FACULTY FOCUS

Upper School Spanish Teacher Miriam Pallant

BY MIRIAM PALLANT

Somewhere in the midst of my own high school experience, I remember expressing to a friend my intentions to pursue a career in teaching. This friend asked if I thought it would be boring to teach the same thing year after year. Aside from a general suspicion that my most dynamic teachers were likely not recycling lesson plans from one year to the next, I could not quite craft a satisfying response to that inquiry from my vantage point as a student.

Now, nearly a decade into my own teaching career, I have my answer. I know now that teaching the same course more than once does not imply a repetitive monotony. In fact, doing so allows for the experimentation, fine-tuning and constant pursuit of pedagogical equilibrium that I have come to appreciate as one of the most satisfying elements of my work. More importantly, each September gifts a new group of students who enter the classroom in a distinct cultural context. The exciting challenge of approaching every year in a way that acknowledges and responds to the complex realities of students’ lives makes each cycle wonderfully unique.

September 2022 was the fourth time I had the opportunity to begin afresh with a group of Spanish II students at Tower Hill, and I had one goal in mind: to center interpersonal connection in my classroom. Responding to the reality of the distance necessitated by the past several years, I wanted to embrace every opportunity for communication and collaboration. Furthermore, the lead-up to this academic year had presented two energizing travel opportunities, one a trip to Spain with Tower Hill students and colleagues in March 2022, and the other a linguistics course for teachers in Montevideo, Uruguay the following July as part of Tower Hill’s Learning for Life Program. In planning the trajectory of the course, I committed to finding and sharing the feelings of renewed discovery I had watched students experience in Spain and that I had felt myself when traveling. After all, the joy of learning language is finding new connections and opening new channels of communication.

As I began to search for a classroom model that would be responsive to this goal, I landed upon the Flipped Classroom. Students would take notes with guided videos at home, and they would collaborate on application activities in class. The time that I used to spend explaining the intricacies of grammar (which is fundamental to language learning but not by nature a collaborative endeavor) would happen at home, thus freeing up time in class for collaboration on application activities and cultural exploration in community.

With this newfound time, students work in groups listening to podcasts that range in theme from women breaking into a male-dominated barbeque culture in Argentina to a mayor in a small town in Spain grappling with the role of the siesta in an ever-modernizing society. We have had the chance to increase speaking opportunities that put into practice the grammar we are learning and have found time to work on projects such as a video blog of our daily routines and an exploration of where our food comes from. As part of our health unit, students will create a brochure in Spanish about the different wellness resources available at Tower Hill, and they’ll put together instructional presentations about how to use our favorite Apps when we learn about technology.

Macy Shi ’26 said, “I am able to have a better foundation for the grammar that is crucial to master the language. As a student that takes longer to absorb information, I benefit from the advantages of being able to take my time and pause the educational videos in order to make sure my notes are correct and that I understand the material. Another advantage of this method of teaching is to have better clarification when practicing what we learned. After taking notes at home, we always practice the skills learned in the next class at school. When practicing, I don’t feel rushed and can always ask questions to make sure I truly understand information. Overall, I prefer the “flipped classroom,” especially for learning difficult subjects like Spanish.”

Changing the orientation of instruction has aligned my teaching with the priorities that I have seen students express time and again for their own language learning: increased speaking proficiency, stronger listening comprehension and intercultural exploration. I have relished seeing students work in different groups, guiding each other through a variety of activities. Students seem to appreciate the model, as well.

Matthew Laird ’25 said, “I enjoy Mrs. Pallant’s unique teaching style, as it allows me to not only learn how to understand Spanish but also implement it in my own conversations. Mrs. Pallant has our class strengthen these skills through activities like watching movies in Spanish with subtitles, trying and describing different foods, and speaking with our other classmates with the help of conversation starters.”

In addition, Emma Supernavage ’25 described her experience: “This dynamic has given me the opportunity to speak Spanish in a more casual manner rather than it feeling like an academic requirement. I feel very connected to my classmates because in class we navigate challenges together rather than independently. I have definitely benefited from the supportive yet productive environment in the classroom.”

This year has energized me and nourished my teacher’s soul more than any other in my career. I have been anything but bored. I am forever grateful for the cyclical nature of my work and even more so for the students who come each year and give me the opportunity to keep learning.