Amazon Prime

Last year I got a Kindle for Christmas and I purchased an Amazon Prime Membership.  I have enjoyed watching T.V. shows and movies, getting free shipping on Amazon orders, and free book rentals on the Kindle.  But I have also found it to be useful in my Spanish classroom.  I have been able to show cultural videos in my classroom by renting them or streaming them for free.

There are several series that can be rented for $1.99 per episode.  You can buy the episode, hovwever renting it gives teachers the opportunity to try the video with their class before they invest a greater amount of money.  My classes really enjoyed the series produced by Teacher's Discovery under the label Moo!.  They have several cultural topics including food and holidays.  Each of the videos are about thirty minutes long.  They are interesting to students because the camera follows a native host as they introduce the culture to an American teenager.

Another series that is available to rent are the Globe Trekker episodes produced by PBS.  Each episode highlights a different country.  The host visits iconic places and explores local rituals.

There is a series of educational videos available for free with an Amazon Prime membership.  These are produced by New Dimension.  They are a little bit drier and more like a documentary than the ones mentioned above.  But they are well-organized and contain a lot of valuable information about culture including geography and history.

Día de los Santos Inocentes

If you are visiting a Spanish-speaking country on December 28, be on the look out for practical jokers.  One might compare it to April Fool's Day in the United States.

This fun holiday has it's origins in the Bible in the story where King Harod had all of the baby boys under two years of age executed.  His intent was to kill the baby Jesus so that he could never be a rival for Harod.  But the joke was on the king because Joseph and Mary had taken baby Jesus to Egypt so that he would be safe.  The holiday is celebrated to honor the children, los inocentes, who were killed by King Harod.

During the Middle Ages it was celebrated with a feast.  Today it has become a day of playing pranks called Inocentadas.  



http://spanish.about.com/b/2013/04/01/spains-equivalent-of-april-fools-day-is-dec-28.htm

http://spanishfood.about.com/od/holidaysfeasts/a/santosinocentes.htm

The Poinsettia

A local CBS affiliate does a news segment they call "Good Question" in which viewers ask questions and the reporter finds the answer.  I was excited when I saw the question, "How did Poinsettias Become a Part of Christmas?" I rolled up my sleeves and told my family, "I got this".  I didn't need to view the story to answer the question.  One of the benefits of teaching Spanish is decorating my classroom with poinsettias.


The plant and the Christmas tradition originate in Mexico.  According the Biology department at UCC the poinsettia, or Euphorbia pulcherrima, blooms in Southern Mexico and Central America between November and March.  The Aztecs called it the cuetlaxochitl and used the milky substance produced by the plant for treating fevers.  They made red dye from the flowers.  The red flowers are not actually flowers, they are the plant's leaves.

The legend that inspired the use of poinsettias as Christmas plants involves a small boy that did not have enough money to give a gift to Jesus on Christmas Day.  Before reaching the church he stopped an picked some weedy branches and prayed that it was enough.  The people at the church laughed at his pathetic gift, but he carried the branches to the altar.  When he reached the altar, the branches began to bloom with beautiful red flowers.  This story is told in a book by Tomie de Paola.

The story also caught the attention of Joel Roberts Poinsett, an ambassador to Mexico in 1829.  He had the Mexican fire plant shipped back to his home in South Carolina and later the plant was named after him.


http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2013/12/17/good-question-how-did-poinsettias-become-a-part-of-christmas/

http://faculty.ucc.edu/biology-ombrello/pow/poinsettia.htm

http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/3554-how-the-mexican-fire-plant-became-the-poinsettia

http://www.amazon.com/The-Legend-Poinsettia-Tomie-dePaola/dp/0698115678/ref=sr_sp-btf_title_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1387384481&sr=8-6&keywords=tomie+depaola+christmas

Día de los Muertos at the Minnesota History Center

So when you think of Día de los Muertos you probably don't think of the Minnesota History Museum.  But this weekend the museum was a great place to celebrate Mexican-American culture in Minnesota.

Día de los Muertos is becoming more and more prevalent in American culture.  Unfortunately because if falls in the same week as Halloween and has some of the same images, many people think it is the Mexican version of Halloween.  However, Día de los Muertos is a celebration to honor the dead.  Families gather in hopes of spending time together and with the spirits of those who have past but return once every year.  Families spend all night together in the cemetery waiting for their loved ones and enjoying the company of others.

