# data[].attributes.headline
Sustainable Development Goals – Somewhere to Share

# data[].attributes.subject
Sustainable Development Goals – Somewhere to Share

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Have you heard of the SDGs? If you are interested in tackling some of the sustainable development goals in your classroom but don't know where to begin, there are teacher authors who can help you!

The 17 goals are:

1. No poverty (free)

2. Zero hunger

3. Good health and well being

4. Quality education

5. Gender equality

6. Clean water and sanitation

7. Affordable and clean energy

8. Decent work and economic growth

9. Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

10. Reduced inequality (free)

11. Sustainable cities and communities

12. Responsible consumption and production

13. Climate action

14. Life below water

15. Life on land

16. Peace, Justice, and strong institutions

17. Partnerships for the goals

I'm trying little by little to create a unit to address each of the SDGs. My units are on sale tomorrow, August 21, for 25% off with the code BTSBoost18! Do you have a unit to share that addresses one of the goals?

I began teaching Spanish in Illinois in 1994. I have taught levels 1-4 in a small rural high school, 8th grade introductory Spanish, Biology 1, and 101 and 102 at the community college level. My Spanish classes are partnered with the community college to offer students 8 semester hours of dual credit on completion of Spanish 4. In 2011 I met Carol Gaab and Kristy Placido and have since co-authored the book "La hija del sastre" with Carol Gaab and authored the novels "La Calaca Alegre" and "Bianca Nieves y los 7 toritos." through TPRS Publishing. In 2006 I became National Board certified and I have been serving as a mentor both for candidates seeking certification in world languages other than English and a virtual mentor for candidates in all certificate areas. I completed my Masters degree in Spanish education in 2011 and did my research on the use of Understanding by Design to create meaningful cultural units for the language classroom. I am a frequent presenter on this topic, please consider me if you are interested in a workshop on backward design. In 2013 I was named the ICTFL Foreign Language teacher of the year and in 2014 I was selected as CSCTFL's teacher of the year. In November of 2014 I was lucky enough to be one of the five finalists for the ACTFL National Teacher of the Year in San Antonio, TX. What a "Cinderella" experience! You can reach me via email at senoracmt at gmail.com. View all posts by senoracmt

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Have you heard of the SDGs? If you are interested in tackling some of the sustainable development goals in your classroom but don't know where to begin, there are teacher authors who can help you! The 17 goals are: No poverty (free) Zero hunger Good health and well being Quality education Gender equality Clean water and...

# data[].attributes.headline
Spanish Easter Traditions: Resources for the Classroom

# data[].attributes.subject
Spanish Easter Traditions: Resources for the Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
La Pascua- Easter in Spanish- is a big deal across the Spanish-speaking world, whose history is closely connected to the Catholic church. The month of Lent culminates in Semana Santa, which commemorates the last week in the life of Jesus. In Spain and many Latin American countries, Easter is a bigger deal than Christmas, with deeply rooted traditions.

I've included a mix of religious and non-religious activities. In my opinion, it's important to acknowledge the religious roots because they makes sense of many cultural traditions. I think you can do this without pushing religious beliefs, but I've tried to include non-religious options if you have to be careful to stay secular.

Let's not re-invent the wheel for ideas in the classroom! I've gathered some awesome resources, for all ages.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Spanish Easter Traditions: Resources for the Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
La Pascua- Easter in Spanish- is a big deal across the Spanish-speaking world, whose history is closely connected to the Catholic church. The month of Lent culminates in Semana Santa, which commemorates the last week in the life of Jesus. In Spain and many Latin American countries, Easter is a bigger deal than Christmas, with deeply rooted traditions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
I've failed at Persona Especial. I can think of nothing more admirable and relevant and beneficial than making your students your curriculum. But as I have failed at becoming Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell in the past, I have failed at becoming Bryce Hedstrom. I run out of patience and so do the kids, and I just don't have the intellectual fortitude to keep hammering at it until it works. I just don't think I work like that.

However.

I might have the fortitude to keep it up with pets, mostly because there's more novelty and variety to pets. I LOVED the Persona Especial for pets that Nissa Quill from the CI Liftoff Facebook group tried and vowed to make it mine. So that's how we're starting the semester today: with my cat Cleo.

Thus Cleo is our first mascota especial because, I mean, look at her. Also, my kids are going to care way more about her than they do about me, or, frankly each other.

What's more, I think she can build confidence. I mean look at her. Well, her description. I can CI about Cleo all over the place (although it is a little difficult to express comprehensibly that she likes to be held--but not carried--and that she will claw you mercilessly if you try to administer medicine). The point is that a lot of these Spanish Twobies have been making a lot of noise in the off-season (read: nearly 400 days without a Spanish class) about how they remember nothing and weren't about to do homework for a class they're not even in. Reading about Cleo, though, I think even the most vocally clueless will HAVE to admit they remember SOMETHING.

