Teachers Pay Teachers

Amigos, we all know that we didn't go into the teaching profession with visions of dollar signs in our heads.  We love young people, love our subject matter, enjoy being creative and nurturing, and we want to make a positive impact on the future . . . but we knew we weren't going to get rich in the process.  Am I right?

Still, there are mortgages, light bills, orthodontics, car payments, school clothes, and a thousand other things that mercilessly deplete our bank accounts without regard to how much positive work we are doing with our students or how well we meet the standards.

I'm a creative sort of person and I've been making my own materials for years, many of which I share here with my readers for free.  I think I speak for most teachers when I say that we naturally want to share and to enrich the education world.  Some of my resources I have put extra effort into making suitable for sale, and I have put those products on Teachers Pay Teachers in my digital store.

These are some of my best efforts at creating material that I believe will be useful to my fellow Spanish teachers.  I think they are interesting, beautiful, and they rock the standards.  But I don't want to brag.  :-)

Los Colores

Teach the colors in a cultural context with beautiful photos

La Navidad

A photographic tour of Christmas and other "winter" holidays (text in English)

El Arte Subacuático 

A multimedia lesson on art and tourism set in Cancun, Mexico

El Día de Acción de Gracias

A reading and exploration lesson with a Thanksgiving theme

Winter Holidays Power Point Backgrounds

Make your lessons seasonal, colorful and beautiful

I also have free lessons in my TPT store, such gems as: Car Gar Zar Verbs in the Preterite (a free grammar lesson that includes a quiz and a culture extension), a free sample pack of Power Point backgrounds to make your lessons lovely, The Beautiful Colors of Mexico Power Point that shows some lovely photography so students can appreciate the diversity of Mexico and leave behind their stereotypes.

It seems like we are all so hesitant to pay for something online, as if everything in the digital world should be free or cost, at most, 99 cents.  At the same time we mindlessly shell out $5 or more for coffee drinks and $4 for a single gallon of gas.  The mindset is a mystery to me.

Your time is worthwhile.  Don't waste it by reinventing the wheel every year!  Honestly, ask me how long it took me to create the Los Colores Power Point presentation.  (Hours and hours, amigos.  I had to search the web for the best pictures to represent each color and also demonstrate the culture of a multitude of Spanish-speaking countries.  I wrote sentences that would be informative and interesting, but not beyond the abilities of beginning students.  I formatted images, backgrounds, slide order . . . made a quiz.  I cross referenced the standards and wrote extension activities.  I contacted photographers and wrote attribution for their photos.)

Could you do it yourself?  Yes, of course you could.  But it would take you hours and hours . . . or you could pay $3.50 and get the one that has already been made.  Use it with all your Spanish I classes, then use it again next year and the year after that.  Use it as a quick review with your Spanish II classes too.  Your lesson will be colorful, cultural, contextual, and your students will appreciate getting to close the textbook for a few minutes.

Think about it, will you?

Hasta pronto,

--AnneK