The Minnesota History Museum is always a great place to learn about what makes Minnesota great.  Each year they sponsor a Día de los Muertos celebration that recognizes Minnesota residents with Mexican heritage and educates their neighbors about the culture.  The event kicked off with a performance in the First Floor Rotunda from a troupe of Aztec dancers called Kaplulli KetzalCaotlicue.  This volunteer group of dancers represents a learning community that honors the traditions of their Mexican heritage through music and dance.  Instructors teach classes and share their culture in schools across the Twin Cities.

You can find their next performance or learn more about the group from their Facebook page.

There were other musical performers throughout the day including Rico Duran and Siluetas singing Mexican folk songs and Los Alegres Bailadores with Mexican folk dance.

In the tradition of the museum, there were a lot of ways for visitors to engage in learning about Mexican culture.  Ofrendas are an important artifact of Día de los Muertos.  These altars are built for to honor the memory of loved ones who have passed away.  Because these loved ones may come back and visit, a table is prepared with all of their favorite things.  You start with a white tablecloth and cover it with papel picado.  This thin tissue paper represents the Mexican traditional folk art of paper cutting.  Artists punch designs into layers of the paper and create squares and rectangles that are hung during festivals.  The papel picado will blow in the wind when the spirits arrive.  Next, layers are added to the table.  Candles and flowers are placed on the layers of the altar, one candle for each person honored.  The flowers are orange marigolds whose scent is used to create a path that welcomes the dead.  Salt and water are put on the ofrenda to quench the thirst of those who travel to see their families.  Calaveras de azucar (sugar skulls) represent the sweetness of life and the sadness of death.  These are decorated with glitter, icing, colored foil, sequins, beads, or feathers.  Pictures and the person's favorite possessions and foods are also placed on the altar. Many ofrendas were on display that were made by students across the Twin Cities.

 Many of those who attended made their own Nichos (shadowboxes) or clay skulls to take home.  Small children and their parents enjoyed a bilingual puppet show about the Day of the Dead.  All ages enjoyed playing Loteria (Mexican bingo).

There were samples of champurrada, a Mexican recipe for hot chocolate, and Pan de Muertos, the special bread that is eaten during Día de los Muertos.  This sweet bread is usually shared at the vigil in the cemetery.

Dia de Los Muertos in the Twin Cities

Midtown Global Market

Every year the Midtown Global Market in Minneapolis celebrates Día de los Muertos during the first week of November.  This year the festivities occur from October 27-November 2.  This is one of Minneapolis' best kept secrets in free and fun entertainment.  

On Sunday, October 27 there will be traditional Aztec dancing from noon until 3pm.

On Wednesday, pre-schoolers can celebrate by making a skull from 10:30am until 1pm.

The event closes on Sunday from noon until 6pm with a Pan de Muertos demonstrations, mariachi music, and other activities.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Offrendas built by local students will be featured.from October 22-November 24.  Their displays are the product of their study of the art and culture of Mexico.

Minnesota History Museum

This year the Minnesota History Museum in St. Paul is also honoring Día de los Muertos with an exhibit and program on Saturday, October 26 from 12pm-4pm.  This celebration features dance, music, and offrendas.  The schedule of events for the day is found on their website.  http://www.minnesotahistorycenter.org/events-programs/day-dead

El Burrito Mercado

This Mexican restaurant in St. Paul will have a free celebration on Saturday, November 2.  This is a great opportunity to check out the offrenda and hear restaurant owner Milissa Diaz describe it's meaning.  You will also be able to try Pan de Muertos and kids can get their faces painted.

 

TPRS

TPRS is a method for teaching foreign languages that was developed by Blaine Ray.   It is based on James Asher’s Total Physical Response and Dr. Stephen Krashen’s Language Acquisition Strategies.  The story-based approach was not only fun and engaging, it is an excellent long-term memory technique.  This inductive approach replaces the traditional method of teaching grammar.  Students are provided input rather than being taught form and rules.  The words and phrases used are more likely to be retained in long term memory because the grammar is used in context and students have the opportunity to construct meaning rather than completing one sentence drills.  Another reason this method is successful is because it caters to the interests of the students. As a graduate student at Mankato State University I attended a class in which Marti Sievik demonstrated the use of TPRS based on his experience using it while teaching Spanish in Colorado.  

