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 burnout.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How to identify what is actually worth your time and energy
• Why comparison is one of the biggest drains on teachers
• How to stop reinventing the wheel with every lesson
• The power of using high-impact templates like sentence starters and roving paragraph frames
• A simple, repeatable lesson cycle you can use with any reading or video
• How to protect your time, your boundaries, and your joy

This is not about doing less just to do less. This is about doing what matters—with intention.

If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed, this episode will help you take a step back and ask:
What do I actually need to keep… and what can I finally let go of?

🎧 Listen now and start making small shifts that will make your teaching more sustainable.

🔗 Resources mentioned:

• Roving Paragraph Frames & Sentence Starters (Bethanie Drew)
• Episode with Sally Barnes

📬 Stay connected:

• Website: https://growingwithproficiency.com
• GWP Spanish Teacher Academy Waiting List
• Growing With CI FB Community
• Blog
• Teacher Pay Teachers Store

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 place to start.

Have you ever felt like getting your students to really use the target language with each other is the hardest thing? You want them to share ideas, agree or disagree, and ask questions. But when the moment comes, silence takes over—or worse, they switch to English.

In this episode, I sit down with my friend and incredible Spanish teacher, Chelsea Lawrence, to talk about a game-changing strategy: Silent Discussions.

✨ What you’ll learn in this episode:

• What Silent Discussions are and how to set them up step by step.
• Why this strategy works so well to lower stress and build success in interpersonal communication.
• Real classroom examples—from connecting the Panama Canal to a local tunnel, to jigsaw activities with biographies and even telescopes.
• Practical scaffolds to support your students: graphic organizers, sentence starters, question stems, and even a “How do you say…?” board.
• What to do after the Silent Discussion to extend the learning with gallery walks, reflections, or presentational tasks.

👉 If you’re a Spanish teacher looking for resources to create great jigsaw activities plus Silent Discussions, check out the Biographies to Celebrate Hispanic Women or explore the Panoramas Culturales, where you can assign one article to each group.

Listen now and discover how one big sheet of paper can transform into a powerful tool for authentic student interaction in your classroom.

📬 Stay connected:

GWP Spanish Teacher Academy Waiting List
Growing With CI FB Community
Blog
Teacher Pay Teachers Store

Website: https://growingwithproficiency.com

Send a text

Dictation is one of those classic activities many of us use in our language classes—but sometimes it can feel repetitive or not very communicative.

In this episode of Growing With Proficiency: The Podcast, I talk with Latin teacher Keith Toda about how a simple tweak can transform dictation into a purposefully communicative activity. We discuss how dictation supports comprehensible input and how we can add curiosity and interaction to make the activity more meaningful for students.

If you’re looking for a low-prep strategy that slows down your pacing, increases focus, and encourages communication in your world language classroom, this conversation will give you ideas you can try right away.

Takeaways

• Why dictation still supports language acquisition
• How to make dictation purposefully communicative
• A simple prediction twist that sparks discussion
• How to mix dictation with quick personalized questions (PQA)
• How dictation can prepare students for reading or video input

Resources

📖 Read the blog post: Dictation + Communication: How to Make Dictation Purposefully Communicative

🌍 Keith Toda – Toda-lly Comprehensible Latin
https://todallycomprehensiblelatin.blogspot.com

🎙️ Related Episodes
Talking Language Acquisition with Dr. Bill VanPatten (Part 2)
Talking Language Acquisition with Dr. Bill VanPatten (Part 1)
Beyond Exposure: Comprehensible and Meaningful Input with Dr. Florencia Henshaw (Part 1)
Making Our Classroom Communication Driven

GWP Spanish Teacher Academy Waiting List
Growing With CI FB Community
Blog
Teacher Pay Teachers Store