Shameless Self Promotion and a Giveaway!!

Amigos,

I have been focused lately on creating scaffolded conversation lessons.  The idea is to give students something culturally relevant (a picture, a piece of realia, a video clip, etc) along with some vocabulary and let them use their Spanish skills to describe it.  Then I provide a sample dialog that is on the same topic to practice their pronunciation.  The next step is key: the students then take the dialog and replace certain key words with others to create an original dialog on the same topic.  This gives them the support they need instead of just turning them loose with a vocabulary list and saying "Write a dialog in Spanish on this topic and be sure to use at least ten vocabulary words in it."  (Haven't we all been there at least once?)

The fun comes when they replace the words in the dialog with something funny or clever.  I had a pair in Spanish IV last Friday come up with the expression, "No puedo aguantar tu cara ni un minuto más."  That cracked me up and I literally burst into raucous laughter, which made class so much more fun than if I had just given them the "Write a dialog . . . " routine.

Over my spring break I told myself that I was going to create some new lessons for my Teachers Pay Teachers portfolio.  (I'm trying to save up some money to attend the ACTFL conference and that isn't going to happen if I don't produce some great materials for people to purchase.)  But I was plagued with strep throat and spent much of my two weeks just feeling miserable instead of being creative.  But I decided to remedy the situation yesterday by creating a conversation lesson, like the one I mentioned above, on the topic of Earth Day.

For a mere $2.50 you can get your students talking in Spanish about the Earth, the environment, and being responsible caretakers for our planet.  And here's the best part: I created three different versions of the lesson so that you can use it with your Spanish 1, Spanish 2, and your Spanish 3 students!  And, who knows, they might surprise you and come up with something that thrills and delights you in the process!

I don't have many followers here on this blog, a mere 20 of you for whom I am very thankful.  So I've decided to do a membership drive and a giveaway.  Between now and Earth Day (April 22) I will give this product away to five -or more- members who leave a comment below.  You need to be listed to the right as a follower of the blog and let me know who you are in the comments field.  Since I don't get much traffic through here, I might not get to give all five copies away but here's to hoping!

Have a brilliant Monday, amigos.  I hope to hear from you soon!

Hasta pronto,

--AnneK

"Craftividad" Pintar Una Camiseta

¡Hola amigos!

I came across this adorable little "craftivity" today over at Zambombazo (which is a fabulous blog filled with activities and ideas for Spanish teachers). 

Since my theme this year is "Unleash Your Superhero" I figured this would be a great thing to share here.  And the best part is that the instructional video is entirely in Spanish!

I don't think I'd make the design by tracing the image on the screen like the video shows.  I think a better way would be to print the image and work from the print, but I'm not going to quibble or micromanage.  There are a lot of ways to do any given task.

This would be a great extra credit project to give students.  Make it clear that they have to watch the video and follow the instructions en español.

Es todo por hoy, amigos.  ¡Que tengan un lindo fin de semana!

--AnneK

¡Me Quedo Muy Retrasada!

I'm so far behind, amigos.  I don't know exactly how it happens . . . one day, I'm going along just fine and doing what I'm supposed to do . . . then I turn around and all my laundry is dirty, the projects haven't been graded, there is nothing in the fridge, and I haven't blogged in over a month.

I'm not sure what has slowed me down - the bad weather (despite my premature declaration of spring), a bout with strep throat, and it seems as though some weeks all I do is drive my teenage daughter from one activity to another . . . but I apologize for being gone so long.  I do have some good things to share here and, hopefully, I'll get back on board the blog train.

Today I came across some funny photos and it occurred to me that they would make great conversation prompts.  These are probably best for your intermediate students as beginners would likely be completely stymied.

The topic of the photos is bad design, and you can't help but laugh at some of them!

Here are some activities that occurred to me, but there are plenty of others I'm sure you can think of too.

1. Make comparisons - Malo, peor, el peor
2. Use the conditional tense - ¿Qué pasaría al usar esta cuchara?
3. Describe the problem - La silla sería muy incómoda . . . El agua no podría salir de la regadera.
4. Think creatively!  Is there anything you could do with the object?  Se podría usar el vaso para las flores.  El botón podría ser un pisapapeles.
5. For fun, get students to design their own bad objects and describe them to each other in Spanish.

