Friday, September 19, 2014

Spanish Class Activities

Here are some Spanish activities we've been doing that you can ask your kids about to avoid the dreaded "nothing" answer when you ask, "So what did you do in school today?" question! 

QR Codes

The students used their phones to scan QR codes around the room to find pictures and voice recordings in Spanish of school supplies vocabulary. 

Kahoot! 

The kids love Kahoot!  It's a computer based game show type activity where multiple choice questions are flashed on the screen and students use their computers or phones as "clickers" to make their choices.  Kahoot! keeps track of who is in what place by who answers the questions correctly and how fast they click in!  It is a great way to practice vocabulary.

Class Tools

A computer game that I can make that turns vocabulary practice into a  Mario brothers type game and/or explosion games with increasingly difficult levels of play. 

Slapido Rapido

A picture card game that the students play at their seats.  It's intense!  I call out the words in Spanish and the students try to locate and slap the card first.  It's excellent practice and very energetic!

Office Max-Mexico

The students explored the Office Max Mexico website to find school supply words that we've learned and to see how far their Spanish can take them on a real Spanish website.  They were able to guess quite a bit and recognize quite a bit!  They also went to a Mexican peso converter site to discover how many pesos are in a dollar so they could understand the prices on the Office Max site. 

So ask about any of these activities and hopefully, you'll start a fun discussion about school and Spanish class! 

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Mucho Gusto! Open House

Almost 50 students' parents came to Open House last night!  It was wonderful to talk to so many moms and dads and grandmas and see future Spanish students (little sisters and brothers).  I hope you enjoyed meeting all the teachers and walking around our big school and up and down all the stairs! 

It's only the beginning of September, but we're moving right along with our Spanish lessons.  We've started learning about 30 school-related nouns such as pencil, paper, backpack, book, etc.  Our next quiz is Friday, September, 19. 

Many parents asked about homework.  I do not give homework except for studying for the quizzes.  We do so much practice in class that I do not assign extra practice outside of class.  We practice in many different ways.  Students practice with me repeating and with pair work and group work and with Power Point flashcards and activities...class games, pair games.  I try to use lots of pictures and songs to appeal to a variety of learning styles and help students memorize more easily.  We also do more traditional translations and worksheets as well.  In addition, we do computer games and activities with the computers.  The students have a "Live Binder" on their JT Learn page.  I am posting the the link here for you and making a tab for it so you can access the Live Binder.  It has links to many of the songs and computer games.  I will be updating it as the year goes on so some sections do not have links in them yet. 

Live Binder

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Great Start!

We've had a great start to the school year.  The students have been wonderful.  We've learned numbers 1-20, days of the week, months of the year, the alphabet and some basic greetings.  We'll start learning school vocabulary and more numbers soon. The students have taken their first quiz and will take another one this Friday.  They have practiced their Spanish with their classmates and with computer games.

We have 29 people signed up for text reminders, 23 people following us on Instagram, 10 new followers on Twitter, and around 30 new likes on Facebook.  I've posted lots of pictures of the students on those sites for parents to see the students "in action"!  You can see the pictures by looking at the Facebook tab or Instagram tab on the blog even if you don't have a Facebook/Instagram.

You can still sign up for Remind, the text reminders.  I send reminders for quizzes the day before the quiz. You can check students' grades at anytime on the school's Home Access Center.

Open House is coming up on September 10th.  I hope to meet many of you there.

Monday, August 18, 2014

The First Day of School!

Happy First Day of High School!  Today was the first day of high school for my students and my 29th first day of school as a teacher.  It was a great day.  The students got to know each other a little bit through some ice-breaker questions and they played a game with the Spanish numbers 1-10.  I also helped them to find their way to their next class so they could get used to our big building.  I let them know about the Social Media sites they can use to help feel connected to our class and see pictures.  This week we will learn greetings in Spanish and get to know some of the procedures for class. 

Parents:  Please feel free to contact me at any time with any questions or concerns.  I'm looking forward to a fantastic year with the students! 

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Social Media

I've had a class Facebook for the last several years to share information, pictures and even fun contests and trivia with students and parents.  The Facebook is linked to Twitter so you can follow Twitter if that's better for you.  Just yesterday I created an Instagram account for our class for pictures so there are several Social Media ways to follow what's going on in the classroom in addition to this blog!  Click on any of the links below or the tabs at the top of the blog if you're interested.

Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

Friday, August 1, 2014

Remind

Remind is a safe texting service where teachers can send outgoing texts to students and parents and no phone numbers are shared.  To participate in this program, follow the directions below.  I will send out reminder texts and informational texts throughout the school year.  You can also get these text reminders in your email if you choose.



Apps

There are quite a few free and inexpensive apps to use to help you learn and practice Spanish.  I've tried many and these are the ones I think are the best.  Some are just for phones and some are available for the computer as well.  Click on any of the links below to find information on these apps.

Duolingo
Memrise
Mindsnacks
Spanish Smash

So consider downloading an app to your phone and practicing your Spanish!