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What if challenging student behavior is not always simply a discipline problem—but sometimes a sign of overwhelm, anxiety, or disconnection?

In Episode 202 of Growing With Proficiency: The Podcast, I’m joined by French teacher and teacher educator Hélène Colinet to explore classroom management through the lens of nervous system regulation.

This conversation is not about excusing behavior or removing boundaries. Instead, Hélène invites us to pause before assigning motives, consider what a behavior may be communicating, and respond in ways that protect both the student’s dignity and the learning environment.

We discuss practical ways to create the conditions students need to engage and acquire language—including connection, comprehensible input, predictable routines, movement, and teacher self-regulation.

Key Takeaways

• Observe behavior before assigning a motive.
• Safety and clear boundaries can coexist.
• Slow down and check for comprehension.
• Use predictable routines to reduce uncertainty.
• Include both brain breaks and body breaks.
• Address difficult behavior calmly and privately.
• Notice and support your own regulation.
• Remember that our state can influence the class.

Resources Mentioned

• Read the companion blog post
• Learn more from Hélène Colinet
• Follow Hélène on Instagram
• Creating a Powerful First Day of Language Class
• Save Time and Reduce Stress With Classroom Routines
• The Science Behind the Power of Storytelling
• Brain Breaks, Map Talk, and Storytelling
• Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy

If this episode gives you a different way to think about classroom behavior, share it with a teacher who may need it. Then come find me on Instagram at @claudiamelliott and tell me: What is one small practice that helps you feel more regulated during the school day?

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El regreso al aula viene acompañado de muchas ideas, actividades guardadas, screenshots, recursos y recomendaciones. Pero tener más actividades no siempre significa sentirnos más preparados.

En este episodio de Growing With Proficiency: The Podcast en español, comparto cuatro ideas fundamentales inspiradas en las sesiones de nuestra Conferencia de Verano dentro de Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy.

Más que darte una lista de actividades, quiero ayudarte a pensar en el propósito detrás de ellas para que puedas comenzar el año con mayor claridad, crear una cultura de respeto y diseñar experiencias en las que más estudiantes puedan comprender, participar y comunicarse.

Hablamos de cómo establecer expectativas claras y consistentes, cómo explicarles a nuestros estudiantes el proceso de adquisición de una lengua, cómo estructurar actividades para aumentar la participación y cómo seleccionar contenido que promueva comunicación y competencia cultural.

En este episodio aprenderás:

• Cómo definir tus expectativas no negociables antes del regreso al aula.
• Por qué la claridad y la consistencia son esenciales para el manejo de clase.
• Cómo explicarles a tus estudiantes el propósito de las actividades.
• Por qué la participación necesita ser diseñada y modelada.
• Cómo usar pausas activas, teatro interpretativo y señales de respuesta total.
• Cómo integrar productos, prácticas y perspectivas desde los niveles novatos.
• Cómo elegir actividades que puedas mantener durante todo el año.

También comparto ideas de las sesiones de Meredith White, Justin Slocum Bailey, Valentina Correa, Sally Barnes, Diego Ojeda y la Dra. Bertha Delgadillo.

Porque no necesitamos regresar al aula tratando de hacerlo todo.

Necesitamos regresar con claridad sobre qué hacemos, por qué lo hacemos y cómo cada actividad apoya el aprendizaje de nuestros estudiantes.

Recursos mencionados:

• Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy

Recursos para el regreso al aula en mi tienda de Teachers Pay Teachers que está en oferta el 4 y 5 de agosto:

• Calendar Talk
• Estudiante Estrella
• Panorama Cultural Volumen 1
• Panorama Cultural Volúmen 2
• Recursos para explicar adquisición, competencia y evaluación

Episodios relacionados sobre el primer día y las primeras semanas de clase:

🎧 Episodio 42, episodio 43 y episodio 45 de Growing With Proficiency The Podcast

Sígueme en Instagram: @claudiamelliott

Visita: GrowingWithProficiency.com

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We all want students to participate. We want them to raise their hands, share their ideas, react, ask questions, and bring that energy that makes a classroom feel alive.

But what happens when they don’t?

It is easy to assume that the activity is not working, that students are not motivated, or even that we are doing something wrong.

In this special 200th episode of Growing With Proficiency: The Podcast, I sit down with Justin Slocum Bailey to explore another possibility:

Maybe the activity is not the problem. Maybe we need to get the stakes right.

As you prepare to go back to school, this conversation will help you think more intentionally about the questions you ask, the topics you choose, and the different ways students can participate without feeling pressured or put on the spot.

Justin shares how we can create participation that feels meaningful enough to be worth the effort—but safe enough for students to take the risk.

✨ Takeaways

• What it means when the stakes for participation are too high or too low
• Why an activity may fall flat even when it is a great activity
• How information gaps and opinion questions can make communication more meaningful
• Why some personal questions may feel too risky for students
• How to create distance from sensitive topics without removing authentic communication
• Simple ways students can participate without immediately speaking in front of the class
• Why grading every interaction may increase pressure instead of participation
• Why curiosity is more helpful than blaming the activity, the student, or yourself

This episode is an invitation to pause before searching for another activity and ask:

Are the stakes too high, too low, or just right for my students?

📌 Resources + Links Mentioned in This Episode

Learn more from Justin at Indwelling Language:
indwellinglanguage.com

Find more about Voces Digital here

Follow me on Instagram:
@claudiamelliott

Explore ready-to-use back-to-school resources for Spanish teachers in my store:
Growing With Proficiency on Teachers Pay Teachers

Learn more about Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy:
growingwithproficiency.com/academy

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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 week
• How to connect your first-week plans to your long-term classroom goals
• Why activities should serve a purpose—not the other way around
• How to begin routines at a pace you can sustain
• Why I do not introduce Calendar Talk, sustained reading, and every classroom routine immediately
• Simple ways to connect, provide input, reset, and reflect during the first week
• How to create early success for both you and your students

Resources Mentioned

Read the full blog post.