And that's it for me today, amigos.  I'll try to make a regular appearance until the end of the school year.

Hasta pronto,

--AnneK

¡Que Llegue La Primavera!

¡Saludos calurosos, amigos!

Winter is the season of my soul's discontent.  I do my best to hold on and stay positive through the winter but ultimately, no matter what I seem to do, I wind up feeling down in the dumps.  I go through a miniature depression every year between Christmas and March 1st.

Regardless of the weather, I declare it spring on March 1st.  I know I'm off by about three weeks officially, but I can't stand it a moment longer so I don't.  As far as I'm concerned, it's officially spring.  You are welcome to disagree, but you will not sway me.  In this I am firm.

I spent the afternoon looking up springtime quotes in Spanish, and picking out photographs from Clipart.com to go along with them.  Then I put them together in little graphics that I can use in my lessons.  Some have subjunctive, others have command forms, yet others have future tense.  And some are very basic and won't frighten off even the most timid beginners.

I'm sharing them here with you today.  Even if you still have a foot of snow outside, hope is here.

Les mando abrazos calientitos . . .

--AnneK

Descuento de 20%

There is a big sale going on today and tomorrow (February 27-28) at Teachers Pay Teachers and I'm taking part.  Everything in my store will be on sale at a discounted 20% off - including my brand new Weather Mini Unit with Geography, Science, and Math Connections.

If you've ever downloaded something of mine here for free and you found yourself feeling grateful and appreciative, please do me the honor of stopping by my store to see what I have for sale.  I put all my love into my products and create the kinds of things that I can feel proud of and can use in my own classes.  So I sincerely believe that anything of mine you buy there will serve you well for years to come.

The money I get from TPT goes into a special travel fund so that I can attend conferences.  I was hoping to go to Panama City this summer to attend the national AATSP conference.  I would so love to see the Panama Canal and take pictures of all kinds of things to share online, but I'm going to be shy of my goal.  But that's okay!  I'm not going to get gloomy about it or anything.  I'll keep saving for next year and who knows!  But every little bitty bit helps, so know that I am grateful for anything you purchase.

Hasta pronto, amigos.

--AnneK

El Imperfecto del Subjuntivo

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly students in Spanish IV learn new conjugations.  I mean, in comparison to the introduction of conjugation in Spanish I and the present tense and, heaven help us, the crucible that is the preterite in Spanish II, the other tenses just seem to come easier.  Even when I stood up yesterday and announced that there was (gasp!) another subjunctive tense and we would be learning it, no one batted an eye.

It helps that the imperfect subjunctive technically has no irregular verbs and that students already know when to use the subjunctive by the time it rolls around.

What didn't help was that there were no fun activities to be found online.  I wanted puzzles, pictures, skits, you know . . . but I guess that producers of educational materials figure if you've made it this far into Spanish then you must be mature.  That is mostly true, but it does not mean that we don't want to have fun.

I didn't have time today to come up with a rip-roaring, hooting-tooting board game - sadly.  But I did have enough time to create a crossword puzzle.  You can click here to download it or click on the image above.  This particular crossword focuses on when to use the present subjunctive and when to use the imperfect subjunctive.  My students literally just learned the tense yesterday and were ready for this today, so you can plan to do it very shortly after you introduce the tense.  I included all the trouble verbs: poder/poner, decir/dar, ir/ver, hacer, querer, etc.  You know, the usual suspects.

Obviously, a topic this advanced is going to be for a Spanish IV or V class or an especially gifted Spanish III group.  You might want to throw it in as a quick grammar review for AP, though I admit that it has nothing to do with any of the AP Themes.

Oh!  I made an answer key too.  Click here for a copy of the answers.  

I hope yours is a great day, amigos!

Hasta Pronto,

--AnneK

Expresiones Con Tener

Oh those expressions with tener!  The concept of idiomatic expressions is difficult for many language learners.  I recall being a middle schooler myself and being shocked when I first learned that one could not simply translate things word for word in the exact order.  It was an eye-opener!

