Growing With Proficiency The Podcast

Epizody

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  Episode 199: How to Plan the First Week of World Language Class Without Feeling Overwhelmed 20.07.2026 40min

  Send us Fan Mail Planning the first week of school can feel overwhelming—especially when you have a phone full of saved ideas, conference notes, activities, and resources you want to try. But a successful first week is not about doing everything. It is about choosing what will help you build the classroom you want to sustain all year. In This Episode, you will learn: Why more activities do not always create a better first weekHow to connect your first-week plans to your long-term classroom go...
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  Episode 198. How to Build a Sustainable Language Class with Routines That Support Language Acquisition 13.07.2026 42min

  Send us Fan Mail What if the reason your class feels hard to sustain is not because your activities are wrong, but because they are standing alone? In this episode of Growing With Proficiency The Podcast, I’m talking about routines that support language acquisition—not classroom procedures like entering the room or turning in papers, but pedagogical routines that create the spaces our students need again and again. We’ll look at how routines can help us provide more comprehensible input, buil...
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  Episode 197: Cómo Empezar el Año Escolar con una Clase de Español Más Sostenible 06.07.2026 1h 15min

  Send us Fan Mail En este episodio en español de Growing With Proficiency, converso con tres profes de nuestra comunidad de Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy: Ángela Johnson, Mariem Silva y Audrey Ramírez. Aunque enseñan en contextos muy diferentes, las tres comparten cómo han transformado sus clases al entender mejor la adquisición de la lengua y al crear clases más comprensibles, comunicativas, culturales y sostenibles. Hablamos de cómo empezar el año escolar con más inte...
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  Episode 196: Two Myths About Second Language Acquisition with Dr. Bill VanPatten 29.06.2026 1h 6min

  Send us Fan Mail What if some of the most common beliefs about language teaching are actually getting in the way of acquisition? In this special episode of Growing With Proficiency, I sit down with Dr. Bill VanPatten for a powerful conversation originally livestreamed in the IFLT Facebook group as part of CI Reboot. Dr. VanPatten helps us unpack two foundational myths about second language acquisition: the idea that learners internalize grammar rules and patterns, and the idea that children a...
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  Episode 195: 4 Lessons I Learned When My Students Couldn't Communicate in Spanish 22.06.2026 47min

  Send us Fan Mail Have you ever looked at your students and wondered: "Why aren't they communicating in the language?" In this special episode of Growing With Proficiency, the tables are turned as my friend and fellow educator, Bethanie Carlson Drew, steps in as host and interviews me about my journey from lawyer to language teacher, the challenges that transformed my classroom, and the lessons I've learned along the way. Together, we explore what happened when I realized that despite teaching...
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  Episode 194: What My Students Said Helped Them Learn Spanish Most (And Why Nobody Agreed) 15.06.2026 32min

  Send us Fan Mail At the end of every school year, I ask my students one question: What activity or strategy helped you grow the most in Spanish this year? This year, their answers surprised me. Some students chose Daily Personal Questions. Others selected Silent Sustained Reading. Some preferred podcasts, cultural articles, Calendar Talk, Star Student Interviews, content-based units, or creating stories. What stood out most? Nobody agreed. And that led me to an important realization about lan...
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  Episode 193: Three Things That Worked Better Than I Expected This Year 08.06.2026 34min

  Send us Fan Mail What actually helped students learn this year? As language teachers, it's easy to spend our end-of-year reflection focused on what didn't work. In Episode 191, I shared some of the challenges I faced this year. In Episode 192, I reflected on behavior, classroom culture, relationships, expectations, and the lessons I learned from a particularly challenging freshman class. But reflection isn't only about identifying problems. It's also about paying attention to what worked. Aft...
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  Episodio 192: Tres lecciones sobre comportamiento que aprendí este año 01.06.2026 31min

  Send us Fan Mail ¿Tus estudiantes conocen las expectativas de tu clase, pero aun así siguen apareciendo interrupciones, conversaciones paralelas o dificultades para mantener la atención? En este episodio comparto tres lecciones sobre comportamiento que aprendí este año después de reflexionar sobre mis clases, analizar las encuestas de mis estudiantes y observar los desafíos que surgieron incluso en grupos donde existían buenas relaciones y una cultura positiva. Hablamos sobre: ✅ Por qué las r...
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  Episode 191: What Didn’t Work in My Classroom This Year (And What I Learned) 28.05.2026 32min

  Send us Fan Mail 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,...
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  Episode 190: Is That Strategy Really Not Working — Or Is It Context? | End-of-Year Reflection 21.05.2026 43min

  Send us Fan Mail 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 limi...
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  Episode 189: Tea Party in the World Language Classroom: A Powerful Pre-Reading Strategy to Boost Engagement and Communication with Rita Barrett 14.05.2026 36min

  Send us Fan Mail 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, ...
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  Re-release Episode 65: Low-Prep Strategies for the End of the School Year: Anchor Charts, Model Texts & Write and Discuss 07.05.2026 31min

