Languages Online - Español

I came across another gem today while I was looking for some practice on regular preterite for my Spanish II class.  Languages Online - Español came up on my search and there was an entire interactive online unit on preterite alone.  I poked around the site some more and found that it is a veritable treasure trove of activities for all levels of Spanish.  More so if you use the Caminos series of texts, which I do not, but the resources are there for those who do.

There are also resources for advanced Spanish - readings, vocabulary, culture . . . wow!

Lastly, if you happen to be one of these folks who teaches multiple languages, there are links there for French, German, Italian, and Latin too.

The site author is Franciso Villatoro and I just want to express my thanks!  

Hast pronto amigos,

--AnneK

DJ Agustin - Dubstep En Tu Idioma

What a find!  This weekend I was surfing the web and I came across DJ Agustin's page and he has a free download of four Spanish songs in MP3 format which he has remixed to dubstep.

 If you have not heard of dubstep yet, you will.  It is the latest music craze that involves remixing songs with reverberations, prominent base, and clips of other things dubbed in.  My oldest daughter brought it home with her from college and at first I was annoyed by it and asked her to turn it off.  (Some of it can be quite relentless, in my opinion.)  But slowly I have warmed to it and when I told the students today that I was going to share some Spanish dubstep with them, there was a cheer of approval.  Some of the students wanted the link so they could download the songs for themselves, which tells me I hit a homerun.

In my class students listen to music while they work on their warm-up activities.  I try to keep things fresh and varied.  We listen to mariachi, tango, flamenco, pop, rap, and now dubstep too.  DJ Agustin has a mix tape on his site to download too but I have not yet had the time to download it and listen to it.  So I do not know if it is appropriate for the classroom and I cannot offer any critique on it just yet, but I am optimistic.

I apologize for my prolonged absence here at Confesiones y Realidades.  Life lately has been . . . interesante.  Let's hope sunny skies lie ahead!

Hasta pronto amigos,

--AnneK