To create a unit or lesson based on storytelling, start with 3-5 words or phrases that revolve around the grammar concept that you would like students to be able to construct.  Begin with the introduction of vocabulary and complex structures.  I was amazed by how easy it was to use facial expressions and gestures to teach vocabulary.  Although the objective of the lesson that Marti Sievik presented only required students to learn about four phrases, it was possible to add a lot more throughout the story.  The technique that was used to tell the story is called circling.  To do this teachers ask a series of questions that include choosing between two or more words.  Students can produce answers with only one word or even a gesture.  This method also allows teachers to double back and provide repetition of certain words or grammatical structures.  During this phase all attention is on the teacher, but it is important for the teacher to maintain eye contact.  Marti was a master at this.  I noticed that not only was he constantly moving around the room and making eye contact, he also got down to the student’s level when asking questions.  In this way the story builds based on student comprehension and response.  The oral presentation is followed by reading.  According to Blaine Ray, the emphasis is actually on the reading, although I feel that the story-telling is going to be more effective for most students.    Blaine Ray recommends that storytelling and reading should be followed up with an unannounced vocabulary quiz.  Not announcing the quiz will allow you to test the acquisition of the vocabulary and not how well they cram before class.  Words that are troubling can be recycled.

The only drawback that I could see to TPRS was that it was very physically demanding.  Most teachers have 4-5 classes a day, many times these classes are different sections of the same course.  Marti’s story took about forty-five minutes, a traditional class period after all of the housekeeping issues are attended to.  This would be hard to incorporate into curriculum more than once every week or two.

If teachers wanted to use this method, there are resources available.  The most important resource is the teacher.  An enthusiastic and energetic teacher is a requirement.  It is also important that the teacher is skilled at establishing relationships with their students.  To sustain a student’s interest in a story, you must understand what interests them.  To get them to respond, you must build trust with them.  Eye contact during story-telling not only allows the teacher to check for comprehension, it also establishes trust and an interest in the student.  Everyone loves the teacher that they feel took an interest in them.  Textbooks can be used by taking the words from each lesson and building a story around them.  School districts usually encourage teachers to attend workshops that pertain to their subject and will hone their teaching skills.  I plan on attending one of the workshops.  - http://tprstorytelling.com/

http://www.tprstories.com/what-is-tprs

Google in the Classroom

I'm not gonna lie, I am a huge fan of Google.  I first starting using Google when the overseas school that I was teaching at had an account for each teacher and student.  As teachers we used it to create and share documents.  Agendas for meetings were kept on a Google doc.  Anyone who was invited to edit the doc could post items to the agenda.  Google allows users to see revisions and who has made them so everyone was accountable for the document and it's content.  It seems like a small thing, but it saved us from a lot of confusing emails and paper trails in which information gets lost.

Students are already adept at technology.  It is fascinating and fun to use and I believe there are ways in which it can make life easier.  As teachers we should use technology when it enhances the learning experience. With students we used Google docs to organize projects. Again everyone who was invited to edit a document could participate. In one project my students had to create a newspaper. One student from each group was chosen to be the editor of the newspaper. The editor created a google doc for the group and shared it with all group members and the teacher. The group brainstormed a list of topics to write articles about and each student signed up for their topic on the google doc. Then students were able to write their rough drafts on the google doc. Other group members were able to edit those rough drafts almost immediately. When the final draft was ready the editor was able to do the final proof-reading and the teacher was able to approve the final revisions. The layout artist was able to copy the text from the google doc and paste it into a newspaper template. This is just one example of how a google doc can be used to work collaboratively.

One of the features that can be used to gauge background knowledge or interest is the forms which can be used as student polls.  Teachers can ask students to rate their interest in a topic. An advantage of using Google for this type of activity is that the answers provided, even if they are not posted for other students to see, would be attached to the student’s Google account. When you create a form you can ask students to answer a question. I have also used this feature to pair students into groups for information gap activities. For example, I asked students to answer yes or no if they have every watched the television show Duck Dynasty. During a speaking activity in class I paired students who watch the show with students who have never seen the show. It was a lot of fun for students to use family vocabulary and descriptive adjectives to describe a television family to those who had never seen the show. Me gusta tio Si.

Google can also be used to create graphs and other visuals to show data. Presentations can be created and shared on the drive. This means students don't have to save this information on their own flash drive. They can work on it at school or at home. They can present in class using the teacher's computer or they can share it in smaller groups.

I have obviously embraced Google. If your school allows students and teachers to have google accounts, it can make some of the tasks associated with learning more manageable and organized.

Motivation

Motivation

http://www.corhq.com/blog/post/friday-fun-homer-simpson-on-motivation/#.UjmzuMakpqM

Every semester brings a roomful of fresh and eager students ready to learn.  Their enthusiasm can be harnessed by focusing on course and individual goals for your class.  Teachers should maintain their enthusiasm by considering their motivation to learn.  According to Dulay and Bert, motivation is the most influential factor in learning a new language.  It will determine how persistent learners will be and the direction of their behavior during their tenure as your students.  Motivated students make good choices and put forth more effort.  A good way to start off each semester is to pose the question; Why should you study a foreign language?  This gives students the opportunity to reflect on the reason they have registered for Spanish class and what they expect to learn.  Gardner has divided motivation into two categories based on the factors that influence students.

