Otros Usos Para Un Viejo Calendario

I was tired of looking at a bulletin board which had been put up weeks ago and had faded, deteriorated, and become unappealing.  And some little troglodita had even deposited a wad of gum on it - yuck!

But I had no time, supplies, or inspiration to create a new bulletin board from scratch . . . and then it occurred to me.  I had an old calendar from last year that was just sitting around collecting dust.  I hadn't thrown it away because it had such beautiful pictures and I was hoping to find something to do with them, and today turned out to be the day.

What do you think?

 

Colorful, bright, festive and done in less than fifteen minutes!  

Of course it would be more educational in nature if I put up a little blurb about what each of the pictures were, but see above about time and inspiration.  Perhaps I'll find a little stash of one or both at the end of the week.

The calendar was from the good folks at Teacher's Discovery who create wonderful classroom supplies for teachers - especially us language teachers.  They included it as a freebie with my order last time.  What a wonderful gift!

Hasta pronto,

--AnneK

Pensamientos Sobre Mi Escuela

I often hear students exclaim loudly about how much they hate school, or how much they hate this school in particular.  Do they imagine that at other schools, students leap out of bed each morning excited about another day of learning?  Do they sing and dance at the bus stop because they are so overjoyed about their school?  Perhaps they think that other schools are all YouTube videos, funny memes, and taco parties? 

School is hard, no matter where you are, and there are always challenges to be faced.  That said, I teach at a wonderful school.  My students are bright and respectful.  The teachers are dedicated, knowledgeable, and so hard-working.  The administrators are in touch with the realities of the classroom (both the principal and the assistant principal teach classes of their own) and are available to talk when needed.  The school building is new and has wireless internet throughout, interactive white boards, Apple TV displays on high-def screens, document cameras, and all sorts of other goodies.  And, as if all that were not enough, all the students in the school are issued an iPad and a suite of apps that they use to complete their assignments, research, and connect with others.  We have no discipline problems to speak of, no issues with teen pregnancy, drug abuse, hazing, or violence.

Our test scores on the PSAT, ACT, and state exams are consistently (and significantly) higher than those in the state and in the county.  It's a utopia, right?

What is the problem?  Why would students complain so vehemently about our school?

The have one legitimate gripe, I suppose.  (Not really, but I'll voice it for them here anyway.)  The students wear a "uniform" (polo shirts and khakis) and they hate it.  And, because we are a school of choice (a public charter) families opt in to this school instead of the local public schools.  Classes here are hard and we don't pass kids along who don't meet academic expectations.  So some students feel like if they could just be at the local public high school, it would be a constant party.

The thing they forget is that school is supposed to be hard.  It's supposed to challenge you, stretch you, and push you to your maximum potential.  It's supposed to break you out of conformist thought and provide new perspectives.  In school and in life one is supposed to work hard and go home tired but satisfied with a sincere effort and progress toward goals.  Otherwise, what is the point?

I once saw a button that said, "School prepares you for the real world, which also sucks."  Now, I don't believe that hard work need be considered a bad thing, but it is true that school is a lot of work which prepares you for a lot more work.  And that is a good thing, amigos!  We do not want to be intellectually complacent any more than we want to be physically sedentary.  Both lead to rot and ruin and we cannot allow our kids to choose that for themselves without putting up a fight.

Our education is perhaps the only thing in life that we own completely.  It is something that can never be taken from us, even by the most oppressive regimes or religions.  It's worth the struggle and it's worth the work.

So the next time I hear some kid talking about how much school sucks or how awful it is, I need to respond with something along the lines of "It's a lot of hard work, isn't it?  But anything worth having in life is worth working for."

Mis pensamientos de hoy, amigos.

Hasta pronto,

--AnneK

Yo No Pudiera Decirlo Mejor

Every now and again I stumble across something that is just perfect.  The message and the way it is written coincide to produce an ideal little snippet of wisdom and insight.

People, and I think teens are even more susceptible to this, often tend to think that morality begins and ends with a label.  Obviously it's not enough to label yourself "religious" and be done with it.  Like the old adage suggests, "Your words are who you want others to think you are but your actions are who you really are."

