Vivo Para Enseñar Español . . . ¿No?

We teachers have been conditioned not to complain.  And really, it's in our nature to quietly sacrifice for the good of others.  It is one of the things that makes teachers such amazing people.  We never got into this job because we were going to earn a big money, have great prestige, or command great power.  That is just not who we are.

But, years ago I was watching the Oprah show and something was said that has stayed with me forever.  I'm paraphrasing here, but basically You cannot continue to help others unless you take time to fill your own tank.

The powerful part of this statement is in its simplicity and it's obvious truth.  It's not about caring enough.  Nor is it about organization, time-management, or even love.  One simply cannot go on working forever without attending to personal needs from time to time.

I was recently reading a Philosophy of Teaching statement by a fellow teacher in which this quote was highlighted, "Teaching Spanish is my life."   . . . wow, really?  No interests outside school, no faith community, no hobbies, no loved ones?  Teaching Spanish is your life?

I'm passionate about quality education, creating the best experience for my students, showing them love and compassion, and making materials that will be engaging for them.  But it is not my life, and I don't think I would be healthy if I didn't have an outside life.

But, more and more, I find that my outside life is eroding away.   I haven't had time to knit, make jewelry, or paint in a long time.  A friend of mine from my World of Warcraft days (yes, it's true), was chatting with me on Facebook and trying to lure me back in.  And I stopped to wonder how I ever had time for that.  All I seem to do with myself now is schoolwork - in and out of school.

Do you have a teachers' lounge at your school?  A real teachers' lounge - not a workroom, a place for teachers to come together and relax.  Do you sit down and eat lunch with your colleagues or do you gulp down a couple of fast bites at your desk while you wait for a student to show up to take a quiz?  How many nights per quarter are you spending at school doing Open House, conferences, meetings, dance chaperoning, sports duty, watching the recitals and plays?

And my school is cutting into our planning time in a serious way.  It seems they cannot find enough substitutes, so they tap us to cover classes.  And I'm losing planning time on Thursday to give the ACT-PLAN.  I will also lose planning time to read tests out loud for students in other classes.  And again when we have mandatory meetings during out planning.

So when do we do our planning?  Well, that's easy - we do it at home.  I take time away from my six-year-old son, my elderly mother, my beloved husband and my pets.  I take time away from knitting, television, sculpting.  I take so much time away from myself that I hardly know who I am apart from my job.  (No hyperbole - I really do lose touch with the real me, far too often.)  So, even though I think it's not sane, it looks like teaching Spanish actually IS my life.

I am beginning to feel like I have gotten into an unstable partnership.  I still love my partner, but this is no longer a healthy relationship.

--AnneK

Sopa de Palabras - El Otoño

¡Hola amigos!  Fall break has come to an end and the students filed back into class today with all the enthusiasm of oral surgery.  It was grim during first period, let me tell you!

It occurred to me that the students might need to ease themselves back into the school routine gradually.  So I decided to give them a bit of a break today with a puzzle.  And I encouraged them to sit and chat with their friends as they worked.

This seemed to do the trick.  Grumpy faces softened into smiles, they sought out their friends, and they sat down together to conquer the puzzle and to get caught up with one another after three weeks of break.

I share the Spanish 1 puzzle with you today.  Click on the picture or click here to download it.

It's nothing special at all - but if you are looking for a gap-filler activity or a small distraction, this might fit the bill.

I also had my students do a little conjugation activity in which they had a maple leaf template that was colored and cut out.  Each point on the leaf had a subject pronoun and students wrote their verb in the middle.  They bent down each leaf to write the conjugation on the other side.

It looked a little like this:

 I thought I might make a cute bulletin board display with all the fall leaves on it, but I got some interesting leaves in colors not commonly seen in nature.  Ja ja ja . . .

