Spanish & Illinois

by Ann Abbott Last semester I set myself up for blogging failure: I said I would share all my lesson plans on my blog. Didn't happen. Too much going on, so I didn't always have time to sit down and write and share every single lesson plan. So this semester, no promises. When I can, I will. And I'd love to hear from you about your courses, lesson plans and class projects. Just as a reminder, you can contact me: Through comments on this blog. (Gracias, Carolina Egúsquiza, for being a friendly and helpful voice in the comments.) At work: arabbott@illinois.edu; 217-333-6714 On-line: Twitter @AnnAbbott ; Facebook Ann Abbott and my Page ( UIUC Spanish Community Service Learning ); Pinterest Ann Abbott And here's what I did with my students today. Students using their earbuds, listening to the videos. It's hard to see, but on the board I wrote: ¿Qué? ¿Y qué? ¿Ahora qué? ¿Qué? Informarse First I asked students if they knew who our Illinois Sen

by Ann Abbott Today was dedicated to ensuring that all my Spanish community service learning students (~50) were signed up and set up for their work with a community partner. It's so nice to see that students have taken advantage of many, though not all, of the various organizations available to them. Click here to see the list of community partners . I was especially excited when I heard from a student that he would like to work with the Latino Boy Scouts because I haven't had a student there for quite some time. Now I have turned my attention to the team projects in my 300-level course-- Spanish & Entrepreneurship: Language, Cultures & Communities . Each project allows students to develop teamwork skills and apply the entrepreneurial concepts we learn during the course. Take a look at all the projects that are available to them . And here is the email I sent to students: Dear SPAN 332 students, Now that everyone has signed up for a community partner,

Katrina and her lovely family--soon to include one more. by Ann Abbott Do you love languages and cultures? Do translation and interpreting interest you? Ever thought about starting your own business? Then Katrina Steffes and her business,   Steffes & Associates Language and Translation  SALT , will inspire you. Take a look at SALT's business website , check out Katrina's LinkedIn profile , and consider connecting with her on LinkedIn. I really admire that Katrina's business does this: " SALT donates 10% of its profits to charities, including CFCA (Christian Foundation for Children and Aging), World Vision, and Heifer International, allowing SALT to build hope and offer support through language and communication." Here's part of a message I recently received from Katrina. She's doing exciting work, so be sure to reach out and connect if you would like to include in your network someone who transformed her language studies to a language busin

by Ann Abbott A graduate student just returned from the MLA convention and sent me this note: I just got back from the MLA and wanted to let you know that out of the 9 interviews I've had over the past month, six of them asked specifically about my experiences with service learning, often at length (including both research 1 schools). I think this is a really encouraging sign, not only in terms of my possibilities for getting a job and teaching service learning courses in the future, but also that a lot of schools are looking to incorporate service learning into their curriculum. Thank you for your mentorship in this area! I firmly believe that our graduate students deserve at least one course on the scholarship of engagement and languages for specific purposes. What are your thoughts about graduate students, Spanish community service learning, graduate education, and the job market?

by Nicole Tauster Mi coraz ón está en Granada por siempre I wrote about studying abroad in general in my last post and about travel before that, but now I just have to share my specific experience. Almost 2 years ago, in the spring of my sophomore year of college, I spent a semester studying abroad in Granada, Spain and my life has never been the same. I knew I wanted to go to a Spanish-speaking country to be able to complete my Spanish minor while I was abroad and focus on class for my major upon my return. I ruled out Latin America just because there were so many other places I wanted to visit in Europe and I knew it would be easy to travel from country to country over there. So I settled on Spain, but the next question was which city to study in. I wanted a pure experience; I didn’t want the influence of Catalan that was so strong in Barcelona. I didn’t want an especially big city because I wanted to experience Spain, not a tourist destination. So that left Bilbao in the