 

I try very hard not to get hung up on people's belief systems, but rather to accept them for who they are and judge them by their actions (if and when judgement is even called for).  But crowing loudly about one's religion or one's atheism is one of those things that puts me on alert.  Are you really that devout or do you just want me to think that?

But to bring this around to a classroom topic, that is why I am here after all, what does one do when the classroom suddenly bursts into a discussion of religion?  Such debates are frequently so passionate that students do not maintain the target language and are almost always off-topic.  But I feel like an intellectual ogre when I stomp on the discussion and try to bring it back around to the pluscuamperfecto (or whatever the topic at hand might be).

Maybe one could redirect by saying that the conversation has strayed from the topic at hand, but that students were welcome to submit comments in Spanish for later discussion and then give them a forum to do so.  A discussion board online might be ideal, as long as rules were posted that no proselytizing and no slandering would be allowed.  My experience tells me that only a very few would actually take me up on it, but that it could be a brilliant discussion for those who did.  What do you think?

Hasta pronto,

--AnneK

Image courtesy of www.desmotivaciones.es .

¡Más Zombis!

And a little something to add to the Zombie Apocalypse lesson . . .

And look!  It even has an example of the imperfect subjunctive and the conditional to reinforce the lesson on conditional.  Who could ask for more?

Gracias to the folks at www.desmotivaciones.es for the image.  You will find a lot of funny stuff over there but be cautious, not all of it is classroom appropriate.

Hasta pronto,

--AnneK

Apocalipsis de Zombis

Zombies are big right now though I can't begin to understand why.  I mean, they really don't have anything going for them.  They look bad, smell bad, make a mess everywhere they go, and they want to eat your brain.  Not good.

But still they persist in popular culture.  It seems that I see a new zombie video or hear talk of surviving a zombie attack every other day.  So my students were quite taken aback today when I told them we were going to plan for the zombie apocalypse.  Yes, really.  It's a great way to use the conditional tense in Spanish.

I discovered this delightful video on YouTube in which Señor Jordan teaches the use of the conditional tense.  He explains (in Spanish) about people becoming sick and turning into zombies.  Then he poses the question: ¿Qué harías?  He goes through a number of suggestions for how to best respond and then pauses for the listener to decide whether the idea is a good one or bad one.  He goes on to explain the conditional tense and does a few practice activities as well.  All told, an excellent and entertaining educational video.

 

My students really liked the video too.  It's great to hear them laughing and enjoying themselves in class, I must say!  We followed up the video by working in pairs to generate ideas about what to do to survive the coming of the zombies.  They were given instructions to include at least one mala idea also, and that made the activity especially fun.

"Iría a Wal-Mart y compraría comida enlatada, botellas de agua, y otras provisiones."

"Jugaría videojuegos de zombis para mejorar mis habilidades de matarlos."

"Juntaría armas de fuego, municiones, y minas terrestres."

"Estudiaría para mis examenes AP."

"Iría a Fort Bragg para pedir ayuda militar."

"Les enseñaría bailar (a los zombis)"

I'm putting the best ones together in a Powerpoint and we will decide which ones are the good and which ones are the bad ideas.  And I'm going to award a Most Likely to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse certificate to the group with the best plan overall.

And, as I type this, the male members of my family are discussing their own survival strategies - in all seriousness.  I wish you could hear this.  They have thought this through and have strong opinions. *eye roll*

At any rate, maybe you can work a zombie apocalypse into your lesson plans too.  It's a lot of fun and your students will think you're amazing.

Hasta la próxima,

--AnneK

El Pollito Pío

A colleague of mine came across this precious video on YouTube.  It's colorful, the animations are adorable, it teaches the names of common animals in Spanish and the sounds they make, and the tune is so catchy that you'll be singing it all day. 

I am given to understand that the original was in Italian, but little Pollito Pío is available in all sorts of languages now from Dutch to Greek.  Some of the English translations are a little sketchy  ("Cock" instead of "rooster" for example.  And I've never known an American chicken to say "co co" so that might be a British or Australian thing?)

Of course, since I'm a teacher, I had to make an activity to go along with the little video.  It's a moral imperative when you've been in the profession as long as I have.  I thought I'd share it with you here.  I do not hold the copyright to any of the pictures; those belong to the original creator.  So do not copy them except for personal and educational purposes, please.