The above is not a link.  It's just an example since I got the idea from another teacher; I don't want you to think that I made this one up myself.  She calls herself The Traveling Classroom and her leaf has a happy face on it and is much cuter than my above example.  You can get a copy of the template and do the activity in your own classroom by clicking this link.  She has another leaf template and a lot of really cool hands-on activities for Spanish class also.

And that's going to do it for me today.  I'm exhausted, of course.  Mondays are never easy.  Mondays after a three-week break are brutal.

Hasta pronto,

--AnneK

Otoño por Octavio Paz

Este poema por Octavio Paz merece contemplación.

En llamas, en otoños incendiados,
arde a veces mi corazón,
puro y solo. El viento lo despierta,
toca su centro y lo suspende
en luz que sonríe para nadie:
¡cuánta belleza suelta!

Busco unas manos,
una presencia, un cuerpo,
lo que rompe los muros
y hace nacer las formas embriagadas,
un roce, un son, un giro, un ala apenas;
busco dentro mí,
huesos, violines intocados,
vértebras delicadas y sombrías,
labios que sueñan labios,
manos que sueñan pájaros...

Y algo que no se sabe y dice «nunca»
cae del cielo,
de ti, mi Dios y mi adversario.

Unas imágenes y pensamientos bonitos sobre la temporada:

¿Debo mencionar que vivo en el sur de los Estados Unidos y que ahora empezamos el otoño?  Sé que, para la mayoría de la gente que lee aquí, el otoño ya empezó hace semanas.  Pero hoy vi las primeras hojas amarillas y me he puesto contenta.

Hasta pronto,

--AnneK

Memoria - Juego Profesional Para Principiantes

Amigos míos, I have a big announcement.  I have decided to enter the world of educational game design!  I started small and created a simple memory matching game with basic Spanish vocabulary as my first endeavor.  I wanted to see what quality the cards were going to be, what the printing would look like and overall how pleased I was going to be with the product.  And, in a word, I'm delighted. 

 

Buy Memoria Palabras Básicas

As you can see above, the colors are brilliant and the printing is sharp as a tack.  The cards are printed on game-quality card stock and the corners are rounded nicely.

This game has 48 cards in it - 24 pairs of words that students learn early in their studies (papel, árbol, zapato, bicicleta, etc.).  They are perfect for elementary students or for Spanish 1 students at the beginning of their language-learning journey.  And, because you would never use all 48 cards in a single game (That would be crazy; trust me.), you have enough cards to run two or three games at the same time.  If you are dealing with little kids, you could even run four groups of students playing simultaneously.  Fun for all!

Buy Memoria Palabras Básicas

I like to put card games at one center/station when my students are going through a circuit.  But they are also great for fast-finishers, for an incentive, or for those days where half of your class is away and you want to do something relevant but not something that will get them ahead of the rest of the group.  (This happens to me when we have an assembly, when there is standardized testing going on somewhere in the building, or when there is severe weather.)  That's my son above to the right.  He has been playing the heck out of this game any time someone agrees to play with him.  But, it's a good game for soloists too.

Buy Memoria Palabras Básicas

I used colorful and iconic art with Spanish on both cards.  The idea, after all, is to learn the vocabulary in Spanish.  The card with the picture and the word helps students to make the association, while the card with the vocabulary alone encourages them to recall the meaning of the word.  In other words, they have to learn the words to succeed.  They can't rely on English (because there is none) and they can't simply match pictures. 

I wish I could tell you this was only a couple dollars . . . but I can't because I'm not a big game company yet.  I have to pay for small print runs, which are expensive to do.  But it comes in at $17.99 and that pays for materials, printing, packaging, labor, and a small profit for both the Game Crafter and for myself.  Keep in mind that you can play 2-3 groups of kids simultaneously.  (4 if you have preschoolers or kindergartners)  So, you can get a lot of use out of it, while bringing color and fun to your classroom.

And guess what?  You can play Pesca (Go Fish) with these cards too.  I made a rules sheet for you to download if you wish.

