I was named, by Taylor University, Outstanding Future Educator by the Indiana Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (IACTE).
In 2011, I received a grant for 30 classroom ipods to be used within my classroom. Below is a clip from one student's voice recording, which is then shown with her avatar to present to the class:
These are little puppets I made to act out Don Quijote de la Mancha. The students played the different parts. For Spanish I and II, I used an English translation of the play. For Spanish III, IV, I would use a more simple Spanish version, like a children's version.
Students pair actions to each verb that is learned. Here one of my students shows hacer, to make or to do, in this case, they are learning the affirmative tú commands. All irregulars are memorized with a song and the motions. Students create the motions as they discover the meaning behind the verb.
This is one way I like to introduce conjugation. The students learn the endings and move them to create verb phrases. They then write the translation in English on the back of the paper, punch them, and either attach them to their flashcard ring or clip them into their binder.
The student create flashcards and then use them to play tic-tac-toe, memory, or study from. To play tic-tac-toe you win a square by knowing the vocab word. And then turn the words to face yourself (that´s like putting an x or an o), continue play until students form a 3-in-a-row. This works out great for those students who finish an activity faster than others, they can get together and play, or go back over old vocabulary.
This is a fun artsy project for students to do. They create a cube with each verb form yo, tú, usted, nosotros, vosotros, ustedes, on each side of the cube and then illustrate what the verb is saying. In this case bailar, which means to dance.
This cutie catcher is designed to help students learn adjectives and form sentences. The students also go back over colors and numbers. Students enjoy telling one another´s fortune.
This is my verb wall, it assists students in forming verbs and includes curtains that close for quizzes or tests.
These are a few of the examples that students created from our Spanish Artist project. They re-created a masterpiece using a new medium.
Here is a board I created for The Day of the Dead. Students created the tombstones of famous Spanish-speakers.
My latest discovery has been this website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/mividaloca/ which could be the neatest website, even program to teach beginning Spanish. You won't even believe how much it involves your students and captivates through video, games, grammar activities. You become a character in an elaborate movie, it's somewhere between roll-playing video game, Reality TV, Rosetta Stone, and cassette tapes. I'm hooked, go BBC!
We constructed Cascarones to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, it's a tradition brought to Europe by Marco Polo, then to Spain, then to Mexico by Maximiliano's wife Carlota, where breaking a confetti filled egg over a friend's head brings good luck! As you can tell it was egg-celent.
This was a project students worked on to make their dream house. They were given 4 ways of doing the project, 1. a PowerPoint 2. a look-book 3. a model 4. a blueprint. I love giving more than one way to do a project because it cuts down on excuses, and gives students the flexibility and autonomy students need. They really got into this project and then were able to explain to the class in Spanish what each of their rooms were, what each contained, etc. . . It was exciting to hear how they were going to make these dreams a reality and what their aspirations were for the future.
