Video- Lo Mejor de Mi Vida Eres Tu

This is one of Ricky Martin's newest songs. I like the message that the video conveys, but as a teacher in a Catholic school, if I showed it in class I know I would hear from parents about it. I love it anyways. The melody is catchy and beautiful.

Reflecting and Planning Ahead

Warning! This blog post is very train of thought, and I am processing as I am writing.
This school year has been a bit of transition for me. After years of working full-time, I am now part-time teacher and part-time mom. My school is on block scheduling, so I teach one day and I am at home the next. Because I am only teaching 3 blocks of Spanish 1, I have been able to focus on prepping for one class (instead of my normal two or three). During first semester I experimented with speaking quizzes, dictionary activities and current events.
The one take-away that I have from this past semester is that I need to plan ahead at the beginning of the year with goals for the students. I think I expected too much out of my Spanish 1 students in terms of the amount of work that I asked them to do and the content of the speaking tests. Next year I would like to be more specific about the goals for my students and then create classroom activities to align with those goals. (I am having a "duh, Maria" moment--those are what the State Standards are for! Because we are a private school, we are not tied to the state standards. When I write lesson plans I do not have to specifically align them with the state standards, so they are not at the forefront of my mind when I do lesson plans--even though that is what I was trained to do in college.)

Goals for Spanish 1 conversation tests based off the Ohio State Standards:
Semester 1:
Interpersonal Communication
1.a. Use a common range of expressions to make requests and seek clarification.
2.a. Engage in greetings, introductions and leave-taking.
Quarter 1 conversation test: I will say a question or a phrase and the student will respond. Students will introduce me to a friend.
Quarter 2 conversation test: I act like a new student in the school and I ask the student questions about the schedule and locations of places in the school. Or I show them a picture and the student tells me as much as she can about the picture.
Semester 2:
Interpersonal Communication
1. b. Ask and answer a range of questions to seek or clarify information.
2. b. Ask questions and provide answers on a range of topics.
3. b. Ask and answer questions about feelings emotions and preferences.
Quarter 3 conversation test:  I act like a waiter and the student orders their food like in a restaurant.
Quarter 4 conversation test: Students create questions that they ask me in Spanish about anything using vocabulary and expressions that they already know.

Goals for Spanish 1 projects based off the Ohio State Standards
Semester 1:
Presentational Communication
1.a. Plan a range of texts and presentations by brainstorming ideas and choosing vocabulary, phrases and sentence patterns.
2.a. Create and present lists and classifications.
3. b. Dramatize or perform authentic songs, dances, skits, plays, monologues or scenes from literature using appropriate gestures.
Semester 1 Project: Imaginary Friend Project (see blog post here) or Family Tree Project.
Semester 2:
Presentational Communication
1. b. Organize thoughts and choose resources.
2. b. Tell a personal story or anecdote that relates some details.
3. a. Recite or retell authentic stories, folktales, legends poems and rhymes using appropriate gestures.
Semester 2 Project: Presentation on high school sports or daily routine for final exam or Family Tree Project.

Based on the standards, I know I already do classroom activities and projects that match these standards, but I would like the alternative assessments--like conversation tests and projects--to align with the standards.

Buen dia- Anuncio de McDonald's

This is a great video to use in Spanish 1 because students can pick up on the language used. It took watching it three times before my students caught on to what was going on, but they eventually got it.

Video- Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow

I must be a little behind the rest of the world, but I just discovered this song on You Tube (after 1.5 million people did). It is a mashup of the English version and a Spanish version. It would be a good one to use with Si clauses. I am teaching Spanish 1 this year, so I will not be teaching Si clauses, but I wanted to share the video nevertheless.

The Importance of Learning a Foreign Language

Yesterday I went to an amazing and suprisingly worthwhile conference about using technology to aid communication in the classroom. I was a little cocky going in thinking, "What can she teach me that I don't already know?" Sheepish am I! It is an understatement to say that I was blown away by what I saw, and I cannot wait to apply what I learned in the classroom. I have LOTS to write, but I do not have the time to process it all right now. But I do what to share a video that she included in her presentation. It is called "The Importance of learning a foreign language."

Mnemonic for Irregular Tú Commands

Students love a good mnemonic. I feel accomplished when a I see a student writing down the mnemonic that I taught her in the margin of her test or quiz. I love it even more when a student either teaches me a new way to help students memorize grammar concepts.
This mnemonic came from a student to help our Spanish 2 class memorize the informal tú
command forms (she learned it from her junior high Spanish teacher). Remember that the majority of the informal positive command forms come from go-go verbs (verbs whose yo forms have a "go" ending in the present tense)--for most of them just drop the -go from the yo form present tense to get to the command form.

Infinitive            Yo form                Tú command           
Venir                    vengo                          ven
Decir                    digo                             di
Salir                      salgo                           sal
Hacer                    hago                            haz
Tener                    tengo                           ten
Ir                          voy                               ve
Poner                    pongo                           pon
Ser                        soy                                 sé

Now for the mnemonic. Say this sentence: Vin Diesel has 10 weapons. I'll break it down for you:
Vin=ven
Die=di
Sel=sal
Has=haz
Ten=ten
Wea=ve (if you say it with a German accents it helps)
Pon= pon
S=sé

(Btw--This is lovely "video" is a little something that I created on Blabberize. Read my post about Blabberize here.)

Twitter in the Classroom

I have been a Twitter follower for almost 3 years, but it wasn't until the 2010 Winter Olympics that I became a daily follower. Note that I say "follower" and not "tweeter." I really use Twitter as a news source and as a way to follow the lives of celebrities that intrigue me, including those that speak Spanish. In the last two years, I have only used Twitter in the classroom by showing students interesting tweets in Spanish from celebrities. For example, Maite Perroni (Mexican soap star) tweeted a simple quote: "La perfeccion de lo imperfecto." My Spanish 1 students don't yet know "lo," but they can understand the sentiment. One student translated it as "Perfectly imperfect," which wasn't an exact translation, but she understood the basic gist of the tweet. Another example was a meme that Sergio Ramos (soccer player for Real Madrid) tweeted. It, of course, had his picture with the crests of Real Madrid vs. whatever team they were playing that night. It also had the date and the game time. I don't remember exactly what the date and time were, but let's say it was 12 / 3 / 2012, 18:00. I asked my students what it meant, and most of my classes figured it out if they didn't already know how to read dates and times European style.
With the new school year coming up I decided to up my game with Twitter. I created a professional teacher Twitter account (SraUshupun), and I intend to tweet information I would want my students to know, like The Top Ten Reasons to Study Spanish and a NY Times article "Why Bilinguals are Smarter."  The only people I am following are Spanish speakers and new sources in Spanish (like El Pais and CNN Espanol).
I am not going to make Twitter a "must" for my students, but I want my classes to make those connections with the greater Spanish-speaking world. The first day of class I am going to ask my students how many of them are on Twitter (I am really curious to find out a percentage), and I will share my Twitter name with the students and with their parents on Meet the Teacher night so they can connect with the classroom. I am sure I will update with more ideas as the year continues.