While an 80-minute block period in Spanish might be daunting to some, Horseheads High School teacher Vickie Mike thrives on it.

Her class moves as fast as her Spanish: She's a whirlwind of interactive, hands-on and real-world activities that keep her students engaged, having fun and growing more and more fluent in a second language.

"She's unbelievably enthusiastic, always giving 120 percent — no, 200 percent," said junior Kei Phillip.

"I just feel like Señora Mike really wants us to succeed," said 11th-grader Meghan McDarby. "She's always looking for new ways to make it happen."

• Learn more about the NYSUT members being honored at Representative Assembly 2009, April 2-4 in Buffalo.

"The Teacher of the Year program does an excellent job of showcasing the magic that goes on in classrooms around the state," said NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi. "Perhaps the greatest testament to Vickie's magic is that she's inspired so many of her former students to become teachers."

The secret, Mike said, is to keep things relevant — and moving.

As class begins during a recent visit, she launches into a story (in rapid-fire Spanish, of course) explaining how a scary thing happened the night before.

In true ghost story fashion, she tells students how she suddenly woke up and heard a noise downstairs. Then footsteps on the stairs. Her heart was racing. She thought about calling the police — until she realized it was just Señor Mike who had gotten up for a glass of water.

Throughout the dramatic storytelling, all eyes focus on the 29-year teaching veteran. She intersperses questions such as, "Was it a nightmare?" Students' answers show they are following her every step of the way.

Using technology

The storytelling is just a warm-up act. They quickly shift to homework review and Señora calls on a few students to share their own "What happened last night?" experiences.

After a brief discussion, the students boot up their computers and begin reading their passages into a microphone. Wearing headphones, they play back their recording and if they're not satisfied, they record a second take.

All the while, Señora Mike walks around the room, listening, gently correcting an incorrect verb. She spends extra minutes quietly helping a struggling student.

Señora quickly notices a trend. Too many students are speaking in the present tense. She stops the recording session and sneaks in a quick grammar lesson on the imperfect tense. Several students record their work again.

Others move on to downloading and translating real-life conversations from the streets of Spain. Some only need to listen once; others need to replay it three times. "It's differentiated instruction at its best," Mike said.

From there, the class quickly shifts to "pair activities" where partners share a two-sided card with different versions of a beach scene. Each student describes the scene to their partner and sees whether they can come up with 10 differences.

On one side, an ice cream cone has three scoops; in the other there's only one. Señora gives students a sheet of vocabulary words necessary for an effective conversation. The students look more like they're enjoying a game of "Guess Who" than working through a challenging assignment.

The rest of the class zooms by with a variety of games and cooperative activities. Once students complete the assignment, they have time to continue working through interactive vocabulary matching games on the computer. Their progress is tracked so Mike can check later to see what they're doing, or identify areas where they're having trouble.

She can leave students feedback; progress is noted in an electronic gradebook.

Keeping it real

Aside from games and interactive activities, Señora Mike is well known for keeping it real.

It's not unusual for students to listen to the latest Nelly Furtado song on YouTube or be involved in an online exchange program with a Peace Corps volunteer in Nicaragua.

They recently took a virtual field trip with a Spanish-speaking docent at the Museum of Art in Cleveland.

"There's so much available online," Mike said. "With a little creativity, the possibilities are endless."

For example, she said, colleague Daniel Leon-Molina has his Spanish 2 students talk over the Web with his mom, who speaks no English, in Venezuela. "The kids love it," Leon-Molina said. "It's certainly realistic."

"We're not just entertaining the students. There's a reason for everything we do," said Mike, whose strategies are proven year after year with excellent scores on both the Spanish Regents Exam and Advanced Placement exam.

Señora also believes in real-life work to enhance instruction. High school students teach French, German and Spanish in an after-school language enrichment program for fifth and sixth graders.

To help middle-level students enhance their listening and speaking skills, high school students videotaped authentic scenes, like a couple at the local airport leaving for their honeymoon or a couple of girls talking to a salesperson at the mall.

"Seeing the high school kids create and perform the dialog was so much more interesting for the beginning level learners," Mike said. "And it gave the younger kids true modeling, something to aspire to in a couple years."

"Let's face it, this generation is 'born digital,' and we have to focus on what works and go with it," said Mike, who conducts workshops on how to integrate technology in the classroom.

She said she's fortunate her suburban district west of Binghamton provides a computer lab and traveling laptops for classes, but she noted much of the software and Web programs she uses are free. (See side box for recommendations.)

"Of course, technology can never replace the teacher. We need to be there to facilitate and make the connections to learning," Mike said. "We have to 'teach differently' with this new generation."

In her reign as New York State Teacher of the Year, that's the message Mike will deliver as she makes speeches to education and other groups. She's also calling for a more realistic assessment system so students can be judged by more than just a snapshot standardized test.

"We have an achievement gap, but we also have an assessment gap," Mike said. "We have to figure out how to do more authentic assessment that includes all the rich data about a child, such as service learning or reflections in a reading journal."

When she goes to the White House as part of the National Teacher of the Year program later this spring, Mike will have a chance to discuss education issues with other state teachers of the year. No doubt, reauthorization of the federal No Child Left Behind act will be a hot topic.

"As part of my message, I try to focus on the positive and I believe that NCLB should focus on "Every Child Progresses,'" Mike says. "The curriculum must be anchored not just in what our students know but also in their ability and confidence to learn something new."