Continuing with our futbol theme of 2013-2014, here are some infographics from the Mexican revista “Fútbol Total” edición agosto 2013.
Radamel Falaco, who has played club fútbol for Atlético Madrid in Spain’s La Liga, is a major component of getting Colombia to the World Cup in Brasil in 2014. Read about this tremedous goal-scorer:
Always a good debate: who are the 11 best Continue reading
Just discovered a cool new site thanks to @placido on twitter. It’s called Blubbr and you 
can take youtube videos and turn them into trivia “games” by adding questions. Makes videos into great listening activities.
And it couldn’t be easier!
1) Search for a video (I would suggest finding one on youtube first and then copy and pasting the name of the video)
2) You can make each question have a 20 second clip. So at the end of a clip, the students will answer a question.
3) You add the question with 4 multiple choice questions. Keep adding as many questions as you want, choosing a different clip of the video by cropping a new section (part 2)
4) Click Done and share the link with your class!
Here’s a quick one I created in less than 10 minutes: Continue reading
Teaching a unit about Los Animales? Here’s some resources for your Spanish classroom for this Animal unit:
/ResourcesI’ll admit, I’m a huge soccer fan. And I’ve been lucky to attend World Cup qualifying games in Costa Rica to see the passion firsthand. Being the number one sport in Latin America (and the world) gave me even more reason to incorporate this into my classes this year, as we head towards the World Cup in Brasil this summer.
Many of the students (both boys and girls) at my school are really into soccer (Ok, we are just going to call it futbol from here on out!) as evidenced by the number of Barca and Man United jerseys roaming the halls. Last year, we started the year by having students research a soccer team from their classes’ country, but that provided a bit difficult for some countries. Finding websites for even the baseball teams in La República Dominicana and Cuba wasn’t quite plausible. In those cases, we used the Mexican league where students were able to put together some great slides:
Continue reading
One of our goals this year will be to engage students via their own personal interests. At the beginning of the year we will give students a survey to gauge their interests in a variety of topics including sports, tv, music, and celebrities. From that point we will be using 
authentic resources to allow our students access to the language in these high interest topics.
Last year we mentioned websites of several teen magazines in Spanish. And during our recent travels we were able to purchase some of these magazines. Some of them contained some very useful back to school articles. Below are some articles talking about back to school.
Click to enlarge
First, “Los tips de Bombón para sacar un 10 todo el año”. This comes from the La Revista Cartoon Network. (Año 12 Núm 157. Agosto 2013) If you check out the cartoon network site you will find links for various tv shows which students watch including this biography from Monsters High, which is also a big hit in Mexico. 
If your students are practicing Continue reading
I decided to spread my influence outside my classroom this year and take on a bit of the hallway. I created the following display, featuring “Todos Somos América,” with an outline of North and South America and pictures of various families from these lands.
I used 4 black posterboard (bought at dollar store for $0.69 each) and used our school’s laser cutter for the stenciled letters and continent shapes.
I searched flickr for pictures of families from Hispanic Speaking countries and then ordered prints of those pictures from Walgreens (20 photos for $4.00).
I then laminated the top and bottom 2 and hung then up with sticki-clips before taping the two sides together.
I had some small flag stickers that I posted on the pictures of where the family was from and also on the continent of where that country was located.
I also have added flags (and some scarves) next to it as well using my method for hanging up items.
With the title “Todos Somos América” my goal is for students to realize that “America” is not just a country, but an entire continent filled with many different cultures. This is all part of my goal to make students look at things from a different perspective.
I just love this comic. I have it printed in my classroom, but will probably print it again and put in the hallway.
I also enjoy this “upside down America” map to look at things from a different perspective.
Welcome back, teachers! The 2013-2014 school year is upon us. Many teachers have already headed back to work, some are getting their classrooms ready, and some still have precious few days left.
To help with the transition we’re posting some classroom set-up or first week ideas to make your life a little easier.
Students aren’t the only ones shopping for Back to School
Classroom setup including bulletin board ideas, and first week resources…. Continue reading
Jesse & Joy fans can now create their very own Jesse y Joy dolls. These paper figures are ready to make with just paper and scissors. The finished product will stand at approximately 3.5 inches (9 cm). Makes a perfect addition to your desk, dresser, or locker. For your free download… Continue reading
In the United States, a Spanish teacher’s job is not limited to teaching language. We must also educate our youth on how to be civilized citizens of the world. Unfortunately racism still exists and intolerance of “different” cultures is overwhelming. Early this week I wrote about how Spanish teachers can stop promoting simple stereotypes, but this post is so much bigger than that.
During this week’s 2013 MLB All Star game a lot of ignorant tweets were posted regarding a latino singer and his “merit” for singing at an “American” sporting event. Marc Anthony sang a wonderful rendition of “God Bless America”, but comments in the twitter-sphere claimed this act was “un-American”.
Let’s get the facts straight:
1. Marc Anthony was actually born in New York City. Last time I checked, this was part of the United States.
2. Maybe some were confused because his parents were born in Puerto Rico, making Marc of Puerto Rican descent. I guess they didn’t know that Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the United States and all Puerto Ricans are citizens of the USA.
3. “Baseball is an American sport.” Yes, and it quite popular in such American countries as Cuba and Venezuela. Oh, you didn’t realize that America is a continent and not just a country? To most people outside of the USA, North AMERICAN and South AMERICA are referred to as just “America”. It’s not like there have been any other latinos in the MLB.
4. Many people referred to him as being “Mexican” in addition to other racial slurs. Time to take out your maps! It turns out Puerto Rico is not even part of Mexico. But I guess as long as you look latino we can just lump everyone together. It’s not like Spanish is the official language of 21 countries, all of of which would have their own culture.
These are things that must be part of our curriculum. One of the things that I hammer 
home with my students is the difference between the term “Spanish” as a language and “Spanish” as a nationality. Just because someone speaks Spanish, does not make them Spanish. And just because they look a certain way doesn’t make them Mexican. So everything I hear someone describe someone as being “Spanish”, I ask them if they are from Spain…. turns out they usually are not.
Sources of tweets:
Baseball Fans super ANGRY Hispanic-American Superstar sings “God Bless America” at All Star Game
Baseball fans take to Twitter to protest Marc Anthony singing God Bless America
A few offensive tweets (that doesn’t include curse words) after the jump : Continue reading
I happened to take a look at some of the products a popular Spanish-teacher catalog w
as promoting. As someone who enjoys not only the language, but the culture of the Spanish-speaking world I was embarrassed by what I have seen in my profession. The number of stereotypical imaging used on the products was considerable. I can’t even tell you how many maracas, chile peppers, burritos, and tacos that I came across.
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Now some of you may find these images “cute” and think I’m just being grumpy (I did see a lot of that reaction to this image on pinterest). Maybe these items are targeted for an elementary audience, where “cute” is appropriate, but I’ve seen teachers in secondary levels using these types of images as well. And I’ll be honest, I’ve been guilty of this too. We want to “spice up” a worksheet or document with clipart and without many options we choose something arbitrary, such as a piñata. However, if this is what we expose our students to, we are perpetrating these stereotypes. I want my students to see these countries for the beautiful things that they offer. I don’t want them to associate the Spanish language with a taco. Every taco is not created equal. And if your students think Taco Bell is representative of Mexico, then we are failing them.
Share your thoughts below.
Update: We’d like to highlight some clipart that teachers can use that are culturally rich. 
Check out these amazing sets of clipart for Spanish class including Powerpoint backgrounds that respect the culture!
And for further reading on the harmfulness of stereotypical images, read this article.
SpanishPlans.org 