I know that we teachers buy a lot of our own classroom materials and we can't afford all the games and supplies that we might like.  I would love it if you would buy my game.  But, if you can't afford this right now and you can't talk your principal into funding it, I understand.  Please put it on your wishlist and remember me next year at budget time.  I would be very, very happy if you would spread the word about this game on social media.  Tweet, pin, reblog, share, whatever . . . I thank you!

And, I have four more games in various stages of completeness right now.  They are waiting for the right moment for me to share them with you, so please don't stay gone for too long.

--AnneK

Autoestima . . . ¡Vamos a Cultivarla!

As an adult, like everyone else, I naturally go through my ups and downs emotionally.  There are days when I am inspired and excited about everything going on around me.  Other days I don't feel like I have the emotional strength to drag myself back into the classroom.  I imagine that is normal and that most people can relate to it.

But, looking back on my teen years, I recall those emotional swings were much greater and those times when I was going through a negative phase were very bleak indeed.  As adults we have the benefit of experience and perspective, so we know that we can and will survive the pain we are going through.  We also have developed a "toolbox" of strategies that help us cope and get ourselves moving in a positive trajectory.   But teens do not have that experience, that perspective, or that toolbox.

The problem is compounded when we consider that many times our teen students are hearing negative messages from their classmates and even at home from their families.  Knowing this makes our jobs as teachers even more daunting in their immensity and importance.

Why?  Sometimes we are the only positive voices in the lives of our students.

It's tempting to make a quip, a joke, or to tell them to snap out of it.  And, to be fair, if it's something small that might be an appropriate response to some kids.  But most of the time, kids need someone to talk to and something positive to do with themselves.  This is one of the reason I am such an advocate of the arts in schools, but I digress.

In the meantime, I believe we need to cultivate self-esteem and positive self-talk.  And no, I'm not talking about the "everybody gets a trophy" sort of self-esteem training that gets such a negative response in the public arena.  I mean, "You are a valuable human being and your talents, opinions, and contributions are worthwhile."

 The challenge, and it's a big one, is being authentic and not some sort of talking doll at the front of the classroom.  Kids know when you are being real and they know when you are being fake; they honestly do.  So we have to make sure that we are speaking from the heart even if it makes us a little vulnerable and teary-eyed.  It makes a difference.

Here are some thoughts you might want to share with your classes, but don't forget to make a one-to-one connection with those students who need a boost of confidence too.

And please, don't forget these lessons for yourselves too, amigos.  Value yourself and your work as a teacher.  The observations, the tests, the data mining, the portfolios, the evaluations . . . you are much more than all of that put together and your work makes a difference in the lives of your students.

Con amor,

--AnneK

Conecta Cuatro - El Juego Tradicional (con verbos)

I was out and about on the web today looking at various games and mining for ideas.  I came across a couple of things, but one thing in particular caught my attention - Connect Four.  It's an old game, really as old as they come - the idea is to get four in a row while keeping your opponent from doing the same.

It occurred to me that this could be accomplished by conjugating verbs on a grid.  Why not?  I see teachers do this with Battleship and Tic Tac Toe all the time.

We are reviewing the preterite in my community college class, so this will be a great way to make the conjugation practice fun!  Click here or on the picture below to download this file.

Students will each need a different color of ink to play.  They decide who goes first, and that person begins by conjugating a verb in one of the boxes.  The opponent does the same afterwards.  Each in turn will fill a box, trying to connect four in a row and prevent their classmate from doing the same.  Traditionally the game is played by two people but, in the case of an odd number of students, I see no reason why three people couldn't play together.

I created a set of four boards that will all fit onto one sheet of paper, to save paper and long copy lines.  They should only play on one board at a time.  (This seems obvious, I guess.  But I have had a lot of unique students trying unorthodox things in the past.  LOL!)

This is a simple idea that I whipped up in about ten minutes.  These particular boards are for a final review of the preterite, but you could easily make them with any verbs and any tense.  Easy, good, fun!  I only wonder why I didn't think of it earlier.

