Videos to use in the classroom

Last year I inadvertently decided to start showing videos to my students on the last class day of the week. Two weeks in a row I showed them two different videos on You Tube that had to do with the Spanish language or culture. The two videos--One Semester of Spanish Spanish Love (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngRq82c8Baw) and Spanish tennis player Rafa Nadal getting a leg cramp during a U.S. Open press conference (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5qaeZmv0vo) -- set a playful and fun tone to the class. Towards the end of the year, one student told me that she looks forward to the videos all week, and it was at that point that I realized that is part of what we do now--watch videos on YouTube for entertainment. Not only is it entertaining but showing the videos also expands students' world views beyond what they know about American pop culture. I try my best to find videos that are fun but still culturally relevant to the Hispanic world (or proof of our America's cultural influence over other cultures). After watching the videos, I usually have 1 or 2 talking points about the video either having to do with grammar, vocabulary and / or culture. The time I spend searching for videos is well worth the effort, and I am going to continue to do this in the future.

Here is a list of some of videos that I showed last year:
-"Second Semester of Spanish Spanish Love Song"
-"Cuando Me Enamoro" by Enrique Iglesias
-N*Sync singing "This I Promise You" in Spanish (and, yes, I did put in the asterisk)
-A clip from the Spanish talk show El Hormiguero of the host walking on water
-McDonald's commerical with father and son in a funny situation
-McDonald's commerical from Argentina called "Yo pago"
-McDonald's commercial for Happy Meals and this one
-A clip from another Spanish talk show of the host teaching the Jonas Brothers a song in Spanish
-The official trailer of High School Musical 3
-A CocaCola commercial called "Para todos"
-A Argentine commerical for Mother's Day
-An M&M's commercial
-An Adidas soccer commercial called "Nace de dentro" with La Seleccion Espanola advertising their new T-shirt (the girl students love this one)
-A Nike soccer commercial with La Seleccion Espanola from the World Cup 2010
-A video with Real Madrid's goal keeper Iker Casillas and Liverpool's goal keeper Pepe Reina
-A Coca-Cola commercial that is totally '80's and totally cheesy, and that is what makes it great.
-Juanes on Sesame Street

Towards the end of year last year I was running out of videos to show my students, so I turned to telenovelas. I showed clips of simple story lines from Cuidado con el angel and Rebelde.