My plan is (after some review PUEDOS) to

1. Picture talk Cleo: with an unlabeled photo, tell/ask them about basically everything I have in the description, perhaps with flourishes about her TV habits.

2. Read aloud then chorally interpret the description a la Tina.

3. Have students actually COUNT how many words they understood (out of 53, not including names).

4. Make notes on the board of the verbs they understood/need to understand.

5. Discuss strategies used to figure out unfamiliar words like sonido or cama (we didn't do the house unit in 1: sue me.)

6. Assign the Seesaw activity.

PS if you haven't tried Seesaw activities, they're super cool. Previously I would just make a template that students would have to hunt down then copy and edit (see: memes). That got tricky when the template got lost in the stream of copy/edited submissions, and I would just have to copy and edit myself to create a newer one for fourth period, for example.

You can see that I have both Spanish 2 classes in one Seesaw class, and I like it this way. I made a folder where all of these submissions will go, and I also added 2 skills (a neat feature of pro): Novice and Intermediate Writing. This will let me get a preliminary read on where they are without grading them!

Now, I'm pretty sure that most of this class is pretty pet crazy. I'm especially looking forward to seeing Chickoletta one Twobie's Paw Patrol inspired chicken who participated in her Public Speaking video on "How to Prepare a Chicken for Dinner."

However, if someone A) does not have a pet or B) does not have a picture of said pet readily available, they will have the option of using someone else's pet, whether its the pet of a classmate with multiple pets or, say, a celebrity pet. I made an example to demonstrate:

To be perfectly honest, I don't actually know whether that's Clyde or Bonnie. But they do totally have an Instagram account, whence I derived the photo.

I figure they can have about 20 minutes to find the right picture, compose (preferably in another Doc because those Seesaw labels are wonky as heck), and format. Those who get done early can start browsing my playlists to pick their song for the semester, maybe one by Clyde's human.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I've failed at Persona Especial. I can think of nothing more admirable and relevant and beneficial than making your students your curriculum. But as I have failed at becoming Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell in the past, I have failed at becoming Bryce Hedstrom.

# data[].attributes.headline
Señora Speedy: Places Around School - Six Ideas for the FLES Classroom

# data[].attributes.subject
Señora Speedy: Places Around School - Six Ideas for the FLES Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
I have a new curriculum this year (as opposed to no curriculum before) and while there are many units I was already teaching there are several that I have never taught before. One of those was a unit for first grade on the different places in school called Me and My School. I'm not sure why I never taught places in the school before but it has turned out to be one of my favorite units so far. Here are 6 great ideas that my students loved.

1. We stared the unit with Pete the Cat Rocking in My School Shoes. Just like with Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes I "read" this book to them (translating and simplifying as I went while showing them the pictures.) Then we told the story again with the awesome story props from kizclub.com. I recommend printing, laminating, and putting a magnet on the back for easy story telling.

2. From the book, we came up with a chant that helped students connect different actions with the different places in the school.

Leo, leo, leo, leo en la biblioteca.

Como, como, como, como en la cafeteria.

Juego, juego, juego, juego en el patio.

Canto, canto, canto, canto en la clase de musica.

Pinto, pinto, pinto, pinto en la clase de arte.

Escribo, escribo, escribo, escribo en la sala de clase.

3. Then we practiced the different locations with my lovely llama, Primavera (named by second graders who were studying seasons at the time.) I took close up pictures and wide angle pictures of Primavera around the school and the kids had to guess where she was. I got this idea from someone on either Facebook or Instagram (sorry I can't remember who!)

4. Next we hid pictures of Primavera around the school and my student teacher Sarah Beth took half the class on a llama hunt. Students had to find the right place on their list and mark if they found the llama or not. This was another big hit but we did annoy the Music teacher with kids constantly peeking into her room to see if they could find Primavera. The other half of the class stayed with me and played memory with school supplies flash cards.

Tip - If you do this make sure you put the pictures outside of a classroom so that students don't need to go in. We did this but even then the kids were very "thorough" so you might also warn your teammates.

5. Battleship with bear counters and simplified versions of our school map was also super fun and got in some interpersonal practice with ¿Dónde está? and the different locations.

6.Our final project had students labeling both smaller individual maps and making a larger map that we hung in the front hallway for our Spanish speaking visitors. Giving the students this authentic audience really motivated them and they worked really hard to label their maps. Check out my separate blog post on the adorable illustrations they made for our large map.

Tip - Make copies of the maps that you put out for visitors so that students can have their original to take home. Sending home work with students, especially work they are excited about is a great way to advocate for your program.

This has been one of my favorite units ever. The students were so engaged and learned so much. Do you teach places around the school and what activities do you do? Share in the comments below or on Twitter using the hashtag #earlylang!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Places Around School - Six Ideas for the FLES Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I have a new curriculum this year (as opposed to no curriculum before) and while there are many units I was already teaching there are several that I have never taught before. One of those was a unit for first grade on the different places in school called Me and My School.