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Palabras de tecnologia para usar en clase

Posted on August 17, 2012 by spanishplans

Since I will be utilizing iPads in the classroom this year and engaging the students on the educational social media tool edmodo, among other web tools, I thought I better brush up on some technology vocabulary. I plan to do the instruction of using these tools in the target language, but I realized that there are some words that even I didn’t know in Spanish, so I compiled a list of what my students will need to know. I thought you’d all enjoy if I shared this list as well: Continue reading →

Posted in Vocabulary, Web2.0 Technology | Tagged tech, technology | 11 Comments

Taco Bell in Mexico

Posted on August 13, 2012 by spanishplans

A lot of Americans assume that Taco Bell is Mexican food simply because it sells things such as “tacos”. But claiming that Taco Bell sells Mexican food couldn’t be further from the truth. To claim such is a great insult to actual Mexican food. Nevertheless, I have to really convince my students that this is the case. Many do not believe me when I tell them that Taco Bell is not Mexican food.

Taco Bell is an American restaurant that sells American-style Mexican food. At best it could be called Tex-Mex food. Let’s start with the taco. Taco Bell sells a hard corn shell filled with “ground beef”, lettuce, tomato, and cheese. An truly authentic Mexican taco is served on 2 small corn tortillas, topped with meat, cilantro, and onion.

Chalupas? Try asking a Mexican what a chalupa is. Most have no idea. Taco Bell’s burritos and gorditas don’t even come close to the real thing. And nachos? Again, more of a Tex-Mex thing than anything else.

Also in Spanish

But here comes the stunning news: Taco Bell has opened up locations in Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | Tagged comida, Tacos | 9 Comments

Back to School Contest

Posted on August 13, 2012 by spanishplans

To give you something to look forward to as you head back to the classroom, we are pleased to announce a Back to School Contest. One lucky winner will walk away with a notebook, pen, and one of our most popular products on CD.

Win these 3 items: A $25 value

Continue reading →

Posted in Free | Tagged back to school, contest | Leave a comment

Letras B y V

Posted on August 12, 2012 by spanishplans

Because the letters “b” and “v” have the same pronunciation in Spanish, they can sometimes be a bit confusing. Calling the letters “be” and “ve” sounds exactly the same, so many times you will hear other names for these letters. “Be de Burro” and “V de vaca” are one way to distinguish these letters. Another is “B grande” and “v chica”. Recently, the RAE has declared that the “v” shall be now known as “uve”, but that will still not help the spelling of words.

Letras B y V

If you have ever had native speakers in your class, Continue reading →

Posted in Chistes, Vocabulary | Tagged alfabeto | 1 Comment

Querido Tommy

Posted on August 6, 2012 by spanishplans

Here’s another great song to add to your Spanish class collection. This song is great for early level Spanish class because the pace is slow and very easy to understand. Of course, you can use any authentic media, such as a song, with any level, the only difference for novice learners and more advanced students will be the task you ask them to perform.

The song “Querido Tommy” is a letter written by a fan to singer Tommy Torres asking him for help in professing his love a girl. Tommy responds with this song. You can see the lyric video here and see the fill lyrics below.

Continue reading →

Posted in Music | Tagged letras, listening, música, Songs, Tommy Torres | 2 Comments

Poster Sale

Posted on August 1, 2012 by spanishplans

For those teachers who are just starting their first job and are trying to figure out how to decorate their empty classroom or veteran teachers looking for fun, new ways to connect with their students, we have an exciting deal for you.

As part of our August Back to School Sale, we are hosting a BUY TWO, GET ONE FREE sale on all all posters.

You can get 3 awesome posters for the price of 2. Shipping as low as 3 dollars for the 3-set of posters. How awesome would the following look in your classroom?

Click the image above to purchase any posters, and be sure to check out other items in our store. Spend over $50 and get FREE SHIPPING. Be sure to keep checking our facebook for special giveaways and other sales throughout the month.

Our most products:
–‘Me Gusta’ self inking stamp
–Over 50 Bell Ringers
–Conversation Cards
–Pack of 50/100 Verb Cards
–Bulletin Board Set

Posted in Resources | Tagged back to school, posters, Sale | Leave a comment

Has this ever happened to you?

Posted on July 28, 2012 by spanishplans

Spanish teachers, has this ever happened to you? A student asks you how to translate some really obscure word into Spanish? Then this is the comic for you:

How do you normally respond to these questions?

Posted in Chistes, Vocabulary | Tagged chistes, comic, tira comica | 3 Comments

Colombia

Posted on July 20, 2012 by spanishplans

One of my biggest pet peeves is the spelling of the Colombia. In fact, I have even seen news programs get it wrong. The country of Colombia does not have a “U” in it. Not even in the “English version”. In Spanish AND English the country has two O’s. No U’s. This is one fact my students know not to mess up.

There are tons of companies that use the spelling “Columbia”. Columbia Sportswear is probably the biggest one. The New York university Columbia is well know, along with other colleges going by that name. Among cities named Columbia, we must mention the capital of South Carolina.

Posted in Culture | Tagged Colombia, countries | 3 Comments

Our Top Pins

Posted on July 17, 2012 by spanishplans

As summer nears, we bring you our top pictures that have been pinned and repinned on pinterest. If you are not using pinterest yet, what are you waiting for? It has become a great way to teachers to get ideas on everything from classroom decoration, organization, lesson plans, activities, and much more. Join our 500 other followers and start re-pinning these great ideas for your Spanish class!

10. Spanish Sqworl
Over 90 websites with ideas, resources, games, readings, and more to use in your Spanish class. Organized on our Spanish Sqworl. Also check out our Tech Tools Sqworl.

9. Cognate Word Wall
Last January we wrote about our Spanish cognate word wall that we post as our classroom bulletin board. When reading, students can add a new word to the wall by using a sentence strip post-it.

8. Guess Who Spanish Student Assistance Sheet
Students can use this print-off to help them form the questions with the correct vocabulary. Perfect game to practice descriptions!

7. Facebook Personal A
How do you get kids to remember to put the ‘personal a’ in front of forms of gusta? Easy, you show them authentic examples from their favorite website, facebook.

And speaking of facebook, have you checked out our new “Me Gusta” Stamp?

6. Conversation Cards
Get your beginning Spanish students talking! Over 300 questions for your students to ask and respond to. 31 pages for Level 1 Cards and 28 pages for Level 2 Cards with 6 “cards” on a page to cut out. Click the image to download the free preview or to purchase the cards on CD.

See the top five… Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Pinterest | 2 Comments

Adopt a Country

Posted on July 11, 2012 by spanishplans

This past year, I had a new idea to expose my students to more culture and have them identify with a particular Hispanic country. I had each class “Adopt a Country” so to say. Each of my classes choose a particular country; we had a head-to-head vote until we narrowed it down to one country. Each class had one country that they would focus on for the school year.

At the beginning of the year, students learned the geography of Latin America and took a quiz on labeling the map and matching the capitals. (Quiz here).

The first step was buying some cheap clocks to hang up in my room so that we could talk about the time in that particular country. It beat having to ask “¿Qué hora es?” every day and get the same time because I could choose to ask “Qué hora es en…Chile ahora?“