Deborah Varga, OFLA Executive Vice-President 
Spanish Teacher, McKinley Senior High School

Happy Spring everyone!

I am taking time during this last month of school to reflect on what my goals are for the 2024-2025 school year.  I always revise these at the end of summer vacation so that I can have a clear and focused pathway that is actionable.  I do a lot of semantic mapping, or mind-mapping, when it comes to breaking down the steps towards achieving my goals. 

Let me share with you my 5 goal areas that have been on-going for me, for at least that last few years:

1. Meeting the needs of Heritage Language Learners (HLLs) and multilingual learners
2. AI in the classroom 
3. Student Engagement and Motivation
4. Free-choice reading 
5. Project-Based Language Learning (PBLL) 

What small steps can you make towards achieving your own goals? Do you like to do big-picture planning or plan in smaller chunks?  Do you research other curricular areas and their professional development offerings to see what can be adapted to world language education?  

Sometimes, rather than trying to model yourself exactly after someone else’s teaching style, you can achieve your goals faster by creating goals that are relevant to your students and classroom context.  I have made peace with the fact that I do not always follow exactly what someone else does.  I also have embraced the “glass is half full” philosophy by  trying to focus on the good things that happen in my lessons. Looking at things in a holistic way, such as at the end of a unit, grading period or school year, instead of a daily lesson basis, can be helpful when evaluating if you have met your goals.