Instrumental motivational factors can include getting a better job or meeting an academic requirement.  Many students and their parents believe that learning a foreign language will provide more career opportunities for them.  “Monolingualism is a disadvantage in the global economy”.  (Russell Berman, president of the Modern Language Association).  On their school’s website, the University of St. John’s in Minnesota encourages students to study a foreign language to increase their job opportunities.  They provide examples of careers in which students can expect to use the language they study.  The United States government gives preference to Americans with foreign language skills when hiring for the IRS, the CIA, the FBI, the State Department, the DEA, and the Armed Forces.  Business leaders have more opportunity for advancement in U.S. companies that market or manufacture products abroad.  There is always a need for teachers who can teach at elementary, middle, and high school.  And finally, there is a demand for people with the ability to communicate with non-English speakers in service occupations such as public relations, social services, health care, law enforcement, and judicial systems.  Competition for jobs in our economy is great, but students with language skills will have an advantage.

Students, administrators, parents, and others involved in education may wonder if learning a foreign language should be a graduation requirement in which a district and the the student make monetary and time commitments.  Studies have shown that students who study a foreign language score higher on standardized tests, including college entrance exams and not just in language and verbal scores, but also in mathematics.  Studying a foreign language can also help in the other classes that students take.  

According to Therese Sullivan Caccavale, president of the National Network for Early Language Learning (NNELL), learning a language enhanced cognitive development by developing the concept of “object permanence”.  The brain will be better able to understand that even if there is more than one name for an object, the object itself does not change.  Learning another language also helps students develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills.  Studies show that second language acquisition delays the onset of Alzheimers.  Caccavale describes a program in Europe where the elderly have become language students.  Karin Ryding, Arabic professor at Georgetown University, believes that learning the structure of language develops cognitive ability.

Another reason that St. John’s University in Minnesota encourages all of their students to study foreign language is because they believe it will expand their view of the world by exposing them to different ways of thinking and viewpoints.  Students who are exposed to different cultures understand that there are different ways to think and to view the world.  This leads them to become better at problem-solving because they begin to look for alternative viewpoints and solutions.  They become more willing to take risks.

Most students will produce instrumental motivational factors, but as teachers we want to expand their list to include integrative motivational factors such as fitting in with native speakers.  Students armed with these factors will be more likely to have a positive attitude.  They are more likely to work hard.  Teachers can enhance integrative motivation by providing opportunities to use the language.  Motivation factors should be integrated into the course goals.

www.actfl.org/advocacy/discover-languages/for-parents/cognitvie

www.stjohns.edu/academics/graduate/liberalarts/departments/languages/why.stj

www.stanford.edu/group/knowledgebase/cgi-bin/2011/05/11/every-high-school-student-should-speak-a-second-language/

Mexican Food Paradise

Summer is a great time for teachers to review their curriculum and to find fresh media to enhance their students' learning.  I find a lot of cultural information is available on broadcast television.  I have my DVR loaded up for the summer so that I can add videos to my class that are made to attract the average television viewer.  Many of the episodes that air on television are available online to use in the classroom at no cost.

I have just finished watching a program that aired on March 13, 2013 on the Travel Channel called Mexican Food Paradise.  It is a special edition of the show Food Paradise which introduces viewers to places around the United States that serve the best dishes in each category.  In this episode they describe seven different restaurants in the United States that serve various Mexican dishes.  Many of the segments can be viewed online at the following link - Mexican Food Paradise.  It can be used in the classroom to illustrate to students how Mexican culture influences the United States.  Or it can be used in segments to give students a visual description of various Mexican foods.

Casa Bonita

The first restaurant that is in the spotlight is Casa Bonita in Denver, Colorado.  The restaurant is housed in a building that features a 22K gold leaf domed top that has become so famous it was even featured on an episode of South Park.  The restaurant itself is an experience in itself.  They can seat at least a thousand people while they dine and enjoy entertainment such as mariachis and cliff divers who plunge from waterfalls modeled on those in Acapulco.  The signature dish at Casa Bonita is one that features all-you-can-eat tacos and enchiladas.  All of the ingredients are made fresh on site.  The chicken enchiladas are filled with chicken, tomato, onion, chili powder, and secret spices.  They are covered with sauce and put in a steamer.  For dessert, diners can enjoy a sopapilla, the Mexican equivalent of a doughnut, fried dough that is drizzled in honey.