However, in my experience, most students can get their heads around wildly imaginative words and phrases being different from language to language.  They generally don't expect unusual phrases to be direct translations.

It's raining to beat the band.  ( ≠ Lovía para derrotar a la banda.)
She looked like death warmed over.  ( ≠ Se veía como la muerte recalentada.)
That's my two cents.  ( ≠ Son mis dos centavos.)
It came out of the clear blue.  ( ≠ Vino del azul claro.)

Sometimes though, I find that it is even more difficult for students to get the concept of idiomatic expressions that are close.  I think I might have to be hauled off to an asylum  if I hear "tener divertido" one more time.  Ja ja ja.

The expressions with tener are one of those things that are perennial problems for my students and I don't think most textbooks give them enough time and attention.  I think a lot of fun activities can be done with these expressions like charades, drawings, skits.  But as a review I put together a brief Power Point with clip art.

I do not own the license to any of the clip art in the file.  It is used here simply for educational purposes.

Click here to download the file, or click on the picture above.

As always, it would be great to hear from you if you download the file or use it in your class.

Hasta pronto,

--AnneK

Si Los Besos Fueran Agua . . .

 . . . yo te daría un mar.

Hi again, amigos.  I've been taking a break from blogging for a bit because I've been dealing with some personal issues, but I'm ready to poke y head back in here, at least for today, and share some work.

Two of the classes I teach this semester (Spanish IV and AP Spanish) are fairly advanced for high school and I'm often discovering that there is a lack of good material available online to supplement my lessons.  To that end, I create a lot of my own material and I thought I might share some with you here today.

This lesson is intended as a review to students who have already learned the conditional tense and the imperfect subjunctive.  (Advanced, as I was saying.)  I am fortunate to have such high achievers in my 5th, 6th, and 7th period classes so I put this little review and practice activities together for us to go over in classes as we go into the dreaded "Sequence of Tenses."  It focuses on the use of imperfect subjunctive to express unreal situations and the conditional to discuss what one would do under those circumstances.

On the sheet there is a link to a really weird video - really weird, that gives and example of the two tenses used together.  You might want to take a look at it before you share it with your classes - just to prepare yourself.  

I hope the lesson is useful to you, amigos!  Click on the image above or click here to download the activity.

Hasta pronto,

--AnneK

Luddy Outcome: Problem Solving

In my classroom we have been focusing on the Luddy Outcome of problem solving lately, but the trick is to work these Luddy Outcomes into my lesson plans in a way that supports the curriculum.  Most of the time that is easy enough to do because I can just discuss the issue in Spanish, but it is not ideal because I always have to wonder how much of what I'm explaining is really getting through.

I am always questing for ways to work these things into my lessons in creative, fun, and Spanish ways.  Spanish II is reviewing food vocabulary and preterite tense right now so it occurs to me that it might be fun to create a logic puzzle in Spanish that uses our vocabulary.  I also threw in ordinal numbers because my students never seem to ever really learn them. 

Cuatro niños (Gabriela, María, Ignacio y Simón) ayudan a su abuela hacer una sopa.  Cada uno trajo un ingrediente diferente (carne, sal, zanahorias, y papas).  ¿Quién trajo cada ingrediente y en qué orden los pusieron en la sopa?

1)   Las niñas trajeron verduras. 

2)   María llegó tarde, así fue la última de poner su ingrediente en la sopa 

3)   El segundo ingrediente no fue la carne. 

4)   Simón puso su ingrediente en la sopa después de Gabriela. 

5)   El primer ingrediente fue las papas. 

6)   Simón puso su ingrediente en la sopa después de la sal.

The puzzle is not especially difficult.  The tricky part (for the students) is understanding it in Spanish.  

I've posted the answer below, but it's in white so you can't see it.  Highlight it to reveal it.

Solución  

Primera: Gabriela - Papas

Segundo: Ignacio - Sal       

Tercero: Simón - Carne

Cuarta: María - Zanahorias

 


Hasta pronto,

--AnneK

Superhéroes - Hoja de Diversión

I saw this little superhero graphic on Pinterest the other day and I had a good time showing off my knowledge to my husband, who is the real superhero fan of the household.  Although I didn't guess Cyclops (middle left), he was still proud of me.

