The Cardinal

Samantha Chaney, Elementary Spanish Teacher, Maumee Valley Country Day School, Toledo, Ohio, OFLA ELL Committee Member

The day has just begun when a Spanish teacher enters her classroom. In her room, you don’t find textbooks, workbooks, and mountains of worksheets. However, you do find playdough, puppets, toys, and children’s books. On the walls are a fiesta of posters, weather and calendar sets, and sight words. This is an elementary classroom…a Spanish elementary classroom. Continue reading →

María Postigo

María Postigo is a native speaker from Spain. She teaches Spanish II, III/Hnrs & IV and is the Spanish Club Advisor at Canal Winchester HS. She is on the OFLA Secondary Language Learning Committee. She is also a Ph.D. Candidate on Translation and Interpreting Studies.

In preparation for the new OTES (Ohio Teacher Evaluation System), Teri Wiechart, OFLA President 2013-2014, assigned our Secondary Language Learning Committee with the task of creating an evaluation tool that could reflect the work that the dedicated Ohio World Language teachers put in the classroom. The OFLA Teacher Evaluation Tool we created is a resource that can be used for teacher pre-observation, observation and post-observation by administrators, but it can also be used for peer to peer evaluation. Continue reading →

Pascale Abadie and Kirsten Halling, Wright State University

The Wright State University French Ambassador Program is the longest running professor-designed and professor-led study abroad program at our university, counting a total of 185 student participants since its inception in 2003. Over its twelve-year existence, the short-term program has developed into an on-site course on the history of Paris that traces the political, architectural, and cultural evolution of the City of Lights from Roman times to the modern era. Students visit important sites, monuments and museums in Paris in chronological order, experiencing history in the places where it unfolded. Two day trips, one to Versailles and one to Normandy, round out the program. Continue reading →

Effective Use of Technology in the World Language Classroom

Angela Gardner, Spanish Teacher, Ross Local Schools, Hamilton, Ohio

With the constant barrage of new gadgets, gizmos, websites, tools, and other technologies buzzing all around us, it is easy to become overwhelmed by the possibilities for use of technology in the classroom. Using the tools effectively becomes an even greater challenge, as one of my wise colleagues, who will remain anonymous, more than once quipped “Why use the technology for anything that we can do as well or better without it? Technology for the sake of technology is not effective at all.” Continue reading →

Motivating students and integrating culture through Barcelona’s Congreso de Móviles (Mobile World Conference, MWC)

María Postigo, CWHS Spanish III/IV Teacher, OFLA Secondary Language Learning Committee

For the past 10 years, Barcelona (Spain) hosted the Mobile World Conference in March 2015. 2,000 companies were represented and about 90,000 participants from 200 countries attended. King Felipe VI opened the ceremony. Although it is not as popular an event as one would think, it got immediate coverage from BBC and NPR News. Also, the Internet filled up with articles, podcasts, blogs, videos, etc. If you missed this event, I have gathered some examples in English and Spanish that can be used in the classroom. Continue reading →

Advice for Incoming Freshman

Abhijeet Singh, Saint Edward High School Class of 2015

As a high school senior, I look back at my four years of Spanish, two of which were spent as part of the International Baccalaureate program, with a sense of gratitude and appreciation. While many high school freshmen likely approach their language class as a frustrating requirement, or something merely to pad their transcripts, the true usefulness of learning a new language over the course of four years is far more profound. Learning Spanish hasn’t just opened up the ability for me to communicate in a new way, but has opened up new life-changing opportunities. Continue reading →

Jonathan Harris, Spanish Teacher, St. Gabriel Consolidated School

One way to help maintain an open attitude for your students is to utilize their prior knowledge.   I have found using a bilingual book to be a good way to help, and since it is bilingual, the story can be longer and a little more complicated .  Perros, Perros (Dogs, Dogs) by Ginger Foglesong Guy is a good example of using a bilingual book.  The basic plot is a variety of dogs running through a town, but it uses opposites.  The TPR words used will be arriba, abajo, por el pueblo (up, down, through the town).   Continue reading →