Tortilla Day!

Students did a great job making fresh corn tortillas from scratch yesterday!

 With the help of an authentic tortilla press, it was pretty easy!

Once the tortillas were made, we folded them, added some cheese and made quesadillas!  These are the instructions we followed to make the tortillas.  If you want to make your own tortillas at home, you don't need a tortilla press.  A rolling pin works fine!  Masa harina - the ground corn that is used for corn tortillas - is available in most grocery stores.  Look for it near the prepared tortillas and taco shells.

I surprised students with an authentic Mexican beverage called agua de jamaica.  

This is a refreshing drink that is served cold and is made with hibiscus flowers.  The dried hibiscus flowers are steeped in a mixture of sugar and hot water and then chilled and served with fresh lime juice.  This is the recipe I used to prepare the drink for class today.  Dried hibiscus flowers are commonly used in herb tea blends including the Red Zinger blend by Celestial Seasonings.

I hope everyone has a nice break, and if you make tortillas at home be sure to share some photos with me!

The unit test is done! What's next?

Hola familias,

Students completed a unit on The School Day at the end of last week, and I was impressed with their ability to discuss their school schedules with me en español!  By the end of The School Day unit students were able to:

•  Recognize times when they heard them spoken,
•  Ask and state the time both in writing and verbally,
•  Describe what school supplies they need for their classes, and
• Discuss with their classmates (both in writing and verbally) when they have different classes using the correct conjugation of the verb “to have”, the vocabulary for the classes, and the time.

The theme of our next unit is Food & Restaurants.  This is always a very exciting unit because who doesn't love to talk about food?!  By the end of this unit students will be able to:

• Conjugate verbs that end in  –er and -ir,
• Describe what foods they like and dislike, 
• Create sentences (in writing and verbally) about what they eat and drink at different times of day,
• Identify and order food and drink items in a restaurant setting, and
• Compare and contrast typical Mexican, Spanish, and American food.

This is a pretty impressive list of skills for beginning language learners.  It also means that if you find yourself in a Spanish speaking country, your student will be able order food in restaurants entirely en español!

Students will also have the option to prepare an authentic recipe from a Latin American country as part of a research project during this unit.  It's not a requirement, but lots of students enjoy this aspect of the project. 

Lastly, I'm also very excited to share that we will be preparing homemade tortillas from scratch during this unit!  

Señora Tiernan Fisher

I'm back!

Hola familias - Hello families!

I am back after a wonderful extended maternity leave with my baby, Fiona.  I really enjoyed having time at home with her, and now I'm excited to be back in my classroom with all of the rest of my kids :).

There are some important items of business that we need to attend to now that I'm back.  First, please make sure to follow to this blog as it will serve as an important means of communication for the rest of the school year.  Simply enter your email address in the box on the right hand column of this page.  I promise not to flood your inbox with unnecessary emails, but I wouldn't want to you miss anything important or fun - especially the pictures that I take of our Spanish students!  Also, feel free to check out my class website that has lots of wonderful resources for students: www.senoratiernanfisher.weebly.com

Next, please check in with your student and make sure they've set up accounts with CloudK12 (in my name and not the substitute's name) and www.conjuguemos.com.  These will be critical tools that we will use for the remainder of the year and I want to make sure everyone is ready to go and doesn't get behind on assignments.

A quick note on www.conjuguemos.com - this is a wonderful practice website that I frequently use to assign homework.  Since learning a language requires A LOT of practice and repetition, I have found this website invaluable in providing quick, easy practice sessions with instant feedback.  Students must submit a given assignment on the date it is due, but they are ALWAYS welcome to repeat the assignment for more practice and I will take the highest score that they send me!

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.  I look forward to a successful 2014 in Spanish class!

Baby Fiona!

Hola :)

As promised, here are a few photos of our sweet baby, Fiona Helen!  We are all doing well, and I hope things are going well at CMS!

Sra. Tiernan Fisher
       

Hola familias,

This is a reminder that the Unified Arts Curriculum Night is tomorrow, Tuesday, March 26th, from 6:00-7:30.  The Spanish portion of the evening will include watching a video of students' recent professional dance lesson and giving it a try for yourselves with the help of some student representatives as instructors.  Hope to see you there.  It should be lots of fun!

Gracias,
Señora Tiernan Fisher

Latin Dance and Music

In 8th grade Spanish we are working on new unit on Latin Dance and Music!  In this unit students will think about and explore the following question: what roles do dance and music play in culture?  We will be listening to a variety of musical genres from all over the Spanish speaking world and learning some of the dances that go along with them.  I'm very excited to share that with the help of a PIE grant a professional dance instructor, Victoria from Salsalina in Burlington, gave us a salsa lesson during this unit!

If you'd like to see a video of our dance lesson and give it a try for yourself with the help of some student leaders, please join us next Tuesday, March 19th for the Unified Arts Curriculum Night from 6:00-7:30.  It's bound to be a fun experience...or at the very least a very entertaining one!

Here are some photos from our lesson.

Colchester School District Video - Please vote!

If you haven't had a chance yet to view this video about our Colchester School District community, check it out!