It occurred to me that my students might enjoy the same challenge.  And then, because I'm a teacher, it occurred to me to build an activity out of it!

It has superhero knowledge that some of your students will know and others will not so, if they do not have access to a place to look it up, you might have to put some scaffolding in place for them.

Click here to download the activity. It is appropriate for Spanish I (midyear) or Spanish II.

I like to think these little activities of mine are entertaining and not tedious.  Personally, I always liked it when my teachers got out of the textbook and did things that linked to the world around me.  There are some graphic organizers, some labeling, some sorting and (of course) lots of Spanish!

Unleash your superhero, amigos!

Hasta pronto,

--AnneK

¡Martes Maravilloso!

I hope your long weekend was a good one.  My Monday was taken up with a visit to the dentist, but I'm grateful I didn't have to take time off from work so it's all good.

So it's Tuesday and we're off to another work week already, aren't we?  I made a little Martes Maravilloso graphic to start my classes and (hopefully) put a smile on everyone's face.  Attitude is half the battle; am I right?

I didn't draw the cute little giraffe - he was clip art.  That I know of, giraffes are in no way associated with Tuesdays - marvelous or otherwise.  I just thought he was so cute that only the grumpiest of the grumpies could resist him.

Don't forget it's Tuesday today . . . if you have Tuesday carpool duty, lunch duty, hall duty, etc.  It's not Monday!  :-)

I hope your week is a good one, amigos!

Hasta pronto,

--AnneK

Actividad Para Resolver Problemas

Problem solving and being a contributive team member are two of the Luddy Outcomes that we promote at our school.  See my post on November 17 for more information on the Luddy Outcomes, if you are interested.

Today I did a fun activity with my students to encourage both problem solving and teamwork.  It was a good activity because it wasn't too difficult, it didn't take long, and I gave them the instructions completely in Spanish to keep it relevant to my curriculum.

As a team they were presented with a task: Move the stacked cups from one desk to another without touching them.  The only materials I gave them were a couple short pieces of string and a rubber band.  Though I explained everything to them in Spanish, I did not give them a solution to the problem.  I wanted them to talk through it as a group and come up with a solution together (problem solving!).

In the end all of the groups came up with the same solution for moving the cups and it was, in fact, the recommended solution in the photos below.  They did try a number of different ideas at first but ultimately this was the most efficient way to take care of the problem.  The fun thing is that the task not only requires problem solving skills, but it also takes teamwork.  I don't think it would be possible for one person to accomplish it alone.

Unfortunately I heard them talking amongst themselves more in English than in Spanish, so if I do this activity again I think I will prepare them with some vocabulary and a quick review of command forms ahead of time.  In my studies of Vygotsky while working on my master's degree, I recall reading something along the lines of second language acquisition necessarily being different from first language acquisition because second language learners already have a language and we cannot ignore it.  Forgive the paraphrasing, please.  It's been years since I took that course but so much of what I learned there shapes what I do in the classroom today.

Onward and upward, amigos!

Hasta pronto,

--AnneK

2014: Unleash Your Superhero!

Yesterday I was feeling depressed and out of sorts, but today I've awoken to a new day and I've decided to embrace a new philosophy: Unleash your superhero!  This slogan caught my eye and my imagination today.  The more I thought about it, the more I like it so I decided to bring it here to the blog. 

The FLANC conference, which I attended last October, was exciting and exhilarating, and the theme of the conference was superheroes.  The keynote speech was a clever talk likening world language teachers to superheroes, which I loved!  And at one point during the conference, the lights went out and when they came back on, one teacher at each table had donned a mask and was posing heroically.  I got such a kick out of that!

So I'm focusing today on that superhero spirit that dwells within me and sometimes makes its way to the surface.  You know what I'm talking about, don't you?  It's that part of you that decided to become a teacher even though you knew you were never going to make a lot of money, but you took that path anyway because you wanted to make a difference.   It's that part of you that learned a foreign language just so you could bridge the cultural gap and bring people closer together.  It's that part of you that stays up until midnight creating an awesome lesson because it means so much to you to get it right.  And it's that part of you that grades like a madman so your students can get their test results the next day.

