News
September 20, 2021: I sent class updates to all parents today. Check your email for the information. 📭
August 17, 2021: ¡Hola todos! Stay tuned for news. I'm in the process of updating my site for the 2021-22 school year.
I can 't wait to meet all of you in class on September 1st! 😀🎉
REMOTE CLASSES TODAY, Fri, Nov. 20, 2020
Reminder to students: The link for our remote class is always posted in Google Classroom.
- Open our Spanish class Google Classroom
- Click on Classwork
- Look for the topic: 🔴 Zoom link remote class
- Click on the Zoom link and I'll admit you to the class. Be prepared with notebook/paper and pencil by your side.
Whenever we have a remote class, that is the link we'll use. As I mentioned in class, be sure to add it to your Google Calendar.
We'll follow the regular school schedule, posted to the right.
August 26, 2020: Please add a BEACH TOWEL to your school supplies. When possible, we'll be outside for lunch and hopefully some classes too. I updated your school supply list so it now includes a beach towel.
No camp or beach chairs. Everything is carry in / carry out and should fit in your backpack.
ARCHIVE: Posts below this gray box are from past years
March 27, 2020:
I've created a new collection of Spanish learning resources for students on this Wakelet. I'll update it often with ideas so check it out for new and fun ways to practice and learn more Spanish.
Message #7: School closure, March 25, 2020:
We're now midway through the second week of "Remote Learning". Most students have been good about responding to the daily check-in activity. I've tried to make the Daily Question activities easy and engaging.
Although they are not graded, I'm making note of who has completed the activities. More than anything, the student responses help me verify that they know where to look for their Spanish class material. It will be important as we start in with a more consistent schedule next week.
This is a stressful time and there are many things to juggle and sort out at the moment. It seems like we've been in social distancing mode for a month but it's only the 8th day since the school closure. Hopefully we'll be in a more settled routine for school next week which will help ease some the angst.
Today I asked students to watch this video of penguins from the St. Louis Zoo go on a "field trip" to visit other exhibits. Students then answered five simple Spanish questions about it in a Google Form.
Message #6: School closure, March 20, 2020: ☀️🌿🌳🌷💐
¡Hola PRIMAVERA! The first day of spring officially started at 11:50 p.m. last night. Have you heard the birds chirping more? Heard any peepers yet? Seen maple sap buckets?
Google Classroom Question of Day: What is your favorite thing about spring? What activities do you like to do? ⚾️🥎🥏🏸🥍⛳️🎾⛱🏊🏻♀️🏊🏻
Students, continue to check Google Classroom for updates. Next week we anticipate there will be more guided Spanish lessons. Happy weekend and wash hands, practice social distancing.
Message #5: School closure, March 19, 2020: ☔️🌧
¡Hola a todos! Students continue to respond to the daily question. ¡Genial! Today's question: Which food is your favorite? Tacos 🌮 Sushi 🍣 Hamburger🍔 or Veggie dish 🥗 . The two most popular are tacos or sushi, although there were other likes. If you like ethnic foods, check out the Taste Atlas to discover foods from around the world. Students, do you know the Spanish words for your favorite foods? Make a list!
Message #4: School Closure, March 18, 2020:
I've updated students' Google Classrooms with a choice board of suggested activities to maintain their Spanish & will update it. We hope to start some structured practice next week.
Links to Choice Board documents:
Message #3: School closure, Covid-19, March 17, 2020: ☘️🌈😀
Good morning students. ¡Feliz Día de San Patricio! I've posted a short Spanish activity in Google Classroom for you to do.
Message #2: School closure, Covid-19, March 16, 2020:
The staff met today to make plans for the coming weeks. Here's a link to the letter I sent to my students /parents today. Some parent emails bounced back so I'll look into why they weren't deliverable.
Message #1: School closure, Covid-19, March 15, 2020:
Due to school closures for the next few weeks, we'll be switching to an online interface. Stay tuned to this page for updates about Sra. Dana's lessons & ideas for 7th and 5th graders.
November 2019: World Language News
CEMS World Language students, French and Spanish, made bookmarks to help Thomas Memorial Library celebrate its 100th birthday. Students included Spanish and French phrases on the bookmarks and included global themes. We donated all the bookmarks to TML for patrons. If you see one at Thomas Memorial, help yourself to a free bookmark!
Sept. 23-27, 2019: Global Collaboration Week
It's Global Collaboration Week and my CEMS classes are signed up as a participating school. We've been looking at the global projects that are offered and participating in some. Many projects continue beyond this week so we'll continue to look for collaborative projects that are interesting to students. Global Collaboration Week is a free event that allows us to connect with other students around the world. We've read posts and seen videos from students in the U.S., China, India, Mexico, Lativia, Uruguay, Argentina and more.
September 2019: Open House
Thank you to all the parents and students who attended Open House earlier this week. It was great to meet everyone and chat. I will be sending out a message to all parents and guardians with updates about the start of the new year, both for my 5th and 7th grade classes. As always, feel free to contact to me if you'd like to meet at any time to discuss your child's progress in Spanish class.