Hasta pronto,

--AnneK

Doscientos

I have been away for a month now and I have felt the strong pull to blog here but two things have prevented me from doing so.  The first is that it's been a tough quarter for me; lots of preps, lots of students, lots of special situations, and very little time.  (Isn't that always the story though?)  The second reason is that this is a special post and I wanted to do something special to celebrate it.

This is post number 200!

Back when I did my 100th post, I created a list of 100 craft links for teachers to use in their Spanish classes.  That was an enormous chore and I was not keen to take on something like that again.  So days turned into weeks, turned into a month and still nothing.  Blah!

So today I have compelled myself to blog now, even though I don't have 200 of anything to share with you.  I'm still going to share something special, because I feel the need to celebrate my 200th post.

So I have decided to share some of my works in progress with you.  All of the following are destined to be paid products some day soon over on Teachers Pay Teachers, once I've put in final details and a teachers' guide.  Some of them need notes sheets to accompany them or other little things that just haven't come together yet.  But all of them are very usable right now and, even though I haven't given them over to my testers yet, they are professional and polished.

And one other thing, these are here for my regular blog readers only.  I'm only going to make these available here on the blog for 30 days.  Once that time has expired, I will take them down and eventually migrate them over to my online shop.  But, I want you to have access to them, in thanks for coming by all the time and for filling me with merriment with your comments and encouragement.

Note: The 30 Free Trial Period that I offered here to my regular blog readers has expired and they are no longer available for free.  If you are interested in these files, you can check my Teachers Pay Teachers store for them.  Please consider joining my blog and reading regularly if you are interested in free products, ideas, downloadables, and collaborations - not to mention a lot of great fun conversations and a place to share with other Spanish teachers!

When I start with AR verbs in Spanish 1, I teach students the Yo and Tú forms first.  We then can engage in simple conversations.  The above Power Point reviews the pronouns in English and in Spanish, animates the conjugations, and gives some conversation guidelines.  Questions in the tú form and answers in the yo form are the most basic and elemental conversations, so this is a great way to start students with verb conjugations.

I don't know how many times I will teach, re-teach, remind, and offer practice opportunities for Saber and Conocer.  Nothing seems to be sufficient and too much is just too much . . . .  It occurred to me to put it into a cultural context.  The above Power Point goes over the conjugations and some very simple uses of these two verbs and features pictures from Peru.

The weather . . . this time with pretty pictures.  I tried to find culturally-appropriate pictures, but I haven't been able to find them for every slide.  Still, this is a good review of weather terms and most of the pictures come from the Spanish-speaking world.

Personally, I think Joan Miró is the luckiest guy to ever walk the Earth.  I don't think he had much artistic talent at all, but he managed to make it work for him and it made him wildly successful.  I created this Power Point to introduce this famous Spanish painter and his work to my Spanish 3 students.  It is very colorful and my students loved it.

Just a few Valentine's Day vocabulary words accompanied by clip art to illustrate the meaning of the words.

And this last Power Point is my masterpiece of educational awesomeness - no kidding.  It illustrates a lot of the complexities of Salvador Dali's work - including hidden images revealed, explanations of his imagery, an introduction to surrealism, and a little bit about his life.  Dalí is my favorite artist and I put a lot of love into this one.

Now remember, these are only here for 30 days.  So if you want them, you have to download them now.  They are under my copyright, so please do not redistribute them.  Keep them to yourself and your students.

Thanks again for being such awesome readers!

200!  Viva!

--AnneK

¡OSOS! Dos Nuevos y la Colección Entera

A kind reader asked if I had all of my osos availabe in one place, to which I had to reply no.  But it gave me the idea to do a repost of all the osos together so they can easily be found. 

Additionally, I made two new osos to join the collective - poderoso and milagroso.

Enjoy!

Y ahora, los anteriores . . . todos juntitos y convenientes.