My super powers list isn't long or impressive, but it's full of heart!  I speak multiple languages, I make creative and fun lessons, I can link Spanish vocabulary to SAT words, I make the most complicated grammar structures simple to understand, and I bring culture into everything! 

I bet you can do the same things too, so hooray for us!  We are Super World Language Teachers!  I might just show up in a cape and a mask one day this week . . . really, the kids would get a kick out of it. 

My new year's resolution this year is hard to define, but it is closely tied to this idea of unleashing your superhero.  Basically, I'm not going to diminish myself because others are uncomfortable with the fact that I'm smart, creative or talented.  I don't like putting it into words because, when I read that, it sounds wildly arrogant.  I'm not arrogant, but all too often I find myself among jealous and petty people who make everything about themselves, and I'm not going to play those backstabbing games.  I'm going to let my light shine at full wattage and I'm going to unleash my superhero. 

I hope you will do the same thing, amigos. 

Hasta pronto,

--AnneK

El Año Nuevo

We have tracked back in and, I have to say, this is a particularly difficult time of year for me.  I deal with something akin to depression every year in January and February.  Whether you call it SAD or something else, it just becomes incredibly difficult for me to find motivation, inspiration, or much of anything.

Still, the students are here and the expectation is that I will rise to the occasion and offer stimulating and meaningful instruction . . . a difficult task when I'm not feeling it inside.  I put on a smile and go through the motions on difficult days and pretend.  It's a bit disconcerting how many people don't even seem to notice when I'm faking it.  I'm reminded of Paul McCartney's lyrics to Elanor Rigby, "Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door.  Who is it for?"

Now, more than ever, it is important to bring activities to class that are interesting, fun, and engaging.  Yesterday I had my Spanish IV students toss a ball around and, when it came to them, they had to share something with the class (in Spanish, of course).  Here are some topics for sharing:

A present you received for Christmas
Something fun you did over track-out
A resolution for the New Year
A wish/hope for the New Year
A Christmas tradition in your family
A New Year's tradition in your family

I only give them about 30 seconds from the prompt until I toss the ball, so they have to think fast.

It's important to have a very soft ball for this activity because it is easy for things to get carried away or for people to get hit by accident - even in an attentive group.

Today I brought in a couple of toys I got for Christmas that I'm going to share with the students, even though they don't have any direct connection to Spanish.  I can still introduce them and describe them in Spanish.  One is a Tetris lamp that lights up as you use it - extremely cool.  The other one might get me into trouble but I decided to risk it because the fun potential is so great.  It is an air gun which shoots a puff of air at people up to 20 feet away.  It doesn't do much more than ruffle your hair and papers, but it gets a great reaction from people.  The product is called Airzooka and it is a hoot and a half - honestly.

After we play for a bit, we are going to write New Year's resolutions and make predictions for the new year using the future tense.  I have until 5th period to come up with a way to make it super fun and engaging, but I think I can do it.

I don't get much in the way of comments and discussions here as a general rule, but if you have ideas for how you make your classes exciting on those days when you might not be feeling so excited yourself, I would love to hear them!  Any and all inspiration would be appreciated at this time, amigos.

Hasta pronto,

--AnneK

Feliz Año Nuevo

¡Hola amigos!

I hope your holiday season went well and that your new year is off to a brilliant start.  I took a leave of absence from blogging while I spent time with family and took some time to exhale after a very busy end to the semester.

I took a small amount of time to play around with my graphics software and create an image that said Feliz Año Nuevo, and I'm sharing it here with you today.  I had fun with the gold, purple, and sparkles - and it just looks festive to me.

And then I made one more because I was having fun.  Still purple, but I used silver and confetti this time.

And then, since I was at it, I made several more!

Feel free to add them to any lesson or project you might be doing for the new year.

I want to let you know that I wish you the greatest joy, success, and love in the new year!

Con mucho amor,

--AnneK