In May, for my last bulletin board display of the school year, I created a bulleting board that would celebrate the seniors in my Spanish 4 and 5 classes. The seniors provided me with a photo of themselves and then they completed the information on the kite of their names, their highest level of Spanish at PHS, the college to which they are going, and their intended field of study at college.
It was a way to honor the seniors before they graduated and to showcase to other students in the school the amount of semesters each the seniors were enrolled in Spanish classes.
It may be hard to see in the photo, but the two figures at the bottom of the bulletin board have just released the strings of the kites, symbolizing that they are moving on from high school to the next adventure in life. The two figures represent the Spanish 3 teacher and myself because all the seniors had both her and I as their Spanish teacher this year or in the previous year.
There is an activity I've done in the past with my students called "La Silla Especial" in which I've "interviewed" them in front of the class in Spanish in an effort for the students to learn more about their classmates and to provide comprehensible input. This idea comes from Bryce Hedstrom's "La Persona Especial". You can find an explanation and information on the activity HERE and a poster of the questions and additional information HERE. If you need the questions in French or Japanese, check Bryce's website for these resources.
This year, after the interview, the students wrote information about the interviewee on the board and I took a photo of the person surrounded by the information. Then I printed the photo, glued it to orange or yellow paper, and displayed it on the side whiteboard. We started "La Silla Especial" early in the semester, and continued it either as part of the planned lesson or when there was extra time at the end of the lesson. Hands down, it was one of the students' favorite activities.
We call it "La Silla Especial" because the students sat on a swivel chair, but I may change it to "La Persona Especial" as Bryce calls it because the focus is on the student and not the "silla".
In May, for my last bulletin board display of the school year, I created a bulleting board that would celebrate the seniors in my Spanish 4 and 5 classes. The seniors provided me with a photo of themselves and then they completed the information on the kite of their names, their highest level of Spanish at PHS, the college to which they are going, and their intended field of study at college. 