Minute by Minute Spanish

Spanish Lessons

#1 Reason Why Smart Parents Do Not Text Their Children at School

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Smart parents show restraint.
Misguided parents will be unhappy with the unintended consequences of their fears dictating constant communication with their children.

 

At a recent national conference, teachers shared their stories with me about a shift in the past two years: parents feel entitled to exchanging texts with their children all day while they are in school.

Previously parents would text info for after-school logistics that would be read at the end of the school day.

Now they micro-manage their children’s experiences – preventing their children from connecting with other adults in the school community. The African proverb about needing a village to raise a well-adjusted child has been replaced with isolation and the sole lifeline to mom and dad. This creates anxiety for the students and satisfies some need of the parents.

But the good feeling that parents experience by satisfying that need is fleeting because their child doesn’t learn to self-soothe, doesn’t learn to trust and work with other caring adults, and doesn’t learn to independently negotiate sticky situations. Some parents are smug that their children can live in their house for as long as they want. They are the lucky ones, because what these misguided parents don’t see coming on their horizon is that when their child becomes sexual, their sexual partner will replace the parents. Their child’s sexual partner will be the one who is called for every decision and the partner is not going to share with the parents. Their child is used to one lifeline, and it can’t continue to be the parents because of sexuality. These parents will be appalled at how their child is attracted to someone who isolates him or her from others. They will struggle to see that it is a natural consequence for their actions. These parents can’t believe that they were so close to this child and now they only see the child on certain holidays on certain years. One such pair of parents were horrified when the new spouse explained the Christmas visitation schedule: one year with her parents, one year with his parents and the third year just the couple and no parents.

The rise in parents unable to leave their children alone for seven and a half hours a day while they are in school coincides with another shift that recent research attributes to social media and cell phone usage: a rise in student anxiety. Many schools now have ‘quiet rooms’ for anxious students. While in the past teachers sought out anxious parents to help soothe the transition for them and their students and eliminate the anxiety, not all parents think the anxiety they have and the consequences it has on their children is a bad thing. Some parents judge the quality of their parenting by their level of anxiety. When one parent was asked if she felt better about her child going to a new school after a tour of the new building, the mother replied, “Oh, no, you have to understand, I have been the most anxious parent since kindergarten and nothing will change that!” She was proud of her anxiety as if that would win her “The Best Parent Ever “award.

Good parenting is more of a marathon than a sprint. If your goal is to raise wonderful, independent adults, help yourself and your children by not texting them all day while they are in school. Let them develop other adult resources to help them navigate through their day. Start in middle school/junior high and show restraint. Help them to negotiate social situations in advance with “what if” scenarios. Strategize with them how to approach teachers about makeups and missing grades. Equip them and then let them try it and wait until the school day is over to get your report. If they are upset and have to get through a couple of hours of being upset, it doesn’t make you a bad parent – it makes you a good parent who is developing some age-appropriate inner strength.

It just might help you to stay in better contact with them when they are adults by choosing partners who share and not isolate.

If your child takes Spanish, consider donating these videos to their Spanish teacher to play at the beginning and end of class. All net proceeds go to three desperate Venezuelan families who create them.

 

Stay on task and in the target language by having students put away their phones.

 

Purchase here to help support some desperate Venezuelans.

You can help some starving Venezuelans
All net proceeds go to help three Venezuelan Families to survive their economic crises.
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Thanks for Visiting For the Minute by Minute Spanish!

Unintentional Consequences of Social Media Clash with Appropriate Classroom Behavior

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Don’t blame the parents or the students! Blame social media surrounding our middle school students with the belief that every opinion is important and demanding of immediate attention.  The village needs to directly teach children and their parents to stop this or else the students will not deserve an excellent Teacher Evaluation when applying to colleges.

