September 13, 2013
Stations: Exploring music
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In AP, one of the ways I love to build up to an oral comparison or persuasive essay, our two “test” assessments in each unit, is to explore the topic using stations. One of my spring units is called “El ritmo me mueve” and involves investigating artistic expression in many forms: art, design, music, and […]
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September 8, 2013
For the original myths post, click here. You can also view all of the myths posts. In world language teaching, somehow we’ve come to believe that communication among learners is really going to equip them to communicate with native speakers. For sure, it’s a start. It’s a necessary, good start. But it’s a myth. Now, I’m […]
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September 5, 2013
The most popular Latin pop song in the country has NOVICE written all over it. The song is called “Voy a vivir” by Marc Anthony. The chorus is a catchy, feel-good, novice-level message: Voy a reír, voy a bailar Vivir mi vida lalalalá Voy a reír, voy a gozar Vivir mi vida lalalalá This song […]
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September 2, 2013
What if the way we’ve been doing lesson plans for years and years makes no sense at all, given the research on memory and brain function? For the way I currently approach lesson planning I have to give a lot of credit to two very smart guys, Greg Duncan and John Medina. Greg Duncan is […]
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August 26, 2013
I recently joined the Ñandu listserv, a service of Ñandutí, the Center for Applied Linguistics‘s resource center for early (K-8) language learning. As a member of the listserv I get questions and recommendations from other elementary world language teachers. (I don’t currently teach elementary levels formally, but I do a workshop for 18 months to […]
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August 20, 2013
At a recent conference I had the opportunity to connect with the couple at the head of Common Ground International, who have recently put out an app for iPad (and iPod Touch and iPhone) called High School Spanish (check out their website). It’s a useful, intuitive resource for students studying Spanish, and is especially tailored for […]
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August 18, 2013
Choice in homework, updated
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The homework choice approach is probably my most popular idea ever (it’s a toss-up between that and the YouTube commercials quizzes). Read about the original idea and browse lots of updates using the choice tag. I just updated my list and its format (and stole a name for it from Bethanie Drew @lovemysummer). I used […]
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August 17, 2013
One of the most important things we can do at the beginning of the year is to help our students understand the concept of proficiency: what it is, where they’re at, where they’re going. Browse through previous posts tagged “proficiency” for lots of help on informing about proficiency, as well as improving it. These posts […]
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August 15, 2013
I’m so glad I’ve finally gotten around to telling you about this app I absolutely love. Storykit is completely free and developed by the International Children’s Digital Library. It’s an app you can use to read some of the books available through the ICDL, but its much more attractive feature is as a story building app. […]
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August 13, 2013
I love traditions. I love Christmas traditions and cultural traditions and all sorts of traditions. But let’s not be fooled that just because we like to do something over and over, that means it’s working, eh? What traditions are you kicking out this year? What beloved traditions are really working for you and will be […]
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August 11, 2013
I certainly am not the only teacher blogging about going back to school! Check out these great posts from innovative colleagues: Browse Maris Hawkins’ category “beginning of the year” as she goes back with her middle school Spanish students. Meg Villanueva offers great advice on how to break the ice in a TPRS classroom. Garnet […]
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August 9, 2013
Want a vast unabridged Spanish/English dictionary app? Or a Spanish-language thesaurus at your digital whim? Check out the complete dictionary and thesaurus apps from Word Magic. The developer is offering twenty promo codes for Musicuentos readers. Read my review and information on the giveaway below. The Word Magic dictionary is admittedly an expensive app at […]
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