Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell
September 7, 2022
Why, hello, my corner of the internet. How’s it going? As Ecclesiastes reminds us, there’s a time for everything. Today, it’s September 7, 2022, and for Sra. Musicuentos, it’s time to come back. You may not know me. Let’s see if I can condense this into a nice bio overview. In the fall of 2008, […]
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December 31, 2019
We’ve come to the end, Musicuentos reader. You and I have been on quite a journey together, and I’m sure I’ve written something through the years that you loved and/or hated. Of 699 posts, here are the top ten Musicuentos posts of all time (actually, since hits have been measured by Google Analytics, which is […]
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December 23, 2019
In the final Musicuentos post next week, you’ll see what posts are at the top of all 700(ish) of them, in terms of hits overall. But there are some that perhaps didn’t get viewed as much that are special to me, either because I said something I really thought was meaningful and needed, or because […]
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December 12, 2019
As is my habit, as I finished books in 2019 I reflected on them in a post for my blog as my primary platform for public reflection. Perhaps now I’ll just reflect by posting in my Goodreads account? In any case, here, one last time on Musicuentos, is a collection of reflections on what I […]
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December 6, 2019
In the spirit of letting go, I want to share with you something I can’t let go of. Almost three years ago, I sort of fell into directing an all-volunteer ESL program for newcomers. A man I’d never met connected with some people in my church and told them he’d been helping refugees for some […]
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December 1, 2019
Every story comes to an end.
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Exactly eleven years and three months ago, I wrote this: Welcome to my acquisition-based language teaching journey. Let’s call it Musicuentos. And let’s get started. Nearly seven hundred posts later, my Musicuentos journey is coming to an end. I made the decision to end my Musicuentos run last January, a month after I was diagnosed […]
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November 29, 2019
If you’ve ever seen a demonstration of modified MovieTalk and fallen head over heels for it, tried it, and then wondered what to do next, this post is for you. But first, in case you’re new to the idea… What is a MovieTalk? Technically, as Elisabeth at SpanishMama writes in her excellent beginner’s guide to […]
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November 18, 2019
Drum roll… IT’S ACTFL WEEK! I skipped ACTFL last year because let’s face it, it is not cheap to try to pull that trip off when you don’t have institutional or corporate support, and I gladly admit I had zero FOMO – and you shouldn’t have it either. ACTFL is a great experience, and I’m […]
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November 14, 2019
Who would have thought Sra. Musicuentos would have taken a hiatus from music? I blame it on early novice teenagers. A few years ago, I transitioned from teaching intermediate learners into teaching total beginners who were mostly in the tween/teen years. In my experience, that’s not the best environment for using music to really teach (for […]
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October 24, 2019
One thing at a time: Step Five.
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Someone, somewhere, is going to comment, I can’t believe she put this one last. It’s ok. Everyone has their cross to bear, and I’m that person’s. You see, I think that before you make big changes, you need to know sound research principles involving how people acquire and learn languages (that was step one). I want you […]
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October 10, 2019
One thing at a time: Step Four
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So you want to become a better language teacher, and that’s awesome! You’ve laid a good foundation in getting to know some sound research principles involving how people acquire and learn languages thanks to Steve Smith. You’ve figured out what to expect kids to build as they continue on their journey to being proficient in another language. You […]
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September 23, 2019
One thing at a time: Step Three
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So you want to become a better language teacher, and that’s awesome! You’ve laid a good foundation in getting to know some sound research principles involving how people acquire and learn languages thanks to Steve Smith. You’ve figured out what to expect kids to build as they continue on their journey to being proficient in […]
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