Skip to main content

About Me

Welcome to my blog, Christa's Cuentos! I teach beginning and intermediate Spanish to undergraduate students in Massachusetts, and I have about 10 years of experience. Learning from other teachers who generously share their ideas and experiences on their blogs has had a huge impact on my teaching practices, so I am excited to use this blog to reflect on my teaching and contribute to the conversation!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Novice-level dictogloss activity with art by Carmen Lomas Garza

Hi, there! I haven't used this blog in quite some time, but I wanted to share this lesson that I used with novice-level Spanish students in my first-semester class this semester in our unit on family and friends.  I was really happy with how this lesson came together! Students were able to process language while learning about Carmen Lomas Garza, a well known artist who creates art that challenges negative stereotypes about Hispanic communities in the U.S.  Check out Carmen Lomas Garza's paintings here on her website  and in her books Family Pictures / Cuadros de familia and In My Family / En mi familia . As you might notice, her artwork is perfect for discussing topics that we often cover in novice-level Spanish, such as family, hobbies, places, food, and celebrations. I knew I wanted to incorporate her work in my class this semester, and then this video from Florencia Henshaw's YouTube channel Unpacking Language Pedagogy gave me the idea to do a dictogloss activity! ...
2 comments
Read more

PLN Reflections and Exploration

Getting Started with my PLN My first full-time gig teaching was at a rural high school where I taught all levels of Spanish, and my only language colleague was part-time. I taught that year on an alternative license because I did not complete an education degree (I had studied journalism and Spanish), and my prior teaching experience was primarily with undergraduate students when I was a graduate teaching associate. Suffice it to say, I was a bit in over my head and without a mentor in my content area. By the second week of classes, it was evident--I needed some help. That's when I started building my PLN (Personal Learning Network). Of course, I didn't know that's what I was doing at the time, but I started following the blogs of other high school Spanish teachers to see what they were doing to engage and connect with their students. I especially loved the Creative Language Class , by Kara Parker and Megan Smith , and Musicuentos , by Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell . These teache...
5 comments
Read more

Flipgrid for inclusive instruction in the language classroom

As I prepare for fall semester, I know that a significant part of my beginning and intermediate Spanish courses will take place online. One of my top priorities is to choose web applications that foster communication in the target language (TL) and are accessible to the diverse range of learners in my classes. After recently reading Disability and World Language Learning: Inclusive Teaching for Diverse Learners (2019) by Sally Scott and Wade Edwards, I have been reflecting on the instructional choices I make to best meet the needs of all my students.  One step I am taking this summer is to evaluate some of the web applications I use in terms of their capacity to help create an inclusive learning environment. The principles of Universal Design for Instruction (UDI) provide a helpful framework for such a task. The nine principles include: equitable use, flexibility in use, simple and intuitive, perceptible information, tolerance for error, low physical effort, size and space fo...
5 comments
Read more