In case the parents don’t know, over 700 universities accept the Common Application. Its Teacher Evaluation will be important and students really don’t know who in their senior year they will be asking to complete it.  Acting like  jerks in ninth grade study hall may prevent students from getting the kind of recommendation they need. I described this in detail in books for parents and a book for teachers.  If you want the whole explanation and create a paradigm shift with your community, consider using these books: Seventh Grade Guide  Sixth Grade Guide  Teacher Dialogues

But if you just want the 10 minute explanation it goes like this.  Pick a time to have a heart-to-heart talk with your class.  Explain that their speaking out, whining, and interrupting, is becoming a habit that must now be broken in middle school because their high school teachers will be judging them and evaluating them.  Even if they think they will grow up when they are juniors – their senior teachers may have had them in a study hall or lunch room duty when they were freshmen.  Even if they are marked as being good – they are in column 5 of 7 – and not the best candidates.  The margin is very slender.  Show them the four areas indicated with the arrows that concern you.  Tell them that they have a great future, but not if they don’t have the social skills desired by adults writing and reading the college applications.

This usually stops students and parents.  I tell them that I will do my job by reminding them with the words, “social skills alert” meaning their lack of appropriate social skills is a problem.  I call their parents and tell them that I am doing this to help them and ask for their help.  I assure the students and their parents that this is so important that I am willing to assign detentions and work with their parents to get them back on track.

As for Spanish class, I have created three musical videos to demonstrate these skills.  The first is how to treat a new student in class.  The second is how to write an email to a teacher, and the third is the most important, asking if now is a good time before just talking at the teacher with different requests.

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As I write these words in March, I see many teachers writing about classroom management beginning to unravel. Point systems are all about external validation that quickly loses its attraction and the external rewards need to be upped as time goes on. There is no magic bullet that will last the year. External rewards only last so long.

But internal validation is something else.  It’s about catching their vision of who they want to be and showing how developing self-discipline will get them there.  Connect with your students by sharing this information with them and their parents and relating their behavior choices to their future ability to have the things they want and the lifestyle they deserve.

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Spanish Ordinal Numbers Game

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Spanish ordinal numbers from ellen shrager on Vimeo.

A Spanish teacher, Patty, asked for ideas for teaching ordinal numbers.

I make a class set of ordinal numbers inside page protectors and attached with ribbon – I want them to last until I retire!

 

Each student hangs it on his or her desk.  The desks are in a circle so that we can see one another’s number.

We do a chant – slap the desk twice and as you snap the first time you say your number and as you snap the second time you say the number of someone else.

Repeat

Once the person you have called upon passes successfully to the next person, then you can lift up your sheet and not be called on.

But if there the person you call on goes off beat, then I, as the teacher, restart the chant calling on you.

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Five Rules for Spanish Class Transitions

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Use these 5 rules for any world language class.
Don’t let transitions undermine classroom management!

A student studying to be a Spanish teacher asked, “What frase in the target language should I use to get their attention when transitioning to an new activity?”
The shallow answer is “¿listos o no listos?” My students answer in unison “listos” and occassionaly in a playful mood they will tell me “no listos” and I will tell them “no es la respuesta correcta” and we try again and move on.

Transitions can make or break classroom management and a one-size-fits-all approach is a common pitfall for new teachers. As a reflective teacher in her 30th year in the secondary classroom, I have 5 rules for world language class transitions.

1. Do not try to get the class to be quiet, rather you want them to be attentive. Students respond better to giving you a reply than to hushing. Create responses for them and they will all join in.

2. Do not get their attention until you are 110% prepared with the next activity. Getting their attention and then fumbling for the location of the handouts or the track on the CD or link to the video is deadly to classroom management. You will loose them and their attentiveness for future transitions, as they figure you don’t really mean it . . . yet.

3. Support your transitions with a visual, assuming you can project on to a screen or wall. I make a daily tech guide with a slide for each activity and each transition so that the students look up and know what to do even if they can’t quite hear you above all the paired practice speaking going on around them. Make a list of your weekly activities, make a slide for each one and a transition for each one.  Use a remote presentation device or wireless mouse so you can stand near certain students while you transition through the class.  Click here for videos of my tech-guided classes.