Picture of enchiladas from Casa Bonita featured on Trip Advisor

Visit their website - http://www.casabonitadenver.com/

The show then takes us to Tomasita's, a restaurant located in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  The building was once a train station where trains from Mexico carrying produce stopped on their way north to Denver.  Their signature dish is the burrito which is typically covered in red and green sauces made from red and green chiles.  Often chiles are dried and ground into powder, but Tomasita's soaks them and blends them into a sauce.  A burrito grande is made with a flour tortilla covered with cheese and filled with chili, ground beef, and refried beans before it is wrapped and smothered with sauce and melted cheese.

Picture taken from the Guardian, UK

Visit their website - http://www.tomasitas.com/

Picture of the Festival de Mole at Guelaguetza's from the Travel Channel

If you are in Koreatown in Los Angeles, you probably wouldn't think about finding a Mexican restaurant.  But the next restaurant is located in a bright orange building on the corner on Olympic Boulevard.  Guelaguetza's was founded in 1994 by a family from Oaxaca that wanted to share their culture and their cuisine with their new home (the name Guelaguetza means reciprocity).  Their signature dish is the mole as they serve all seven moles found in Oaxaca, including a plate called The Festival de Mole which allows diners to sample four moles at once.  Their mole negro is made with ingredients that are imported from Oaxaca.  The paste, which takes two days to make, includes four different chiles, chocolate, nuts, sesame seeds, raisins, plantains, bread, and spices.  The paste is added to chicken broth.  Tomatoes are roasted and strained into the paste mixture.  The mole is served over chicken and rice.  They also serve chapulines, fried and salted grasshoppers that are sometimes called Oaxacan popcorn.  Diners can also sample mescal, an alcoholic beverage that is made from the same plant as tequila.

http://www.ilovemole.com/

El Charro, located in Tucson, Arizona is the oldest Mexican restaurant in the United States.  Monica Flynn began serving Sonoran cuisine in 1922 and passed the restaurant on to her niece when she died.  It is said that the chimichanga was invented at El Charro when Ms. Flynn accidentally dropped a burrito in the deep fryer.  The recommended dish here is the Carne Seca.  The beef is thinly sliced into fillets that are seasoned with garlic and lime juice and dried for eight hours in hothouses located on the roof of the restaurant.  The meat is marinated and sauteéd with onions and peppers.  It is served with cheese and cactus.

From nytimes.com

http://www.elcharrocafe.com/

The Bone Garden Cantina is a restaurant opened by two food-loving gringos from Los Angeles who wanted to bring great Mexican cuisine and art to Atlanta.  The restaurant is decorated with various catrinas that provide an ambiance of El Día de los Muertos.  Their recipes come from Acapulco and include a Carne Adobo Taco that is filled with beef marinated in salsa and lime juice and served with onions and cilantro on a masa tortilla.  It is also a great place to eat tamales, which are steamed in banana leaves.  Diners can also sample some of the sixty premium tequilas available.


http://www.bonegardencantina.com/

El Indio is a family restaurant in San Diego, CA that focuses on the 3 T's of Mexican cuisine;  tamales, tortillas, and taquitos.  The tamales are special because they have always been made from scratch on site.  The corn is cooked overnight and ground between two stones to make the masa.  The masa is spread on corn husks with various ingredients including meat, beans, and other vegetables.  The tamales are steamed and covered in sauce and cheese.  El Indio is where the taquito was invented by the original owner who wanted customers to be able to carry out food.  Meat is wrapped in a corn tortilla (which are made from scratch on the premises) and deep-fried.  Those who dine in get taquitos smothered in cheese, salsa, and lettuce.  Tortillas are made fresh everyday.  The scraps are fried to make tortilla chips, the third menu item that El Indio is famous for.

From The San Diegan

http://www.el-indio.com/

In Fort Worth, TX there is a large 1200 seat restaurant located in a building that looks like a Mexican hacienda.  Diners at Joe T. Garcia's feast on their signature fajitas and margaritas inside or out on one of the patios that are designed to look like abuela's garden.  The fajitas are made with chicken or beef that is sauteéd with peppers or onions.  They come to the table still sizzling and are served with tortillas, pico de gallo, and guacamole.

From Zagat

http://joets.com/

The last stop on Mexican Food Paradise's tour of Mexican restaurants in the United States is in Los Angeles, CA.  Yuca's Taco Hut is a little building where diners spread out across the parking lot to enjoy delectable cuisine from the Yucatan.  Dora, the owner, recommends the Cochinita Pibil.  This taco features tortillas and pork that are made by Dora everyday.  The pork is roasted in spices and banana leaves.  The salsa is made with tomatoes, cilantro, and onions.

From tripadvisor

From seriouseats.com

http://www.yucasla.com/