I blogged about the brilliant use of Pin Pon in the Shrek film (to replace the culturally irrelevant reference to the Muffin Man) here. But since then it appears that video has been removed. The clip is currently available here. (As an added correction I should mention that the tale is actually from a Chilean […]
Subjunctive by reason of indefinite or negative antecedent… doesn’t that sound fun? This is my story for this reason of subjunctive. We do this in the spring semester of Spanish 2. Our principal wakes up in the morning and goes to school. He asks the woman at the front desk, “I’m looking for the student […]
Juanes’s Paz Sin Fronteras concert was such a big deal on the world politics scene (he’s more deserving of the Nobel PP than Obama, but don’t get me started on that, lol) that it would be a shame for a Spanish teacher to pass up the opportunity to encourage world citizens in our classrooms. Here’s […]
You just never know what you’ll find surfing through corporate websites. Yes, sometimes you end up getting a cow on a motorcycle through an obstacle-ridden farm on Mundonick.com, and that’s fun, but corporate websites often contain videoclips that are pure gold for Spanish teachers. They’re exactly what we need–short, high-impact, high-interest, and repetitive. Go check […]
Certain things are super easy to find songs for. Reflexives. Present tense, particularly yo y tú. Preterite yo y tú. That’s about all love songs do, right? Talk about you and me in the past, lol. But the other day my colleague asked if I knew of any songs for 3rd-person preterite, and that was […]
My husband is a bit of a tennis buff and so we were watching the US Open final yesterday and watched Argentinian Juan Martín del Potro defeat Federer in a stunning upset. In the awards ceremony, del Potro gave a short speech in Spanish (at 1 mins 15 sec). I thought, that’d be very interesting […]
I blogged about my favorite 5a Estación song, La Frase Tonta de la Semana, here and here. The second time I reported that the music video had been taken down for violation of copyright. Good news, Sony BMG has the videoclip oficial up on the La Quinta Estación YouTube channel, along with the duet with […]
Kids motivated by technology? Want to get them creating AND listening to their own Spanish? This could be the most revolutionary tool I have seen for my classroom in a long time. I made this video in about twenty minutes. http://www.xtranormal.com/players/jwplayer.swfhttp://www.xtranormal.com/players/embedded-xnl-stats.swf
I love crossover songs. That’s what I call those songs that have so much good material in them that they’re great from Spanish 1 to AP. Fanny Lu’s new hit Tú No Eres Para Mí is one of those. It’s especially good for uses and conjugations of ser. There’s the title, which is of course […]
Ever heard of Sorpresa TV? It’s kid shows, only in Spanish! Among the many shows is The Wumblers, featuring Raimundo, a bilingual Latino snail. You can watch episodes online. Really, you’ve gotta check it out. Talk about fodder for early Spanish learners!! Also check out the site’s section of bilingual games.
Fonseca is a fun singer, another Colombian (they can seriously turn out some people with rhythm, eh?) with some great songs for teaching. Of course our favorite in my class is the ‘dancing firemen song’ “Hace tiempo,” which I blogged about here, but another one I like to use is “Te mando flores”, with its […]