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As language teachers, we love sharing strategies that work. But what about the strategies that suddenly stop working? What happens when activities that worked for years begin falling apart, student engagement drops, and classroom dynamics feel different than before?

In this honest end-of-the-year reflection, I’m sharing what did NOT work in my Spanish classroom this year, and the important lessons I learned about classroom management, student engagement, comprehensible input, routines, relationships, and structure.

In this episode, I reflect on:
✨ Why some communicative activities and partner work stopped working
✨ The difference between movement and structured interaction✨ Why clear expectations without clear consequences created tension
✨ How relying only on relationships and classroom connections was not enough
✨ The importance of routines, accountability, and consistent classroom management
✨ What I learned about disengagement, scaffolding, and supporting struggling students
✨ How student feedback surveys helped me recognize important patterns in my teaching

This conversation is about recognizing that teaching is deeply connected to context, relationships, structure, and flexibility.

If you’ve ever ended the school year questioning your classroom management, wondering why certain strategies failed, or feeling frustrated by student behavior and disengagement, this episode is for you.

Resources:

• End-Of-The-Year Reflection Took with Student Survey
• Becca Silver’s episode: “Students Didn’t Meet Expectations? Why That’s Not the Real Problem”
• “How Do We Support Neurodivergent Learners in the World Language Classroom? Designing Inclusive Classrooms”
• Join the waitlist for Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy
• Follow Claudia on Instagram @claudiamelliott
• Growing With CI FB Community
• Blog
• Teacher Pay Teachers Store

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You see a 60-second classroom video on social media. Students are engaged, speaking, producing. And you go straight to: "That is not happening in my class. Something is wrong with me."

But you're missing the other 44 minutes — the class size, the school, the context behind that clip.

In this episode, Claudia sits down with world language teacher Dahiana Castro to talk about something our profession doesn't say enough: every strategy has to meet your context. That's not a limitation — that's good teaching.

This is not about lowering expectations. Your students can and do grow. But a strategy that works with 15 motivated students in a selective program will likely need real adaptation for a class of 37 in an under-resourced public school — and making that call is a valid, professional decision.

In this episode:

• Why that viral classroom video is missing more context than you think
• The real factors that shape whether a strategy succeeds
• How to adapt strategies for your actual students — not the ideal ones
• Why blanket statements like "if you do X, students will do Y" ignore real classroom complexity
• How to reflect at year's end without the shame spiral

The goal isn't to replicate what you saw online. It's to ask: how can this work here, with these students?

🔗 Resources & Links:

• 📋 Free reflection resource + student survey: growingwithproficiency.com/reflection
• Join the waitlist for Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy
• Follow Claudia on Instagram @claudiamelliott
• Growing With CI FB Community
• Blog
• Teacher Pay Teachers Store

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If you’ve ever wanted your students to feel genuinely excited before reading a novel or watching a movie in class, this episode is for you.

In this conversation, I sit down with Rita Barrett, an outstanding Spansih teacher, to talk about the Tea Party strategy, an engaging pre-reading activity where students become characters from the story before they even begin reading.

Students walk around the room meeting other characters, uncovering relationships, discovering conflicts, making predictions, and communicating in the target language the entire time.

One of the biggest takeaways from this episode is this: Tea Party is NOT the moment to introduce lots of new language.

Instead, the focus is on highly comprehensible language so students feel confident speaking, interacting, and listening while building curiosity for the story ahead.

We also talk about:
✨ How to set up a Tea Party step-by-step
✨ What character descriptions should look like
✨ How students create relationship webs and predictions
✨ Why this strategy creates authentic communication and engagement

Rita Barrett teaches Spanish at Portland Adventist Academy in Portland, Oregon. The 2016 COFLT TOY, Rita has been a frequent presenter at state and national conferences and co-hosts a Portland area language teacher PLC. She is passionate about inspiring students to become lifelong language lovers.

Resources Mentioned:
Growing With Proficiency:
https://growingwithproficiency.com

The Spanish Teacher Academy:
https://growingwithproficiency.com/academy

AnneMarie Chase’s Tea Party Blog Post:
https://senorachase.com/2025/11/15/tea-party-round-up/