Jennifer Bilby: Understanding the global impact of Una canción original

Last week, the genio himself, Señor Wooly, debuted his new, original song. It’s called “Una canción original”. I told you– ¡él es un genio! The untold story of Jennifer Bilby By now, Spanish students and teachers (and their families) worldwide know the story of how Jennifer Bilby won una canción original escrita por el señor Wooly and how she patiently waited for…

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Gasolinazo: What’s happening in Mexico?

Head’s up, USA: “Gas Shortage in Mexico could mess up your Super Bowl party by causing a guacamole crisis“. You’ve GOT to be kidding me. Language teachers share authentic perspectives Perhaps you have heard mention of the gas shortage in Mexico. In an effort to crack down on the costly huachicol (petroleum theft), Mexico’s newly inaugurated president Andrés Manuel…

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Blast to the Past: Addressing AP Themes using Past Tense narrative

 You’ve ditched your textbook and committed to comprehension based methods of teaching. You’re looking at a blank lesson plan book and….you’re stuck. TPRS? CI? SLA? CBM? T1? T2?  How will you ever fill an entire year with lesson plans when you are still trying to keep all the acronyms straight? There are SO MANY teachers…

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10 ways to talk with your students about their weekend

When I first ditched the textbook, Weekend Chats was one of the very first routines that I learned about and started using in class. I was introduced to it by Michele Whaley, and I remember reading about it on Ben Slavic’s blog soon thereafter. I used Ben’s idea of having students illustrate posters of places…

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What to do when you’re done but the school year isn’t

It’s May. If you’re lucky, you are wrapping up your last week or two of school. If you’re on the East Coast, you are staring down another month and a half of classes. Either way–the sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and you.are.done. Here are ten activities that you can use to carry through…

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How to skip Christmas in Spanish and not be a Grinch

The time between Thanksgiving Break and Winter Break was always one of my favorite times of the year in class–it’s also one of the hardest because no one has their head in the game! I LOVED teaching about Christmas traditions from Spanish speaking countries. I LOVED using the commercials for the Spanish Christmas lottery (general…

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