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Rosalie - Welcome to the Spanish Language Chat. Feel free to chat with me about Spanish. You can ask questions or share ideas.
Rosalie - What do you teach?
jacie - i teach spanish to grades k-6, I am a Kindergarten teacher
jacie - K in the am and Spanish in the pm
Rosalie - I teach 4th grade Spanish all day.
Rosalie - I am in NJ, where are you?
jacie - We use the Salsa program and I am afraid that next year it will seem to boring to the kids
jacie - I need to figure out how to make it different
Rosalie - How many years have you been teaching Spanish, if I may ask?
jacie - Im in NJ!!
Rosalie - I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with the Salsa Program.
Rosalie - Where in NJ?
jacie - I took over this past year- about 6 mos.
Rosalie - Well, you've come to the right place, I have lots of ideas.
Rosalie - Are you Latina?
jacie - I do not speak fluently-but can get by on my own. I have never taught Spanish
jacie - I am a Kindergarten teacher who inherited this job, doing the best I can
Rosalie - I teach every 4th grade class (15), M-F for 15 mins. a day. How about you?
Rosalie - What is your PM schedule like?
jacie - Salsa is a video tape program- for non-fluent teachers/parents, looks like sesame street
Rosalie - You use that for K-6? The older kids like it?
jacie - I teach 30 min. once a week to each grade
jacie - I make up lots of games for reinforcment- but feel like I need more sources
Rosalie - Tell me a little more about your program now, so that I have a better understanding of where you and your students are coming from.
jacie - Yes, the older kids like it, its silly and fun
Rosalie - Is it just you? No other teachers? A supervisor? Are you free to create your own curriculum? Who's idea was it to use the Salsa Program? Can you use something else as a basis or curriculum, or do you have to use that?
jacie - We have learned basic vocab, colors numbers, body parts, objects and some commands and questions
jacie - Just me, teachers are supposed to reinforce during the week, and if they dont, the kids have a really hard time playing games, very obviuos to teachers to work more
Rosalie - Would you like ideas to reinforce this vocabulary, resources, new topics? Tell me exactly would you would like me to help you with.
Rosalie - Are you happy with the Salsa program?
jacie - They just bought the Salsa program last year, but I can siupplement ith any thing- It is my job to create the program-BUT I m not a "real" Spanish teacher
jacie - The program is ok, I am afraid it will seem boring for next year,I need to know how to keep it interesting
Rosalie - It's hard, if you don't know Spanish. I hear that New Jersey will make it a requirement for language teachers to be certified to teach that language. If this is something that you want to continue doing, first of all, I would suggest going to school, getting a tutor, enter a study abroad program, etc. to learn Spanish and get the certification.
jacie - How do you reinforce vocab, get the kids to speak etc.
Rosalie - Well, I can tell you what I do. I work with several other Spanish teachers and we develop our own curriculum with our supervisor. We all use lots of games (mostly self-created), cultural songs, etc. to reinforce our lessons. Our program is mostly oral. The students are not expected to write sentences.
Rosalie - We use a lot of TPR. Do you know what that is?
jacie - Many teachers inherit the Language program, because the schools do not want to hire certified people when they teachers in the building!
jacie - no, what is TPR?
Rosalie - I understand completely, I don't know how you do it. I give you lots of credit for taking on such a challenge.
Rosalie - Total Physical Response
jacie - explain?
Rosalie - If for example you are teaching animal vocabulary, the kids would use their bodies to represent that animal as they say the vocabulary word.
jacie - oh, ok- how about colors or classroom objects?
Rosalie - Like "pato", duck. You would have the kids flap their arms, as of they were wings, mybe squat a little and say "pato".
Rosalie - Slowly, you also start using commands, like "Toca su lapiz", Touch your pencil. Then "Toca su lapiz con el libro", Touch the pencil with the book.
jacie - I haven't practice any writing with them-when would you start that?
Rosalie - We just went over classroom objects, about 2 weeks ago. I held up each item (a few at a time-about 5 for each lesson), for example, as I held up a pencil, I said "lapiz" (pencil) and my kids would repeat.
Rosalie - Then, I would hold up a pen "pluma", and ask, "Es un lapiz"? They would answer "Si" or "No".
Rosalie - The next day, I played a game with them called Guess Who?
jacie - I kind of rumn the class like my Kindergarten-games,how about songs? do you have a good source for that?
Rosalie - It starts out like 7 Up, with 5 volunteers and the rest of the class puts their heads down and closes their eyes.
jacie - and then you ask for the word?
