La Maestra Loca LLC

Currently teaching Middle School Spanish at Bricolage Academy in New Orleans, LA. I'm a teacher just like you! Which makes my approach to developing resources unique! I am creating them first for my students and then, if they're a hit, making them available to YOU! I'm in my 11th year of teaching, and I've always taught using Acquisition Driven Instruction. I love what I do!

Acquisition Driven Instruction (ADI) is the teaching methodology and approach that I use in my classroom. I also use Organic World Language (OWL) strategies. I am constantly trying to revise my teaching practices to provide the best combination of methodologies to my students. I want my students to ACQUIRE the Spanish language rather than learn about it. There are many branches under the CI umbrella including, TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling), Circling, PQA (Personalized Questions and answers), Clip Chat, and so much more. The most important thing that you should know about how my classroom works is that I am speaking in SPANISH 90% of the time. I use high frequency words and my students acquire grammar only in context because it isn't explicitly taught in my class. So often when I speak to adults they tell me that they took a language in high school or college, but “can’t speak a word”. That is VERY normal. Language teachers hear this ALL the time. Next, they proceed to tell me that they are just not good at language. That is impossible. If you can ACQUIRE one language you can ACQUIRE them all. It is all about how you are taught. I failed Spanish all through school. I struggled and worked SO hard because I desperately wanted to be “good” and communicate. The problem was that I wasn’t being taught to communicate. I was being taught ABOUT Spanish. I was learning the grammar and conjugations, and all of the rules. I wasn’t acquiring the language for communication. My failure in Spanish is the reason I teach the way I do. EVERYONE can acquire a second language.

2018 WL teacher of the year in Louisiana.

2013- Masters of Education- Curriculum and Instruction- Endorsement in ELA- University of Denver 2011- Bachelors Degree- Spanish and Criminology- University of Denver 2007- Associate of Arts Degree- Colorado Mountain College

I grew up in a small mountain town called Leadville, in Colorado. I am accustomed to altitudes of at least 10,000 feet, and ten months of snow is quite normal. Needless to say, I have been melting since I moved to Louisiana. I am a step mommy to a BEAUTIFUL little girl named Isla Rose and I'm a #BOYMOM to Memphis Roy and I have the world's most loving and supportive husband, named Paul Williamson who just so happens to be my barber! I love traveling the world and finding adventures and I also LOVE eating, anything and everything!