  Send us Fan Mail Feeling exhausted trying to keep students engaged at the end of the school year? 😅 In this re-released episode of Growing With Proficiency: The Podcast, Claudia Elliott shares three powerful low-prep strategies that help world language teachers create communicative, comprehensible, and sustainable lessons without spending hours planning. If you need great strategies to keep students interacting and using the language, this episode is for you. In this episode, you’ll learn: ✨ ...
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  Episode 188: End-of-Year Engagement: How to Use Reading Stations With Any Text and Keep Students Learning 30.04.2026 26min

  Send us Fan Mail At this point in the year, many of us are feeling it. Students are distracted, energy is low, and if we say “read,” suddenly half the class needs the bathroom. In this episode, I’m sharing a simple sequence I use to turn any reading into an engaging station-based lesson that keeps students reading, moving, and participating without creating more work for you. Whether you’re using a Cinco de Mayo article, a Panorama Cultural reading, or your own class text, this structure help...
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  Re-Release Episode 94: Card Talk with a Twist: An Activity That Builds Community and Boosts Comprehension 23.04.2026 14min

  Send us Fan Mail Are you looking for an interactive and engaging activity to boost your students' participation and build a strong classroom community at the end of the school year? In this episode of "Growing With Proficiency, the podcast," we explore a unique twist on the popular Card Talk activity that my students absolutely loved! In this activity, I’ll share with you how to turn the simple drawings our students do in card talk into a pair-reading activity plus a gallery walk. Main ...
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  Episode 187: End-of-Year Activities for World Language Classes (Low-Prep Ideas That Work) With Allison Wienhold 16.04.2026 37min

  Send us Fan Mail The end of the school year can feel chaotic: testing, low energy, and unpredictable schedules. So what do you actually do with your students during those final weeks? In this episode of Growing With Proficiency, I sit down with Allison Wienhold (Mis Clases Locas) to share simple, low-prep end-of-year activities for world language classes that keep students engaged without burning you out. We talk about how to balance review, celebration, and connection while staying tru...
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  Episodio 186: El modelo 50/50: cómo motivar y facilitar interacciones auténtica en el modo interpersonal con Theresa Jensen y Maria del Carmen Benítez 13.04.2026 1h

  Send us Fan Mail Profe ¿te ha pasado esto? Haces una pregunta… y recibes respuestas de una palabra. O silencio. O miradas de “no sé qué decir”. Y tú estás ahí pensando: pero si esto debería ser comunicación… ¿por qué no se siente así? Porque muchas veces no es que tus estudiantes no quieran hablar o que no puedan, es que no tienen una razón real para hacerlo. En esta conversación me siento con dos profes extraordinarias — María del Carmen Benítez desde Monterrey, México, y T...
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  Re-Release Episode 27: Shake Up Your Classroom with My Top 5 Language Teaching Strategies and Activities from SCOLT 23 09.04.2026 40min

  Send us Fan Mail SCOLT is definitely one of my favorite conferences, and 2023 was a highlight. That is why I decided to re-release this and because you can get amazing activities you can do tomorrow in your class. Are you feeling bored and uninspired in your own language classroom? I'm not talking about your students, I'm talking about you. The truth is, we all need new ideas and fresh perspectives to keep us engaged and motivated in our teaching practice. That's why I love attend...
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  Episode 185: Interpersonal Communication That Works: Goals and Scaffolds for Silent Discussion (Part 2 with Chelsea Lawrence) 02.04.2026 56min

  Send us Fan Mail Interpersonal communication can feel like one of the hardest modes to teach. You plan the activity, set expectations… and then students give one-word answers, switch to their common language, or disengage altogether. But what if the problem isn’t your activity? In this second part of my conversation with Chelsea Lawrence, we build on our previous conversation in episode 163 and take a deeper look at what actually makes interpersonal communication work—especially through silen...
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  Episode 184: How to Decide What to Stop Caring About as a Language Teacher with Meredith White, Bethanie Drew and Maris Hawkins 26.03.2026 30min

  Send us Fan Mail Have you ever felt like you are doing everything, you’re running out of energy, and somehow, it still doesn’t feel like enough? In this episode of Growing With Proficiency The Podcast, I sit down with Meredith White, Bethanie Drew, and Maris Hawkins to have a real and honest conversation about something we don’t talk about enough: How do we decide what to stop caring about as teachers? Because the truth is… we cannot do it all. And trying to do it all is what leads to b...
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  Re-Release Episode 163: Silent Discussions — A Simple Strategy to Boost Interpersonal Communication in Your Language Classes 19.03.2026 54min

  Send us Fan Mail I’m re-releasing this episode today because Silent Discussions have become one of the most powerful activities in my classroom. Recently, during a formal observation, my assistant principal watched my students fully engaged in a Silent Discussion for almost 30 minutes—reading, asking questions, responding to each other, and learning from their classmates. If you’ve been looking for a strategy that truly gets students interacting in the target language, this episode is a great...