After attending @martinabex 's workshop on Comprehensible Input,  I reflected on my teaching and how I have made input comprehensible to my students.  One of my favorites is the traveling and airport unit.  At the end of the unit students will be able to "make" their way through an airport by checking in, showing identification, they will make it through security and get on the plane.  All the while, they are coming in contact with others who have to do variations of the same thing--all in the target language.  The only way to make this more real is to get them to a real airport.  Here are the brief logistics of this authentic unit and assessment.
Day one
Watch an input video of me going through the airport with a dialogue.  Click to watch.
Fill out a passport application in TL and receive a passport. 
Day two
Book a flight with hotel on a website in the target language
Day 3-5
Work with vocabulary and target structures to acquire proficiency
Day 6
Prep for improvisation.  Each student receives a note card with a role and a task to accomplish.  In order to accomplish this task, the students will have to interact.  Some example cards are:  the pilot who is late for the flight, a passenger who is flying for the first time and asks to take pictures with everyone, a passenger who has contraband fruit in their bag, the customs agent with a dog who catches a person with contraband fruit and so on.  The roles are secret and the tasks are kept secret.  The prep time is for students to make costumes and gather props that will help people decipher his or her role.
Day 7
Go Time!  My room is set up to resemble an airport and the students must accomplish their task using their level of the target language.  They are expected to handle unexpected situations and interact with each other.
Assessing
I have a check list for each student and I make sure I circulate throughout the room.  Additionally, I have a student assistant film on the opposite side of the room that I am working to make sure we cover everyone. If I need more evaluation time,  I like to throw unexpected situations at them or I personally interact with the students to whom I haven't listen.  Most of the time, students will find ways to sustain the conversations so that I hear them.  I haven't missed one yet!

This is one activity that my new students ask about at the beginning of the year.  While it has evolved and gotten better, I have kept it in my curriculum for 4 years.  Why?  It works.  Plain and simple.  On my end of the year survey, students note that this was one of the units that they feel the mastered the fastest.  Why?  Because it is comprehensible and real.  What do you do that keeps it comprehensible and real?

With summer vacation well under way, I have relaxed into sleeping late, taking long vacations, reading anything I want, going to the spa, beach, etc.  You know: loafing and lounging.  Maybe, if I lived in another dimension.  Nope. Not here.  I have attended an awesome 2 day workshop by @martinabex on Comprehensible Input, am reading The Innovator's Mindset by George Couros and reading Marina by  Carlos Ruiz Zafón (a Spanish Language novel), am watching El gran hotel on Netflix (a series like Downton Abbey out of Spain), and have just purchased 3 albums of Spanish artist rock and Christian rock  music to work on my listening skills. So, basically,  I don't have my summers "off"  I am using my summer to improve.  I want to be better in my teaching than I was the year before:  always learning, always improving. I don't want to just open a file and dig out all of the old.  I want  the students that I have had in lower levels of Spanish to say " that was even better" when they take the advanced levels. A teacher never stops learning, adapting, and changing. When one does, I believe, it is time for that teacher to evaluate their worth as an educator.  How can we instill intrinsic  motivation in our students, if we don't have it ourselves?

En español:

Con la vacaciones ya empezaron, yo he relajado por dormir tarde, tomar vacaciones, leer lo que quiera, ir al spa, la playa, etc.  Sabes: haciendo nada importante.  Quizas, si yo viviera en otra dimensión.  No. No aquí. Yo he asistido un taller asombroso  por @martinabex,  Enseñanza comprensible para idiomas; estoy leyendo The Innovator's Mindset por George Couros y Marina por Carlos Ruiz Zafón (una novella española); estoy viendo El gran hotel en Netflix (similiar a Downton Abbey de España) y acabo de comprar 3 álbumes de música de artistas españoles y rock de cristiano.  Pues, basciamente, no tengo mis veranos 'libres'.  Uso mi verano para mejorarme.  Quiero ser mejor en mi enseñanza que fui el año pasado: siempre aprendiendo, siempre mejorando.  No quiero justo abrir una carpeta y sacar todas de las actividades antiguas.  Quiero que mis estudiantes que yo tuvieron en niveles básicos de español digan 'eso fue tan mejor' cuando ellos tomaran niveles avanzados.  Un maestro nunca para de aprender, adaptar, ni cambiar.  Cuando uno hace eso, yo creo, es el tiempo por ese maestro para evaluar su valor como un educador.  ¿Cómo inculcamos la motivación intrinsica en nuestros estudiantes, si no lo tengamos?