Mini Lesson on The Sagrada Familia, Barcelona Spain

Teaching about culture!

I'm currently teaching my Spanish II students about their travel vocabulary and we're talking about Barcelona, Spain. One of the topics we've talked about is the famous architect Antonio Gaudi - this video is about "La Sagrada Familia" Gaudi's masterpiece which has been under construction for three centries.

This is a video about "the collapse of the Sagrada Familia" but its a video that was created to help gain support for people to complain about the government approving the construction of an under-ground train system, which would run right under the Sagrada Familia.

I could show my students this video and use it to spark a class discussion and even possibly have them write a e-mails supporting this organization.

They could find more information about this cause and the Sagrada Familia at: sossagradafamilia.org

ePals Global Collaboration

ePals is a collaborative global community and learning network. It is a protected, project-based learning network that connects with classrooms in over 200 countries and territories. "ePals makes it easy o connect learners locally, nationally or internationally." There are four major features that ePals offers: ePals Learning Space, ePals Global Community, ePals School Mail, and In2Books. 1) ePals Learning Space: A safe virtual workspace for K-12 communication, collaboration and learning, and to store school work and documents online. There is an educator workspace that includes web 2.0 tools like: blogs, wikis, forums, digital lockers and much more! 2) ePals Global Community: This is the world's largest network of K-12 classrooms from over 200 countries and territories. Its free access to collaborative projects, join discussions in community forums and to search thousands of classroom profiles to engage with others in authentic exchanges. 3) ePals School Mail: An e-mail community designed with SchoolSafe technology and that is embedded student learning support. A cloud-based solution so districts will save a substantial amount of resources annually. 4) In2Books: An e-mentoring program for students that matches students with adult pen-pals, who read the same books. It is a place that is teacher-monitored, for students to exchange e-mails with their pen-pals and ask questions that will help further develop their understanding and opinions about a text they are reading in or out of the classroom. ePals has a lot of valuable resources which are a safe and effective ways teachers can teach their students valuable educational lessons as well as appropriate social media skills. I would have my students use their Spanish to communicate with classrooms from the Hispanic-Speaking world. They will be able to develop valuable cultural knowledge. They could ask foreigners various questions to reinforce their knowledge of topics we discuss in class: daily routines, traveling, lifestyle, sports and wellness, shopping, etc. Then my students could share the results from their research and collaborative communication with their peers and community.

Flickr Photo for a mini Spanish culture lesson

Happy New Year Lesson Idea:

I could use this photo I found on Flickr to start a lesson on Plaza Mayor in Madrid, Spain. I could have students come in and describe or write about what is going on in this picture and where in the world they think it is. We could use this as a conversation piece and it would be a great lead into a mini cultural lesson about different plazas in Spain and Plaza Mayor in Madrid.

Photo By: Urugallu

The photo was taken by Jose Rodriguez who also has other similar photos and his website that I could incorporate into the same lesson.

Texting and Tweeting and learning reading and writing?

Excellent and very insightful video regarding the common myths about texting and tweeting!

Ideas for a place for Twitter in a Modern Classroom

Ideas for a place for Twitter in a Modern Classroom

I recently joined twitter and i'm excited about incorporting it into my classroom!

Here are a few of the articles and websites I checked out for suggestions on how teachers can incorporate Twitter into their classrooms.

Integrating ICT into the MFL Classroom

Langwitches Blog: The Magic of Learning

The Ultimate Twitter Guidebook for Teachers

21C Tools "Twitter"

Learn It In 5 - How-to videos for the Technology Classroom: "Twitter"


Ideas for using Twitter in a classroom:

1) A devise for communicating with students or parents
2) A tool to search for content & organize and filter the information
3) A way to search for current and recent events or news
4) A way for students to engage in conversation
5) Daily lesson summaries
6) Collaborative planning (Teachers - students and students - students)
7) Teacher collaboartion (lesson plans, teaching techniques & tips, etc.)
8) Practice learning a Foreign Language by using "twitterlearn" or just practicing conversation skills with other Twitterers around the world
9) Connect with other classrooms around the world (modern-day pen pal)
10) Use as a poll (student opinions or getting feedback)

Srta. Musso's Diigo account

I've posted a link to my Diigo account which has a lot of really good websites and resources about incorporating technology into the classroom. Ideas like:
1) Templates for student projects
2) A N.Y. Times article about Hacking
3) "The Whole Child Blog" about incorporating blogs into the Elementary grades
4) Technology Tips with Elementary students
5) Using an iPad in a classroom
6) Prezi
7) 10 Ways for teachers and students to build websites
8) Wvoices - a really cool world voices resource that incorporates a kind of voice thread into teaching culture and other topics in a foreign language classroom.
9) Everloop and i-Safe launched a school-safe social networking site for students to use in school
10) Student Blogging directions and ideas for the first classroom introduction to blogging

I hope they help!

Teaching Ideas Using Blogs

3 Ideas on how to incorporate Blogs in a Foreign Language Classroom:

1) Teachers can post a speaking scenario and students can have a conversation with a partner or with the instructor. This can help alleviate some of the stress that comes from speaking in front of their peers in a classroom.

N.Y. State Standards Met:

Standard 1: Communication-
Standard 1.1 Students engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions.

2) Teachers can post a link to a cultural topic, picture, video, work of art, song/music, etc. and students can list their observations, interpretations, and opinions about the piece. Students must also try to make a connection or comparison between the cultural topic addressed and their own culture in the U.S. They can also comment about their classmate's reflections.

N.Y. State Standards Met:

Standard 1: Communication-
Standard 1.1 Students engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions.
Standard 2: Culture –
Standard 2.1 Students demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the practices and perspectives of the culture studied.
Standard 2.2 Students demonstrate understanding of the relationship between the products and perspectives of the culture studied.

3) Teachers can post a copy of an article or a link to an article from or regarding a Spanish-Speaking country and students will have to read and interpret the article. They will have to comment about the piece and give their own opinions and reflections as well as post any vocabulary terms or grammar constructions that they had a hard time understanding.
To help stimulate reflective thoughts teachers can pose three questions or ideas for students to reflect on. Students can comment on their classmate's reflections.

N.Y. State Standards Met:

Standard 1: Communication-
Standard 1.1 Students engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions.
Standard 2: Culture –
Standard 2.1 Students demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the practices and perspectives of the culture studied.