A call to #AuthRes August
Tried stepping outside the textbook to use the target-culture world instead? This stuff is hard, people. Or at least, incredibly time-consuming. Textbooks aren’t so expensive because they weren’t a...
View ArticleAnnual BTS sale: 20%-25% off ebook guides to authentic novels
Have you thought about helping your Intermediate Mid+ students navigate an authentic novel? Spanish-learner novels definitely have their valuable place in the classroom, but in my experience authentic...
View Article#AuthResAugust: The power of Twitter
For those of you who are still avoiding Twitter to streamline your social media life or for whatever reason (I know you’re out there!) I have good news – you don’t have to join Twitter to leverage it...
View Article#AuthResAugust: New(ish) Music!
My first summer out of grad school, I went to an AP Spanish Language workshop that was generally uninspiring except in one respect: the leader was the first person who connected pop music and pedagogy...
View Article#AuthRes August: Top 20 Musicuentos songs
I just posted about some great newish songs I’ve found, but the majority of songs I use in my classroom are tried-and-true successes from the last 12 years of teaching. The fact is, most new music...
View Article#AuthResAugust: Interactive websites
Let’s do one final round of #AuthResAugust on Musicuentos and talk interactive websites! We well know how much the internet has revolutionized language teaching, making authentic language and culture...
View ArticleBest of 2016, #3: 5 ways to use infographics in language class
We’re up to the third most popular post on Musicuentos for 2016. It’s a post on Five ways to use infographics in language class Visual! Comprehensible (often)! I’ve often said that infographics are a...
View ArticleBest of 2016, #2: Top 20 Songs for Spanish Class
Merry day-after-Christmas! We’re almost to the end! The second most popular post of 2016 was also about music – this time, the top 20 songs that have stood the test of time in my class (some more time...
View ArticleAuthentic or learner material? Wrong question.
Sound off: authentic resources or learner materials? Uau, that’s a can of worms. Most teachers I know would say that the answer is a resounding yes. That is, we use both, and we talk about it, a lot....
View Article#AuthresAugust: Blogging street signs in Madrid
Meet Marisa. She’s a really smart Spanish teacher… at a language school in Madrid. Her blog goes back several years, but it just came on my radar in the past year. It’s called “Aprendiendo español...
View ArticleThe best Spanish travel channels on YouTube (#AuthresAugust)
Got a travel unit planned this year? (Who doesn’t?) I love travel, and I love travel units. I don’t care what statistics say about how many of our students will travel. It’s a globalized world, and...
View ArticleACTFL ’17: Novice PBLL, and adapt that text!
I’m having a great time at the annual convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages! My co-presenter and I thought we uploaded our handouts in enough time to have them...
View ArticleA must-have resource to accompany Felipe Alou
Not long ago, I fortuitously caught a tweet or headline notification from a newspaper, maybe the New York Times. It was a review of a new children’s book. The author’s name was Junot Díaz, and the...
View Article#AuthresAugust: Tips for teaching an authentic novel
Dear readers, Esperanza renace is coming. After four long years, the wait for the third Musicuentos ebook guide to an authentic novel is nearly over. Within weeks – perhaps days – you’ll see the...
View Article#AuthresAugust: Kiva project descriptions
Social entrepreneurship… in Spanish 1?! A few years ago, a company called VIF International asked me to think and work with them on this question: What would a project-based learning curriculum look...
View ArticleStraw wars: #authres photo resources for Carrie Toth’s Mar de plástico
Recently I had the incredible privilege to take my daughter on her first international trip. My husband and I had decided we’d do a sort of “coming-of-age” trip for our children when they reached...
View ArticleIf the resource fits, use it! (But what fits?)
The following material is taken from my session for the November 2018 Tennessee Foreign Language Teachers Association. If you read me much, you know that I agree with the broader field that asking...
View ArticleThe wait is over. #EsperanzaRenace
Let me sing a little Rascal Flatts for you. I woke up this morning With this feeling inside me that I can’t explain Like a weight that I’ve carried Been carried away, away. It’s been over four years...
View ArticleAuthentic poems for the Spanish novice
Can novice Spanish learners understand authentic poems? That was the question asked, quite appropriately, through the Ñandutí listserv, an email list from the Center for Applied Linguistics that serves...
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