Here’s an example of how I present my vocab. Here are the first three weeks of vocab for Spanish 1 this semester. I never give more than 15 phrases per week, and I don’t like giving even that much, but in Spanish 1 especially it’s hard to avoid that–they just flat out need the vocabulary. […]
I’m constantly looking for communicative, interesting tasks for my students to either create or complete. My Spanish 2 project for the 3rd quarter is an internet scavenger-hunt-type worksheet. Students choose a Spanish-language website and then create a series of questions for another student to complete. The questions can involve playing a game, listening to music, […]
I’ve been out for a while–Christmas was a whirlwind, and then I landed in the hospital for 5 days with a severe infection. The baby weathered it better than I did, but I finally feel like I’m recovering. Enough to get back to the blogosphere anyway! In any case, here’s the story test I gave […]
One of the nominees this year for the Latin Grammy for best Christian album (Spanish language) was Jesús Adrian Romero. I think he’s my new favorite Spanish-language Christian singer (especially since I found out Marcos Witt is pastoring the Spanish church at Joel Osteen’s church, but that’s an entirely different story). Anyway, he has four […]
Alex Campos is, it appears to me, a rising star in the contemporary Christian Spanish music scene, and behold–he has his own YouTube channel. The best thing about his videos is that they’re not all music. He’ll sometimes post a video greeting from wherever he’s doing a concert these days. Greetings always contain at least […]
My assessment has recently shaped up to be that I have 5 test grades in each quarter. We have a high school policy that except in math, tests form 50% of the student’s grade, and daily grades the other 50%. So test grades are pretty important, and I’ve been accused of not having enough tests […]
I’ve been MIA a bit lately–sick and in the finals crunch at school–but I did want to post this video. It’s Ana Cristina singing on the Telemundo show. The song isn’t great (I hope she’s better on CD than she is live) but the Spanish leading up to it is good. Even beginners should be […]
I just got this new song, La frase tonta de la semana, by the group La 5a Estación. The woman in the middle does pretty much all the vocals, and the guys play the guitar. The video is pretty good, though not the most interesting in the world. (She likes to change outfits a lot […]
I bought some new songs yesterday, and mostly they’re really good: Abrázame by Camila No me hagas sufrir by Manny Manuel La copa de la vida by Ricky Martin Aguita de tu boca by Amaury Gutierrez No creo en el jamás by Juanes Pasos de gigantes by Bacilos La frase tonta de la semana by […]
One of my best Spanish 3 students –he or another girl will probably win the department Spanish award this year– forgot to post his blog this week, and so he wrote it in class today and turned it in for me to post for him. It’s a late grade of course, but wow–I watched him […]
Laura Esquivel (left) plays a not-so-attractive girl in a wildly popular Argentinian TV show. She won a contest (I think it was held in Mexico) similar to American Idol, and landed the lead role in this TV show called Patito feo. I think it’s interesting to American teens because of the similarity between this and […]
Two of my favorite groups personally are the Mexican trio Camila and their compatriot duo Jesse y Joy. One of the reasons I like them so much is that I can pretty much play any of their songs, and most videos too, in class. They’re fairly positive & upbeat as far as content goes. Right […]