4. If you are using music or a video, embed them in your daily tech guide. This extra prep work will pay large dividends as you minimize down time.

5. Use musical transition videos. Over 50 of them were made by some fairly desperate Venezuelans and all proceeds go to them. They have created the best atmosphere for my level one classes, students delighting in the musical breaks and singing along as they do the transition. My transitions are now seamless.

2023 Update: Check just prep during your prep here  – we now have over 100 videos. 

Get a free version here.

Scroll down this previous post to get a feel for them – there are examples in six languages. They are a game changer!


1.  When I am ready to start, I play the class count down video – students know to be seated and quiet as they count down the 3 -2 – 1 ya!  French version below!

 

 

Students use this expression spontaneously before beginning anything.

2  I greet them, ask how they are, and tell them the objective of the day and the class activities of the day – all on 3 slides.   I play the “Take out the Homework” video and show the answers on the board while I quickly check for completion.  Since day two of the school year when I first played it, my students spontaneously tell me ‘la tengo’ or ‘no la tengo’ and if someone doesn’t have it everyone else asks, “¿en serio?”

 

3. Check for questions and play the musical slide to take attendance – we get nasty emails if we miss attendance for any class!  My students tell me” X está ausente” or “no está ausente, en el baño.”

4.  Play “The Daily Review”song and complete five minutes of review.  My Spanish 1 students can fluently say “cuando necesito gramática perfecta” and “¿Qué hago – repaso, repaso, repaso”

5.   Play “Take Out the Vocab List video and they can all mimic “Favor de sacar la lista del vocabulario.”

I also play the self- talk musical slide that reminds students if they don’t get it right to tell them selves – I don’t have it yet!  I introduce a chunk of vocabulary, practice comprehension with gestures and then show slides with visuals.  My Spanish 1 students use “lo acerté spontaneously in many situations” and even “no lo acerté – todavía.”

6.    Play the video about finding a random partner of the week or if we already did it play the musical slide to find this week’s partner.

My students can say ¿Quién sera? even though they won’t be taught this tense for three more years.

7. Practice with partner(s) usually some kind of spontaneous speech activity – there are videos that show the students how to play guessing games. If we have the computers then they will watch “The Take Out the Computer”  video, “Practice QuizletLive” video, students practice on their own, play the quizlet live video and finally I play the  “Put Away the Computers” video and rearrange the chairs slide.  My students quickly learn the games that have songs to teach the vocabulary and create spontaneous dialogues – month two of Spanish One!  They can all do “más alto, más bajo” and many others.

8. Slide leading into next activity – could be a listening activity or a reading activity or Simon says.  My students all know “vamos a jugar” and can follow it with many games.

 

9. Tidy up the room.

_13 Que desorden Pls no posting – trimmed from ellen shrager on Vimeo.

 

10.Take out the Agenda video and students write down the homework.  My students can say any line from this song at appropriate times.

“ay no me gusta, pero es importante”  “Saco mi agenda, escribo la tarea.”

_20 Saco Mi Agenda Pls no posting – trimmed from ellen shrager on Vimeo.

11. Closure – students sing and then tell me something new they learned.  My students can spontaneously say “Hoy, hoy aprendi ” and complete the thought.

Video 69 Señora – trimmed from ellen shrager on Vimeo.

 

My public school seventh, eighth, and ninth graders in Spanish One produce spontaneous speech even if they don’t want to – they can’t help themselves because music enters their brains and remains like nothing else that I have tried in these past 30 years.  You can make your own songs or use mine.

You can even use  my videos,  created by native speakers, and offered here  on TeacherspayTeachers. Or click here for the starter kit!  They help support several Venezuelan families. We are making them in French, Mandarin, German, and Latin, and English.  What I love about TeacherspayTeachers is that it helps new teachers to quickly climb the learning curve by selecting tried and true activities from veteran teachers still in the classroom, like me!  If you need something new to get your students spontaneously  speaking in the target language – this is it!

