you for joining us on our journey into season 3. As always, please tweet any takeaways and inspirations to #inspiredproficiency. On the first episode Ashley talks about high leverage teaching practices with Rebecca Blouwolff, the NECTFL 2019 teacher of the year. Rebecca teaches 7th and 8th grade French at Wellesley Middle School, a suburb of Boston, MA. Rebecca walks Ashley through one of two high leverage teaching practices she recently presented at the NECTFL conference in New York City. These practices talk more about how to teach and not what to teach. Her ideas come from reading the book Enacting the Work of Language Instruction: High Leverage Teaching Practices by Glisan &amp; Donato. Rebecca describes the importance of watching, doing, and experiencing training to get better at what you’re doing and how it important is for teachers to participate when trying new teaching practices. Big takeaway from the first high leverage teaching practice: Using the Target Language (TL) in class with the kids is the most important thing you can do. We are privileged to be able to provide that environment for our students and get to know them through the language. For the variety segment, Profe Ashley also plays a fun trivia game with Pamela Russell (@pammycakes_87) and Melanie Thomas (@senoraMThomas). She asks questions about the first two seasons of Inspired Proficiency. Thanks to Pamela and Melanie for playing and thanks to everyone who helped support this podcast into its third season! Resources and links mentioned on the show: Guests:  Rebecca Blouwolff   Twitter @MmeBlouwolff Blog https://mmeblouwolff.weebly.com    Books:   Enacting the Work of Language Instruction: High Leverage Teaching Practices by Glisan &amp; Donato  Total Participation Techniques by Himmele &amp; Himmele  Other resources:  Rebecca’s  blog post on her 6 hour session on High Leverage Teaching Practices with Dr. Catherine Ritz (on Twitter @ritzforeignlang)   Their  slides   Greg Duncan’s TELL project  article “Engaging Language Learners” with references to Total Participation Techniques book Shelby County Public Schools Total Participation  Techniques Resources from Shelby County Public Schools Language Specific Hold Ups in many languages  from Shelby County Public Schools  Episode sponsors:  Wayside Publishing  ACTFL Center for Assessment, Research, and Development  Comprehensifying and Extending Authentic Resources Señor Wooly El  Mundo de Pepita World Language Classroom Voces Digital Puentes books from A.C. Quintero &amp; Jennifer Degenhardt  For detailed notes on the interview visit: www.deskfree.wordpress.com after 3pm on the day it's released. 

Welcome back to Inspired Proficiency and thank you for joining us on our journey into season 3. As always, please tweet any takeaways and inspirations to #inspiredproficiency. On the first episode Ashley talks about high leverage teaching practices with Rebecca Blouwolff, the NECTFL 2019 teacher of the <a href="https://www.nectfl.org/teacher-of-the-year/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">year</a>. Rebecca teaches 7th and 8th grade French at Wellesley Middle School, a suburb of Boston, MA. Rebecca walks Ashley through one of two high leverage teaching practices she recently presented at the NECTFL conference in New York City. These practices talk more about how to teach and not what to teach. Her ideas come from reading the book Enacting the Work of Language Instruction: High Leverage Teaching Practices by Glisan &amp; Donato. Rebecca describes the importance of watching, doing, and experiencing training to get better at what you’re doing and how it important is for teachers to participate when trying new teaching practices. Big takeaway from the first high leverage teaching practice: Using the Target Language (TL) in class with the kids is the most important thing you can do. We are privileged to be able to provide that environment for our students and get to know them through the language. For the variety segment, Profe Ashley also plays a fun trivia game with Pamela Russell (@pammycakes_87) and Melanie Thomas (@senoraMThomas). She asks questions about the first two seasons of Inspired Proficiency. Thanks to Pamela and Melanie for playing and thanks to everyone who helped support this podcast into its third season! Resources and links mentioned on the show: Guests: <ul> <li>Rebecca Blouwolff</li> <li> <ul> <li>Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/MmeBlouwolff" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@</a>MmeBlouwolff</li> <li><a href="https://mmeblouwolff.weebly.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Blog</a> <a href="https://mmeblouwolff.weebly.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://mmeblouwolff.weebly.com</a></li> </ul> </li> </ul> Books: <ul> <li><a href="https://www.actfl.org/publications/books-and-brochures/enacting-the-work-language-instruction-high-leverage-teaching-practices" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Enacting</a> the Work of Language Instruction: High Leverage Teaching Practices by Glisan &amp; Donato</li> <li><a href="http://www.ascd.org/Publications/Books/Overview/Total-Participation-Techniques-Making-Every-Student-an-Active-Learner-2nd-Edition.aspx" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Total</a> Participation Techniques by Himmele &amp; Himmele</li> </ul> Other resources: <ul> <li>Rebecca’s <a href="https://mmeblouwolff.weebly.com/revolutionized-teaching" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> blog</a> post on her 6 hour session on High Leverage Teaching Practices with Dr. Catherine Ritz (on Twitter @ritzforeignlang)</li> <li> <ul> <li>Their <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_yEDav49IonVAFlhLSWQyeXFhid7G3qY/view" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> slides</a></li> </ul> </li> <li>Greg Duncan’s <a href="http://www.tellproject.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">TELL</a> project <a href="http://www.tellproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/AdvanceLearning_Engagement_Overview.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> article</a> “Engaging Language Learners” with references to Total Participation Techniques book</li> <li>Shelby County Public <a href="https://leveluplanguage.weebly.com/level-one.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Schools</a></li> <li>Total Participation <a href="https://leveluplanguage.weebly.com/total-participation-techniques--general-resources.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Techniques</a> Resources from Shelby County Public Schools</li> <li>Language Specific Hold <a href="https://leveluplanguage.weebly.com/tpt-hold-ups.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ups</a> in many languages  from Shelby County Public Schools</li> </ul> Episode sponsors: <ul> <li><a href="https://waysidepublishing.com/inspired" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Wayside</a> Publishing</li> <li><a href="https://www.actfl.org/assessment-professional-development/assessments-the-actfl-testing-office" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> ACTFL</a> Center for Assessment, Research, and Development </li> <li><a href="http://www.ceauthres.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Comprehensifying</a> and Extending Authentic Resources</li> <li><a href="https://www.senorwooly.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Señor</a> Wooly</li> <li>El <a href="https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mundo-De-Pepita" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Mundo</a> de Pepita</li> <li><a href="https://wlclassroom.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">World</a> Language Classroom</li> <li><a href="https://www.vocesdigital.com/trialreg-ip.php" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Voces</a> Digital</li> <li><a href="https://www.puenteslanguage.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Puentes</a> books from A.C. <a href="http://www.teachingspanishmadeeasy.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Quintero</a> &amp; Jennifer Degenhardt</li> </ul> For detailed notes on the interview visit: <a href="http://www.deskfree.wordpress.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.deskfree.wordpress.com</a> after 3pm on the day it's released.