Some things about my imagined classroom have changed a lot, and other things haven't changed very much.
I still don't really imagine myself as a "front of the room" teacher. I still want my lessons to be very interactive, with students participating a lot and speaking a lot in Spanish. Something I do want to implement is making sure I'm using students funds of knowledge as I'm teaching. This is especially useful when teaching things like grammar. All of my students will have already learned one language (their native tongue), and will be starting on their second. This base understanding of how their own language works can be a diving board for learning grammar principles in Spanish. For example, pronoun agreement. In English students know that if they are talking about a pregnant woman it would be silly to say "he" went to the store, and the same principle applies to Spanish. I still think I will often use PowerPoints with lots of pictures to help communicate my meanings and facilitate learning. I still imagine a lot of group and partner work, and I plan to have groups and partners change often to help students break down cultural, racial, and gender barriers while also letting students interact with others who are on different speaking levels than themselves.
WHO I imagine in my classroom has changed quite a bit. Before I didn't really address race, or the possibility of having students from diverse cultures or socioeconomic statuses. The reality is that I will likely have students from all different backgrounds, including some native Spanish speakers that speak better than I do. When my class starts at the beginning of the year I want to have them fill out a survey or something so I know what their experience with Spanish is, that way I know how I want to split them up in groups and help them get to know each other. By pairing native Spanish speakers with people who are just beginning to learn, I hope to foster mutual respect and learning. The Spanish speaker can help their partner with what he or she struggles with in Spanish, and the English speaker can do the same when necessary. In my first imagined classroom I envisioned that everyone would have an interest in Spanish since its an elective. Thinking about the possibility of native students in my class or students who are only taking the class because it fit their schedule or felt like it was the lesser of two evils helped me to see that it will be important to always have engaging lesson plans. Educational games and other activities will help me to keep even the native speakers involved.
Along the lines of socioeconomic status, since I assumed my students would be middle class, I essentially assumed they would have access to the internet or other means to do projects or homework. I may not know what issues my students are struggling with, but I plan to help them complete projects and homework by leaving time in class or going to the school library or computer lab to research the subjects they've chosen to report on. This may cost us class time, but it helps make it possible for all students to participate and/or complete homework assignments.
Gender and sexuality also wasn't addressed in my imagined classroom. I think its very likely that I will have students who are LGBTQ. I want my classroom to be a safe environment for them. I imagine my classroom as a place of mutual respect, both between students and teacher, and also between the students themselves. I won't tolerate bullying, and by teaching my students that we can embrace differences and loving ourselves I hope to help students who maybe struggle because of how others perceive they're sexual orientation, but also students who may struggle with body image or low self-esteem.
The physical aspect of my classroom I imagine much the same. I imagine my class with lots of colors and artifacts. Travel posters advertising different Spanish-speaking countries, flags from Spanish-speaking countries. Apart from that I hope to have books in Spanish (at differing levels), costumes for productions, Spanish music playing, calendar in Spanish, etc, etc. The goal will be to have it feel as much like a different country as possible. The projector will be a big part of our everyday class. My lessons will often be guided by PowerPoints I've made. They will have a lot of images to help students connect the dots in a different language. This hasn't changed because I still want my students to feel they are on a "cultural island." It's important for them to be able to express their own cultures, but part of what I teach is cultures of Spanish-speaking countries.
I still think the example of a lesson I might teach is a good one. It was: "An example lesson I could be teaching would be a combination of teaching vocabulary for food, while at the same time teaching how to correctly use the verb "gustar." So I would have a PowerPoint with a few foods that I liked and didn't like. I would explain that I like apples to model the correct way of using the verb, and then ask another student if they like apples as well. After I felt like they got the concept of the verb and a good portion of the vocab, I would have them ask each other, or have them find someone who didn't like a certain food. I'm teaching this so students can express their likes and dislikes, while also expanding their food vocabulary." However, I would add to this by accessing my students' funds of knowledge in helping me flush out our vocabulary words. It is important for them to know words like "apple" but more meaningful would be to help them find the words for their favorite foods. Based on what they wanted to say I could build my PowerPoint to include their words and their favorite foods. Knowing how to say corn will probably get them something different if they was to eat corn on the cob.
Like I said, I still don't see myself as a "front of the room" teacher. I want my lessons to be student driven, with their ideas dictating where my lesson plans take us. I want them to be interacting a lot, and to be wandering around the classroom looking for common mistakes to correct or to answer questions.
As far as activities go, I hope to have a lot. For example, when teaching pronouns (yo, tú, usted, nosotros, etc.) I might play a game where we push the desks to the side of the room and students have to form groups based on the pronoun I just called out. So if I say "yo" (I) every student would form their own group, if I say "nosotros" (we/us) all the students would form one big group, if I said "tú" (you) they would be in pairs, etc. Then, in these groups I would have them conjugate a verb we were learning based on what group they were in. This would make it fun, while helping students learn the pronouns and also how to conjugate. This will also help keep my Spanish-speakers engaged.
I think the biggest thing that has changed since my original imagined classroom has been who would be in my class. A lot of these issues I simply hadn't thought about. I have always wanted my classroom to be a safe space because learning a language usually involves making a lot of mistakes, but now I see that a safe environment is good for more than just their learning. Its good for their souls.