 

Click here for English Videos

 

Click here for French Videos

 

Click here for German videos

Click here for Italian videos.

Click here for Mandarin videos

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Thanks for Visiting For the Minute by Minute Spanish!

Spanish Class and Black History Month

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Today, a teacher asked, “What are some things you do in class during Black History Month?”

First, we do a lesson on  Dr. King’s Legacy usually around his birthday.

Students enjoy going beyond the typical “I have a dream” activities and reflecting on Dr. King’s legacy and their own possible legacy. Many are surprised to learn how Spanish-speaking countries have honored Dr. King and have shared how they enjoy this twist on the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Day activities. I updated this January 18, 2020 after teaching it on Friday, January 17, 2020.

Activity to create awareness of how Spanish-Speaking Countries Honor the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King with Stamps, Schools, Streets, Parks, and Statues.

  • Students read a simple timeline and convert the Spanish date to numbers.
  • Students engage with PowerPoint showing how different countries have honored him.
  • Students reflect on what they want to create for their own legacy.

It took ten hours of research to create a lesson that goes beyond the typical Spanish Class reading lesson of “I have a Dream” translation.

If you are like me, I teach in a community where Dr. King visited and preached.  One of our community members  was part of the bodyguard contingency when Dr. King visited the Philadelphia area and many others have links to him.  While I personally consider his “I have a Dream” speech to be in the top five best speeches in history, my junior high students have heard it every year.

Last year I shared a timeline with a few interesting facts written in Spanish prompting the discussion about how much Dr. King accomplished in such a short life span.

Students were surprised to learn that Dr. King had visited some Spanish-speaking countries and that they honored him in different ways.

We talked about what it would take for the United States to put a non-US citizen on its stamp.  We wondered about how much effort it would take to name a street or park after someone not born in our own country.

We watched the PowerPoint and then students wrote their own future legacy.

Many students thanked me for giving them a new twist to this beloved  holiday.

One very quiet student lingered behind to tell me that his church was very active in doing community service on Dr. King’s birthday.  We have had several discussions that his father is raising him to be a leader in his community.  He shared that he didn’t think I could teach him anything about Dr. King that he didn’t already know, but I did and he thanked me.

I have to admit that I treasured that moment and that all of the hours of research and asking our Venezuelans to help.

png of word search eq

I use this month to talk about Equatorial Guinea, to talk about Choc Quib Town’s take on racism, and to show the diversity of Latin Americans via Calle 13’s song, Latin América.

 

During the first week, for the bell ringer, I play the Equatorial Guinea Video with pictures of that West African country and its national anthem.

On Monday, students read the lyrics in both English and Spanish.

Use the coloring book as a pre-class.
Use the coloring book as a pre-class.

Tuesday they do a word search with pictures from the video.

Students enjoy coloring and learning about Equatorial Guinea.
Students enjoy coloring and learning about Equatorial Guinea.

 

Wednesday and Thursday they color a little booklet with the flag, currency, national bird, tree, flower, popular

dessert, scene from the capital and some wildlife.

 

Friday the last five minutes we p lay bingo on pre-printed cards and a PowerPoint with the pictures.

 

The singing and videos are made by some Venezuelan friends who need work to survive the Venezuelan crises.

Here is a video of what I just described.

Ecuatorial Guinea Video Packet

The next week I show a clipping from Jorge Ramo’s interview with Choc Quib Town and a few G-rated clippings from their song “De Donde Vengo Yo’.

 

Choc Quib Town speaks out against racism.

Then I have students discuss with a partner what they would expect to see in a video showing the depth of differences among Latinamericans.  They come up with a list of ten expectations and then I show them this song and we discuss what they had expected and what they saw.

Calle 13’s song LatinoAmérica

 

Dr. King's connection to Spanish Class

 

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Thanks for Visiting For the Minute by Minute Spanish!