How many problems can you solve with food? What situations could you improve with the right recipe or menu? My Spanish I class came up with seven, ranging from basic independence to obesity, from allergies to world hunger. My kiddos decided to take on world hunger with a cookbook* of Read more…
I already had 31 options for students to practice Spanish weekly outside of class. They requested more music, so I came up with 6 more musical options. They also requested more food, so here are some ways I’ve thought of that students can interact with Spanish language and target culture Read more…
La Laja is a school in Icononzo, Tolima in Colombia. They have one classroom and around 50 students. Some students walk 2 hours to get there. Ayudando Ando is a charity group out of Bogotá that seeks to support the growth of this tiny school buried in the mountains of Read more…
The North Carolina “Measures of Student Learning” for world languages have not come down the pike yet (in fact, I’m in on the project that is assiduously gallumphing toward their development). However, in the spirit of egalitarianism or something, we still must give “pencil-paper tests” like everyone else. Mind you, Read more…
I’m on a roll! Not just workshops, but booths at my new district’s Teaching & Learning Conference have inspired still more driving questions. Plus I’ve been ruminating over how to phrase questions for materials I’ve used before (with minimal to moderate success but potential somewhere in there deep down). I Read more…
One of last year’s more memorable Spanish 1 lessons involved blindfolding students and making them touch slimy things. We are preparing for a bake sale so we can ship the supplies we collected for La Laja in Colombia (hopefully, along with some video cameras to share messages between our students Read more…
I plundered the Spanish kids book section at my local library. I’ve got 9 books to peruse and plan around. First, we have some recipe books to complement the cooking unit for Spanish I: Available at Amazon Most recipes are under a page and include some very Mexican ingredients (nopales, anyone?) Read more…
She’s been speaking Spanish as long as she’s been able to speak, but she said she learned something worth remembering–and it stuck–when she had stuck was blindfolded and forced to touch different ingredients, guessing in Spanish what they were. So the cooking unit stays. But with modifications. I’m not sure Read more…
1 oven, stove, microwave, refrigerator, table in the kitchen the district office let us use 3 bags/boxes of utensils lent for cooking show purposes20 bags (give or take) of ingredients for both classes2 days for students to cook and record themselves cooking for their cooking shows (180 minutes)18 students in Read more…
There are some things I would do differently about last Friday’s field trip to El Caporal. Right now, the first thing I would change is to have put the $30 worth of chicken in the freezer before the triple snow day hit. Before the trip, days before, I should also Read more…