Posts below this gray bar are from the 2018-2019 school year. I will keep them on-line for reference.
October 1, 2018:
Parent Teacher Conferences are on October 25 and 26, 2018. If you'd like to schedule an appointment with me about your child's progress in Spanish class, please click on my sign-up page OR e-mail me. Conferences are scheduled for TEN minutes. It's best if your child attends with you. Sra. Dana
September 10, 2018:
Global Collaboration Week is September 17 - 21, 2018! This worldwide digital event allows students to join other students from around the world to exchange ideas and learn about each other, share traditions and customs, work together on collaborative projects, and have fun. I registered CEMS and we are on the map! Check it out. More than 70 countries are participating.
I'm hosting an asynchronous event: Back-to-School Traditions Around the World. Participants will post photos and descriptions of their Back-to-School customs on a shared Google Slides presentation. I'm going to encourage my students to share their family back-to- school traditions in the next few weeks so we can add them to the event page.
Although our Global Collaboration Week project is in English, my primary goal is for students to start to think about the concept of culture. What better way to delve into the topic than by reflecting on one's own customs and traditions? As the year progresses students will be describing traditions in Spanish (birthdays, meals, holidays, pets, town, house) as well as studying those of Spanish-speaking countries.
September 4, 2018:
Welcome back! First day was a great success. We're all looking forward to a rewarding year filled with lots of learning and fun.
August 8, 2018: ¡Hola todos! ¿Están pasando bien las vacaciones veraniegas? ¿Visitan la playa?
I'll post school supply lists for my classes here soon, week of Aug. 13. Stay tuned.
Sra. Dana
June 2018:
7th graders worked in groups to design logos for reusable grocery bags, related to our collaborative Objetivos Globales #12 y #14 / U.N. Global Goals study.
May 2018:
7th Grade classes continue to work on Objetivos Globales #12 y #14 ( U.N. Global Goals #12 and #14) and El Día Mundial de los Océanos (World Oceans Day, always on June 8) Students have learned Spanish vocabulary, watched Finding Nemo in Spanish, and they've been making social media videos and graphics about these two international events. Work samples will be posted soon.
Global Goals #14 Spanish.mp4April 2018:
My 7th grade classes have started work on the United Nations Global Goals 2030 initiative. We are going to focus on goals #12, Responsible Consumption/ Recycling and #14, Life Below Water in Spanish. We're learning basic vocabulary related to these topics and we hope to collaborate with a school in Spain on the Goals #12 and #14.
Prior to April vacation week students started working on social media posts related to the Global Goals. Our first video, Period 2 class, is posted on the right. More to come... Video was made with CLIPS app and iMovie.
March 2018:
I've started a March Musical Madness, Manía Musical Marzo, in my 7th and 8th grade classes. Our bracket has 18 songs and every day we'll listen to two Spanish songs. Students have until 9 p.m. each night to vote for their favorite and I'll update the bracket. Middle school Spanish students from Waynflete are also participating in our bracket. Our 2017 winner was "Sofía" by Álvaro Soler. Who will be the most popular one for 2018??
January 28, 2018:
This past fall my 7th grade students used their MLTI MacBooks to learn iMovie and Keynote basics while combining them with writing and speaking skills in Spanish. I taught storyboarding in Spanish, simple editing techniques, green-screening, adding voice and music, exporting raw footage to a movie file, and more. In the second semester we'll delve into more advanced movie-making techniques.
Sample projects are posted on the right:
1. "Unboxing of Your Backpack" assignment: After students studied school supplies vocabulary and some basic verbs they created Spanish videos of an "Unboxing" of their backpacks.
2. Monster Creation and Animation assignment: Students drew monsters on paper, took a photo of it, used tools in Preview to mark it up, imported the image into Keynote, animated it, exported it to Quicktime, imported QT to iMovie, narrated it, added sound effects, then exported it to a movie format. Many students had never used Keynote and/or iMovie so they learned a lot of tech while using their Spanish. They did great work! (There are shorter ways to do this but one of the lesson objectives was to learn the various tech effects.)
January 2018:
¡Feliz Año Nuevo 2018! During Dec. break I was exploring RTVE, a major Spanish network, and discovered that they were recently in Maine to film an episode for "Españoles en el mundo" / Spaniards around the World. Too bad we missed them but you can read about it HERE.
December 2017: The One Hour of Code global event takes place from December 4-10, 2017. All my Spanish students will be participating and I've registered CEMS on the official Hour of Code site. Check out my Hora de Código blog for more info and to practice coding a few games.
November 2017: Are you a Patriots Football fan? Maybe a Raiders fan? The Patriots will be playing in Mexico City, Mexico, on Sunday, November 19, 2017. Tickets to the Estadio Azteca game have been sold out for a while but there are lots of Mexico City FanFest activities planned for November 17, 18, and 19. You can follow the game through social media, a great way to follow the NFL and practice Spanish. If you tweet out with this hashtag #PatriotsenMexico, a Mexican flag football will automatically pop up at the end of the tag.
