books
November 18, 2023
Meet Jack, the mean clown who wants to help you remember the map to TL Memory Lane. Earlier this year, I blogged about the lessons we can learn from Lisa Genova‘s book Remember. Check out that blog post for a more in-depth look at the content of the book. I mentioned there that my dear […]
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May 9, 2023
Remember that car that was parked two spaces down from you, at that store you went to, for that thing you wanted to buy? Of course you don’t. Every day, thousands of events pass through our experience, and they do not stay with us. For most of us, these experiences go in, they’re briefly acknowledged […]
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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 24, 2018
All the Fluff: Book Club 2018
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It’s that time again! My mind scattered in a lot of directions this year and I didn’t read as much as I should have, but here’s a run-down of what I did get to read. I’ll end with some items on my to-read list and ask you for some recommendations. Must read I’m ending the […]
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April 17, 2018
Not long ago, I fortuitously caught a tweet or headline notification from a newspaper, maybe the New York Times. It was a review of a new children’s book. The author’s name was Junot Díaz, and the name didn’t strike me right away as familiar. Soon I realized it was the author of a recent Pulitzer novel, The […]
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December 31, 2017
Book Club 2017: All the Fluff
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It’s that time again! Here’s a run-down of what I read in 2017. It’s newly on my bucket list to read all the Pulitzer-winning novels, and this year’s list has 2: His Family, the first one, and The Underground Railroad, the latest one. I prefer the first, and below you’ll see why. Must Read Best of 2017: […]
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December 20, 2017
In the month of December I’ve normally taken somewhat of a break from blogging. But wait, Sra. Musicuentos, all of 2017 has been “somewhat of a break” from blogging. I know. And my personal life is appreciating it very much. In any case, in what remains of this December I still hope to post a few pseudo-typical […]
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August 29, 2017
I’m at the library a lot, and I’m a bibliophile. I especially love library books. In Spanish. For small children. Okay, so I do teach very young children at a homeschool co-op, and even more importantly, my own little ones are on a bilingual journey, but whether you teach littles, have littles, or are just […]
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December 26, 2016
The title of Who Owns the Learning came up as a possibility for this past summer’s #langchat, and the title immediately caught my eye. It’s been a huge dilemma in my quest to figure out why students don’t continue in their language journey – if they don’t own the learning past my classroom, have we all wasted […]
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December 19, 2016
Book Club 2016: All the Fluff
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It’s that time again – the time of year when I take a bit to reflect on what I’ve read this year, and since this is my blog, I do it here. Like last year, I’m putting all the non-professional-related books I read in this one post and I’ll make dedicated posts to other books I […]
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January 19, 2016
Where is the magic intersection of great children’s literature and stories particularly helpful for early language acquisition? I’ve spent a lot of time investigating my answers to this question and I hope my choices and the adaptations I offer here are helpful to you, whether you teach the young or the old who will tolerate […]
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December 29, 2015
Book Club 2015: Make It Stick
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I appreciate anecdotes, but I’ve been passionate for a long time about finding out what science says about how people learn in general, and how people learn language, and why people choose to learn anything. It’s what makes Brain Rules and Drive my top two books from the last decade to recommend to any teacher. […]
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