Click here or click the above picture to download a copy of the activity page.  It is best suited to middle school or high school students because, despite the seemingly juvenile content, the video is fast and youngsters won't be able to write that quickly.  Even my highschoolers needed me to pause the video a couple times so they could write.

I hope you enjoy it!  If you do, please consider leaving me a little note and letting me know.  It would mean a lot to me.

Hasta pronto,

--AnneK

Demasiado Enfema

My school is on a modified year-round calendar and we track-out every nine weeks for three weeks of vacation, which can be such a relaxing and restful time.  Winter track-out is my favorite because I'm recovering from midterm exams and pressures and because I have the holidays to look forward to.  My mother, who lives in my house, was struck with the flu in mid December and my three-year-old son also caught it.  And this year's version of the flu is especially bad - so the house was filled with miserable people, coughing, and complaints instead of the Ho Ho Ho I've come to expect at the holidays.

To make matters worse, on Christmas Eve I felt a bladder infection coming on and I wasn't able to ward it off with water consumption alone.  I held out as best as I could, but finally had to go the the urgent care at about 4 pm on Christmas Day - the only doctor's office open in all the city.  It was a long and uncomfortable wait and I was told that, in addition to the infection, I also had glucose in my sample and would need to see my primary care physician to get a test done for diabetes.

The next day I was in Dr. Nigalye's office getting my blood sugar tested.  The good news is that neither the sample I gave that day nor the blood drawn for the long-term test showed any sign of high blood sugar.  But the bad news is that, no matter what I did, the symptoms of the bladder infection wouldn't go away.  I did a course of Cipro and then another course of another antibiotic and I drank water with religious devotion.  My symptoms lessened and became manageable as long as I kept drinking large quantities of water, but they never went away.  And Heaven forbid I should skip a glass of water!  I would be in immediate pain again.

The track-out was spent surrounded by illness - that of others and eventually my own.  My doctor could not find anything in my sample and has referred me to a urologist.  In the meantime I've gotten the worst cold of my life - no exaggeration.  I'm on day ten of it now and still have a cough and sinus congestion.  I've missed three days of work here at the beginning of the spring semester and I'm just sick and tired of being sick and tired now.

Those plans for making Christmas art?  Nope.

Lesson plans for the first weeks of school?  No.

Clever things to share here?  Nada.

Unit plans for sale on Teachers Pay Teachers?  Didn't happen.

Christmas cookies and other baked good?  No, but my mom took up the slack for me.

Blah, blah blah!

I have my appointment with the urologist tomorrow.  Hopefully he will know what to do and will have good news for me.  *fingers crossed*

Hasta pronto amigos,

--AnneK

Tarjeta Digital de Navidad

Amigos,

I was playing around with my graphics program last weekend and I put together this image of the nativity.  I decided to write "Feliz Navidad" on it and make it into a digital Christmas card.  I hereby offer it up to you and to the public domain.  However, if you do use it for something (especially something commercial) I would consider it a kindness if you linked back here.  I don't get much work as a graphic artist, but every little bit helps.

I will probably create some more in the coming days and share those here as well but, in the meantime, I hope you have a feliz Navidad.

Hasta pronto,

--AnneK

Para Estudiar Los Verbos

I admit that I love grammar; it's no secret.  My friends and my students give me that askance look when I talk about it, as though appreciating the rules of the language is something akin to liking having your blood drawn at the doctor's office.

I try to keep things simple for my students.  They do not share my love for structure so I try not to bore them with long explanations and complicated drills.  Textbooks these days are very light on structure - something I think is a mistake, but I acknowledge that there are differing opinions out
there.

Here we are in exam season again: midterms for those of us on traditional schedules and finals for those on block schedules.  And, as I was pouring through my files, I came across this verb organizer that I created for my students.  The idea is to have all the tenses in one place so they don't have to page through their notes and look for them.  This particular organizer is for Spanish II; it includes present tense, preterite, imperfect, and future.  I didn't have room for conditional tense but, if I'm perfectly honest with you, I often fail to get that far in the textbook most years.

I hope you find a use for it but, perhaps more importantly, I hope your students find a use for it.

