Translating Spanish into Mosaic: Initial challenges and ideas

When I first expressed interest in Mosaic, I told my principal I would like to start with a small group of students that already had experience with Spanish. Our feeder offers Level 1 Spanish spread out over 2 years; my thought was that I would have students that had either one or both years of middle school Spanish completed when they walked into Mosaic. No such luck. The demographics just aren't there: we don't have enough students enrolled that meet that criterion.

Enter challenge number 1:

Brain Rules: Exercise and CV's Mosaic Collective

Image by "PublicDomainPictures". link

I just started Brain Rules by John Medina, and it already has me thinking.

The first section of the book is about brain power and exercise. The information - that in essence, exercise provides more oxygen to the brain and therefore makes it work better - wasn't new to me, but it was something I had brushed off in the past as implausible to incorporate regularly in my classroom. I got nervous thinking about taking 30 students on a walk and expecting them all to get the benefit of exercise AND learn Spanish. With CV's Mosaic Collective though, it seems like anything is possible!

Castle View's Mosaic Collective... the muddling begins [for me]

Image licensed by Albert Bridge under Creative Commons. link

The name of this post is key... Amazing teachers have been refining and developing the Mosaic Collective, an academy alternative, for well over 3 years I believe and I just found my way into the beautiful mess. Michael Schneider wrote a lovely post describing the project titled "What is Mosaic?" if you're curious about the basics; I thought it better to let the pro explain than the newbie.