About Me and a few of my Interests

This post will let you know a little bit about me......

I love to travel.  I have traveled to Spain, France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Mexico (several times), and Nicaragua.  I have also traveled some within the United States.  If I had more time and money available to me I would travel constantly.  Instead I go to travelchannel.com/ and pretend that I am there. 

Of course, being raised in Nebraska and living here my whole life makes me a very avid Nebraska Cornhusker fan.  You could say "I bleed Husker red".  I have great memories from my childhood of watching the football rivalry game between Nebraska and Oklahoma every Thanksgiving weekend.  I enjoy going to Husker football games since we are season ticket holders. My son is currently a freshman attending the University of Nebraska - Lincoln so this has made me even more of a fan.  Two websites that I visit often are http://www.huskers.com/ and http://www.unl.edu/ to find out what is going on with my favorite team. 

Another of my interests is singing and music.  I really like listening to music in Spanish.   I've included a link to my favorite on-line Spanish radio station http://www.batanga.com/#/es/ so you can listen, too.

Finally,  something fun (that seems to take up much of my time)  is surfing the web for new teaching ideas.  I have found that Pinterest contains a wealth of ideas and information.  When I search "Spanish classroom" or "Teaching Spanish" it leads me from one "pin" to another.   It's free at http://pinterest.com/ .  I also have discovered a blog that keeps me up to date on some of the latest uses for technology in my classroom at http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/ .  Since our school has gone One-to-One it's been a great source for new ways to use technology in the classroom. 

El Club de Español

I am the sponsor for our school's Spanish Club.  Being a member of this club  is a lot of fun! Here is some information for those who would like to join. 

What is Spanish Club and what do we do? Spanish Club is a social club for students in grades 9-12 who are interested in the culture and language of Spanish speaking countries. Usually students who have taken a Spanish class are the students who join but this is not a requirement to be member. Any student can join! We meet every first Wednesday morning at 7:45 a.m. in Room 717 and have one fun activity each month.

In Spanish club we have fun together. In the past Spanish Club has sponsored Spanish language movie nights, made a Homecoming float, gone out to eat at authentic restaurants, gone Christmas caroling at a nursing home, had fundraisers, done pumpkin painting, held an annual Day of the Dead Fiesta, and lots more!

In Spanish Club we also help others. Spanish Club members have volunteered to be interpreters, helped at elementary school carnivals, donated items to several service organizations and held a winter coat drive. 

Spanish Club Dia De Los Muertos Fiesta Photos

 

Costume Contest - First Place

 



See Sra. Stark in Room 717 if you want to to join Spanish Club! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My blog is evolving!

As you can see I have added several things to my blog.  The experience of creating a classroom blog is extremely enjoyable.  It is also something that I know will be valuable for my students in order to access all of the resources that will help them learn Spanish!  I can't wait to show it to them when it is all finished!

First, I changed the template and created a banner using picmonkey.  My intent will be to change the four pictures on he banner from time to time to images of the cultural topics that we are discussing in class.  It took me a little time to figure out how to make the banner the right size but with perseverence and a lot of clicking around I figured it out.  Along with that, I also gave my blog a better name - Avancemos Juntos.  Avancemos is the name of our textbook and the whole phrase means "Let's Advance Together". 

I also picked out several simple gadgets to add to the blog for now.  I added a place for Links and have put one click links to three important websites - Avancemos, Edmodo, and studyspanish.com.  We use these sites often so being able to access them easily from the blog is important.  I also added Pages for stand alone pages.  The image gadget is there so that I could post a picture of our school's mascot logo. Go Cardinals!   I added a Visit Count because that will be fun to keep track of and see how many views my blog gets and of course there are the Blog Archives and the About Me gadgets.  (I'm still searching for a decent picture of myself to post - haha!) 

Finally, I added a Translation gadget.  How awesome that with a few clicks you will be able to translate the entire blog to Spanish!

There are several other things that you will see added to my classroom blog as it continues to evolve.  In the future I will be adding a video link and also am hoping to find a place to put links to resources specifically for teachers who visit this site.