The Great World Language

 am embarrassed -- no, actually I would go as far as to say horrified -- that I spent ten years of my career teaching students about the Spanish language. I actually felt proud when they could fill out grammar worksheets with precision. Now, you may be thinking that, as a Spanish teacher, this is my job, but since my enlightenment, I understand that it decidedly is not. I am now certain that teaching them tocommunicate well in the language is my job. Honestly, who cares whether students can conjugate verbs correctly if they can't tell someone what they need? Getting to this point has required a colossal teaching philosophy transformation, but I've never been more proud of the work that I'm doing.Starting down this road can be wholly overwhelming. You will need professional development, your colleagues should be on board, you have to exchange textbooks for authentic materials, and the target language must be used in the classroom 90 percent of the time -- at the very least. However, what I can assure you is that once you get your feet wet, there will be no turning back. You'll begin to feel inspired, your students will show progress like you've never seen before, and most importantly, you will no longer be faced with teaching verb conjugations ad nauseam. Honestly, how boring!
Here are some essential terms that I desperately wish I had known earlier.