Rosalie - The volunteers then pick an item from their desk and hide it behind their backs. The class guesses what each person has in Spanish. I ask in Spanish, "Who has the paper"?, and "What does ? (Anne) have"?
jacie - oh- thats a good one, I'll try that
jacie - how about songs?
Rosalie - I use some workbooks in Spanish. I photocopy the pages as vocab. sheets for my kids so that they can see the word, and they even come with pictures. My kids just have to copy down the word on the line provided. They don't write more than that. But this year, I had 1st year Spanish. Our 6th grade teacher has 2nd year Spanish and she had her kids make little books with phrases and vocabulary that they learned throughout the year, but she sais it took forever, especially with our schedule.
jacie - i had the kids keep a dictionary
Rosalie - Well, I have a few great books. One is Piggyback songs in Spanish. Are you familiar with the Piggyback Songs? they have them in English. check your local teaching store. Also, I bought this great book called Hispanic Games and Rhymes. I believe it's by Erickson.
jacie - they had a 3 ring binder, and each week they had pages with one vocabulaty word maybe 3 a week. Their home work was to illustrate the word
jacie - i know piggyback songs- don't know the other
jacie - i'll look for it
jacie - how about spanish teacher websites?
Rosalie - Also try these books, that can be found at bookstores. De Colores, Arroz con Leche, and Los Pollitos Docen. They all come with tapes. I send home the Scholastic Spanish Book Club, called Club de LEctura. Your students can order books in Spanish or bilingual books (English and Spanish) at low prices. Also, an added benefit is that you get Classroom Bonus Points when your kids buy books to buy books for your class.
jacie - ok, my kinders love Los Pollitos
jacie - Is De Colores by Raffi?
Rosalie - Where are you in NJ? I work at a wonderful little bookstore that has a wonderful selection of books in different languages, and folktales from around the world. Between the bookstore and Scholastic, I buy most if not all of my song and story book s from them. My workbooks and teaching books, I buy from local teacher's stores. Yours should have a Spanish or Foreign Language Section. I've been to several, and they have great books. Some, even give you lesson plans.
Rosalie - No, De Colres is by Juan Luis Orozco.
jacie - I am in Central NJ, I teach in a very tiny public school in Roosevelt
jacie - I go to a teacher store in Bordentown and a warehouse in Burlington, but can't find any good Spanish teacher books
jacie - I think I missed the Scholastic warehouse sale in Cranbury?Jamesburg- they don't send me the flyer
Rosalie - I couldn't find too many websites for Elementary Spanish Teachers. This site Teacher's Net has a wonderful Spanish Teacher Message Board. I post their all the time and everyone is very eager to help and share ideas. I met several teacher friends through it. they even have a PenPal MEssage Board where you might be able to get penpals for your kids. that would definitely encourage writing in Spanish and excitement for the language. I wanted a place to share ideas and help other Spanish Teachers, so I decided to host the Spanish Language Chat.
Rosalie - Guess what??? I know exactly where Roosevelt is. I used to work at the Black Bear Lake Day Camp.
jacie - the whole screen went blank!
Rosalie - I go to the teaching store in Bordentown too. I love it there. They have some great stuff. I am in central NJ too.
jacie - i can't see anything-something happened-it's all blank
Rosalie - Jacie???????
jacie - ok-what happened?
Rosalie - Sometimes it happens.
Rosalie - Did ylou get my Private Messages?
jacie - sure- thats a big district
Rosalie - That's where I teach.
Rosalie - Read some of my previous messages below.
jacie - and when are the nj foreign language meetings? have you gone to them?
jacie - oh, ok- i didnt know they had a store there- I will check it out-
Rosalie - I went to the NJEA Convention. I also went to a few conferencews and workshops. I attended a wonderful one in Jersey City, called "The Role of Imagination in Language Learning". they had some workshops for Elementary Language Teachers. Even some for Classroom Teachers that taught the Foreign Language, like yourself. Also, Rutgers is offering some courses this summer.
Rosalie - What Foreign Language Meetings are you talking aboit? I;m not sure I heard of them.
jacie - ok- you helped me alot!!
Rosalie - Sorry, about the typos.
Rosalie - If you want, you can e-mail me your address and I can mail you some things that I have.
Rosalie - Mine is Thursday.
Rosalie - Well, I have more ideas whenever you need them.
Rosalie - For classroom objects, we hada scavenger hunt and played Simon Dice (Simon Says). My kids love "Simon Dice".
Rosalie - Jacie?
Rosalie - Goodnight Everyone!!!!
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