Hasta Pronto,

--AnneK

Coca-Cola y Navidad - Un Anuncio Lindo

I'm not one to go mixing school and commercialism often, but this is a nice commercial by Coca-Cola with approachable lyrics and culturally-relevant video.  So I figure, with an explanation that I'm not promoting the product up front, it can be used in the classroom context.

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiwgCHSZYI8 

The singer is David Bisbal and he is very easy to understand.  Still, I printed out the lyrics and a link to the commercial on a little worksheet so the students could see the words that they aren't able to hear.  Okay, so there isn't any work on the worksheet . . . maybe it's more of a "funsheet."   I'm gonna go with that.

Click on the picture to download the "funsheet."

 I will share it with my students after midterm exams.  I hope someone else out there finds it useful too!

Hasta Pronto,

--AnneK

Mi Burrito Sabanero

Even after years of studying Spanish and spending a Christmas season in Mexico, I am still discovering new things about the celebration of the December holidays in the Spanish-speaking world.  One of those things is the traditional carol, Mi Burrito Sabanero, which is about the donkey that the Virgin Mary rode into Bethlehem.  (At least that is what I'm told it is about.  The lyrics seem to tell a story about a boy and a donkey going to visit the baby Jesus.  But who am I to argue?)

The lyrics are traditional, so I'm guessing that they are in the public domain.  Here they are:

Con mi burrito sabanero
voy camino de Belén
Con mi burrito sabanero
voy camino de Belén
si me ven si me ven
voy camino de Belén
si me ven si me ven
voy camino de Belén

El lucerito mañanero
ilumina mi sendero
El lucerito mañanero
ilumina mi sendero
si me ven si me ven
voy camino de Belén
si me ven si me ven
voy camino de Belén

Con mi cuatrico voy cantando
mi burrito va trotando
con mi cuatrico voy cantando
mi burrito va trotando
si me ven si me ven
voy camino de Belén
si me ven si me ven
voy camino de Belén

Tuqui Tuqui Tuquituqui
Tuquituqui Tu qui Tu
Apúrate mi burrito
que ya vamos a llegar
Tuqui Tuqui Tuquituqui
Tuquituqui Tu qui Tu
apúrate mi burrito
vamos a ver a Jesús

iTunes has a couple of good versions of the song that you can download for less than a dollar and share with your students.  Mine really enjoyed the song and got a big kick out of the tuqui tuqui tuqui part especially.

Hasta Pronto,

--AnneK

Image Source:  http://kimbanda7lineas.ning.com/group/navidad/forum/topics/villancicos-mi-burrito-sabanero 

Kevin, Karla y La Banda

Holy smokes!  This is a cover band that redoes songs from the American pop scene . . . in Spanish. 

Now you're thinking that's not such a big deal but, the thing is, this band is actually good!  Their translations, though not word-for-word, are very true to the spirit of the original songs.  They rhyme and they match the original rhythm of the song and, this is the best part, they can sing!  They sing very well, in fact.

Kevin, Karla y La Banda have a website, but I have a hard time navigating around it.  I can't find the songs I'm looking for on their site, but I can find them easily enough on YouTube.



One caveat, and this is only a problem for Spanish teachers, the lyrics are lacking accent marks in most places.  Still, I forgive them for that.  The music is great.

Here are links to two of their songs that my students really enjoy.

Call Me Maybe (Spanish Version)

We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (Spanish Version)

Hasta pronto,

--AnneK

Renacimiento

I have let this blog sit for awhile for a couple of reasons.  I was feeling discouraged because no one seemed interested in stopping by and reading.  I suppose I need to continuously put up quality material and practice patience - so that is my goal for the new year.  The other reason is that I was finishing up grad school.  I hope to tell you in another couple weeks that my paper has been accepted and that I have passed.  In the meantime, my fingers are crossed and I am secure in the knowledge that I did my best work.

I have begun a small side business over at Teachers Pay Teachers, selling some of my lesson plans and my artwork.  I figure this is a good forum to share that work with others.  I hope, if you are reading this, you will take a moment to stop by and maybe you will consider supporting me.

Here is a link to my Holiday Backgrounds for PowerPoint.  They are a bargain for $5.00 because each image is less than ¢15.  It's what you'd pay for a fancy cup of coffee . . . right?