Learn more about Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy:
https://growingwithproficiency.com/academy

The Academy is open through July 21 at 11:55 PM ET.

Join us for the Academy Summer Conference on July 24 and 25, plus ongoing professional development, planning support, classroom resources, and the Creciendo curriculum.

Questions about the Academy?
Email support@growingwithproficiency.com

Follow me on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/claudiamelliott/

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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, build connection, support communication, create moments for reset and regulation, and give students time to consolidate and reflect.

Because a sustainable world language class is not built on one perfect activity. It is built on intentional routines that help us use the language in ways that are comprehensible, communicative, and connected.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why one great activity is not the same as a sustainable class
• What pedagogical routines are and how they support language acquisition
• How to create repeated spaces for comprehensible input, connection, communication, reset, and reflection
• Why routines need both consistency and flexibility
• How activities like free reading, Calendar Talk, Question of the Day, Star Student Interview, brain breaks, Write and Discuss, free writes, and exit tickets can become part of a sustainable classroom rhythm
• How to start mapping your own weekly routine system without adding more overwhelm

• Free workshop for Spanish teachers: How to Create a Sustainable Spanish Class That Is Comprehensible, Communicative, and Connected
  Register here: growingwithproficiency.com/tallergratuito
• Join the waitlist for Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy
  growingwithproficiency.com/academy
• Cuéntame podcast by Marta Ruiz Yedinak
• Mote Chrome Extension for recording quick listening activities
• Episode with Dr. Bill VanPatten on the two-myths about language acquisition
• Episode with Chelsea Lawrence about Silent Discussion
• Blog post by John Cowart about using data with free writes

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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 intención: creando comunidad, confianza y conexión; usando rutinas que sostienen la clase; siendo flexibles con los grupos que tenemos; y usando contenido culturalmente relevante como el centro de la comunicación.

✨ Takeaways

1. Crear comunidad desde el principio cambia la energía de la clase.
2. La flexibilidad nos ayuda a responder a los estudiantes reales que tenemos.
3. Entender la adquisición nos libera de sentir que tenemos que cubrir toda la gramática.
4. La cultura puede ser el centro de la comunicación, no un extra.
5. Las rutinas bajan la carga mental y sostienen la clase durante el año.

📚 Recursos

• Taller gratuito en vivo: growingwithproficiency.com/tallergratuito
• Lista de espera de la Academia: growingwithproficiency.com/academy
• Instagram: @claudiamelliott

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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 and adults acquire language in completely different ways.

We also talk about what this means for world language teachers who are trying to teach with comprehensible input, communication, and proficiency in mind while still navigating textbooks, pacing guides, standards, and assessments.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

✨ Why learners do not acquire language by memorizing grammar rules

✨ Dr. VanPatten’s “linguistic acorn” metaphor

✨ Why acquisition takes time, input, and interaction

✨ What teachers can do when they are required to follow a traditional curriculum

✨ How to think about assessment when students acquire language at different rates

✨ Why teachers need to understand acquisition in order to advocate for their programs

Whether you are new to comprehensible input or have been teaching with an acquisition-driven approach for years, this episode will give you clarity, encouragement, and language to keep moving toward a more communicative classroom.

So grab your cafecito and join us for this important conversation about second language acquisition, comprehensible input, grammar, communication, and the myths that may still be shaping our classrooms.

🎧 Press play and let’s grow together.

Resources

📌 Dr. Bill VanPatten’s books on Amazon:
While We’re on the Topic
The Nature of Language
Language Acquisition in a Nutshell
Cuentos cortos

📌 Download the free Teacher Guide:
https://growingwithproficiency.com/teacherguide

📌 Join the waitlist for Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy:
https://growingwithproficiency.com/academy

📌 Follow Claudia on Instagram @claudiamelliott

📌 Growing With CI FB Community

📌Blog

📌 Teacher Pay Teachers Store

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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 vocabulary, grammar, and textbook lessons, my students still weren't communicating in Spanish the way I hoped they would.

That realization led me down a path of professional growth, curiosity, and discovery that completely changed how I think about language teaching, comprehensible input, and second language acquisition.

In this episode, you'll hear about:

✨ The powerful teaching advice my mother gave me that still shapes my classroom today

✨ Why following the textbook wasn't producing the communication outcomes I wanted

✨ The moment I discovered second language acquisition research and how it transformed my practice

✨ How comprehensible input and meaningful communication support language acquisition

✨ Why asking one personal question every day can strengthen relationships and increase student engagement

✨ The importance of professional learning and finding a community that supports your growth

✨ Three practical ways to begin creating a more communicative and comprehension-based language classroom

Whether you're new to proficiency-based teaching or you've been teaching world languages for years, this conversation will encourage you to reflect on your practice, embrace growth, and focus on what truly helps students acquire language.

If you've ever felt frustrated that your students know about the language but struggle to use it, this episode is for you.

So grab your cafecito and join us for an honest conversation about language acquisition, communicative language teaching, comprehensible input, professional growth, and the courage to change.

🎧 Press play and let's grow together.

Resources

📌 Student reflection survey.

📌 Download the free Teacher Guide:
https://growingwithproficiency.com/teacherguide

📌 Join the waitlist for Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy:
https://growingwithproficiency.com/academy

📌 Follow Claudia on Instagram @claudiamelliott

📌 Growing With CI FB Community

📌Blog

📌 Teacher Pay Teachers Store