The images are made for slides, so you will have plenty of room to write lots of text.  Additionally, most of the images come in sets of two - one title slide (like the image above) with a large graphic and one regular slide with smaller graphics and more room for text.

And, as an extra, people who order and leave me a comment here to let me know what they think, will be emailed a bonus pack.  Hooray!  (You will have to leave me your email address for me to mail the bonus pack to you.  But, worry not.  I have no mailing list or anything like that.)

I had a successful Thanksgiving lesson that did well last week, and this coming week I have a seasonal lesson on las posadas in the works - and another one on el Día de los Reyes Magos.  More news on those when I finish.

Hasta pronto,

--AnneK

En la Época de los Exámenes - una Idea

All is quiet here on the blog front as of late.  It's because we are in exam season and I have been focused on preparing my students, fine tuning my exams, and getting everything graded and into the gradebook for report cards next week.

But I had a ray of insight last year that I wanted to share with my readers here.  Because as language teachers, more often than not, we struggle with the same problems.  I always had the same issue every year - I wanted to save paper and reuse my exams so I told my students not to write in the test booklets.  But this stressed them out because they wanted to be able to mark out answer choices in the matching sections so they could use the process of elimination.  It made sense but I still didn't want them to mark up those 14-something page test books.  What I used to do was to give them scratch paper and instruct them to write the answers there and mark them out as they went.  Not an ideal solution but it was the best I had.

And then it occurred to me!  Why not put the answer choices on the answer sheet and allow them to cross them out there?!  It seems so simple when you think about it, and I do wonder why it didn't occur to me before.  Putting the answer choices on the answer sheet (in a simple table) takes up a very small amount of space and completely solves the problem.  They no longer write on my tests and this is a much better plan for everyone - especially my special needs students who struggle with transcription.

I thought I'd pass that along and I hope it works for you.  May your students do brilliantly on their exams this test season and show you how much they have learned!

Hasta pronto,

--AnneK

Culturally Relevant - a Challenge!

There are many textbooks, webpages, and services out there to provide vocabulary lists for students and teachers.  Most of them are thematic and by in large very bland.  It is even more rare that they give any thought to culture whatsoever.

I posted about this issue recently on my other blog (where I talk about my efforts toward weight loss and my efforts in tandem toward learning Portuguese).  The problem was that I had gotten a list of vocabulary for fruit but words like açaí, acerola, ameixa, caqui, castanha de cajú, cupuaçú, goiaba, graviola were not included in the list.  Instead the list had words for fruits which are common in the English-speaking world.  When I am in Brazil (And someday soon, I hope to be!), I probably will not have a great deal of need for words like cranberry, blueberry, plum, and pear.  It's not that those fruits never show up in Brazil; it's just that one is much more likely to run across goiaba (guava) than cranberry - since cranberry is a cold weather fruit.  

When I went to Mexico for the first time, despite my three and a half years of studies, I did not know the words nopal, chayote, guyava, posole, or jícama - just to name a few.  How is it that this never came up?  I didn't know about saint's days, quinceañeras, or that there was racial tension surrounding the discovery of the Americas by Christopher Columbus.  Again I ask - how is it that this never came up?

In the Spanish-speaking world there is a great deal of diversity, which makes creating culturally relevant vocabulary a challenge.  My suggestion is that one culture be dealt with per unit and, theoretically over the course of two years language study, students have gained a wider appreciation for the cultures in which Spanish is spoken.  Obviously we can't cover everything but that should not prevent us from doing what we can.   Yes, the culture is vast and varied, but most of us can probably do a better job of bringing many aspects of it to light.

So my challenge to myself and my fellow Spanish teachers is to add five - eight culturally relevant vocabulary words to each list.  They should relate thematically to the rest of the vocabulary and should provide students a glimpse into the particular Spanish-speaking culture you are featuring in the unit.  Next, use the vocabulary to give examples when it comes to explaining grammar points, and in practice activities.

Can you do it?  Yes, of course you can!  You have all summer to think it over.  I will do the same and I hope to post my results here in the form of activities and Powerpoint presentations.

Hasta pronto,

--AnneK