Spanish & Illinois

by Theresa Calkins This semester I am volunteering at Garden Hills Elementary School in Champaign, Illinois.  I am working in a bilingual first grade classroom.  Por eso voy a escribir mi blog post en las dos lenguas (español e ingles) para practicar usando las lenguas juntos, como los estudiantes en la clase.   All of the students in the class are native Spanish speakers.  Es obvio que algunos estudiantes se sienten cómodos al hablar ingles, pero algunos siempre hablan el español.  When I met with the Garden Hills volunteer coordinator for my orientation, she told me that by the time the students are in fourth grade, they won’t speak Spanish in the classroom any more.  Had I been working in a classroom like this, even if I made the effort to speak Spanish with them, the students probably would not speak Spanish to me.  Por eso, estoy emocionada por tener la oportunidad de trabajar con esos niños del primer año que pueden ayudarme a mejorar mi habil...

by Ann Abbott The Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies at the University of Illinois is offering a workshop for K12 teachers on Saturday, March 31 . There are many good speakers, topics and the chance to enjoy a lunch while viewing an art exhibition. Yesterday I finished preparing my session: "Building Community in the Classroom with Social Media." I will talk share lesson plans and other materials based on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and language-learning social media sites. Participants will walk away with lesson plans in hand and food for thought! Here are more pictures from last year's seminar . Be sure to register !

by Ann Abbott Even though I love teaching, I must admit that I had begun to feel exhausted by it lately. In part, the administration of the community service learning (CSL) component was feeling heavy to me, and in part I was feeling the need for a change, a new challenge. But that all changed this semester when I began using this phrase to start my classes: "Please turn on your cell phones and open Facebook." I know that many educators feel that nothing good can happen with a classroom full of students checking their Facebook feed. Instead, I feel like it has given new life to my teaching. I'm not exaggerating. Of course, Facebook doesn't change bad teaching into good. But it does open new possibilities. And that is exactly the kind of change, the kind of challenge that I was looking for.  First, here are some basics: I created a Page called "UIUC Spanish Community Service Learning." That's an umbrella term for all the courses I te...

by Ann Abbott On this blog I mostly talk about my work at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign running the Spanish community service learning program and teaching "Spanish in the Community," social entrepreneurship and business Spanish.  But another part of my job includes coordinating some of the advanced Spanish language courses, including our conversation and composition courses. So I oversee about 14 sections and sometimes up to ten TAs/Instructors. The most time consuming part of the job is updating, every semester, the syllabus, course calendar and all the elements within the course management system. It's a lot. And on top of this, all the requests to do an honors project from the James Scholar students come to me. I'd say I average about 15 of those per semester. ( You can see my wiki here if you're interested in how I came up with a system that allowed students to have a good learning experience yet keep me sane in the process .) One of th...

by Tessa McGirk I am volunteering at a place called Salt and Light in Champaign, Illinois. Salt and Light has been around since 2004, and offers numerous free services to anyone in need of some assistance. For example, the organization accepts clothing donations so that they can have a clothing closet every Monday afternoon and on the first Saturday of each month. They also distribute food every week, host financial literacy programs and counseling, and hold weekly worship ceremonies. During the day and on specific evenings, time is spent gathering and sorting food and clothing, planning worship ceremonies, taking care of general organizational tasks, and also expanding their outreach. For instance, Salt and Light is currently putting together an on-sight computer lab that will be open during the day for children to do homework and for adults to find job applications or do homework. The thing I like most about Salt and Light is that those in charge genuinely want to help their comm...

by Ann Abbott The University YMCA in Champaign has always been a place to become informed about and participate in social activism. Now, it seems, it is more than ever a place for activism regarding immigration reform and immigrant rights. It is wonderful. Even the upcoming art exhibit at the University Y showcases their focus on immigration: " Caritas: The Immigrant, the Word, and Life ." I am looking forward to attending the exhibition opening to see the pieces, listen to the band and mingle with friends. SPAN 232 and 332 students: please read Francisco's message below. If you volunteer, you can count those hours toward your 28-hour requirement. I hope other students will attend! The YMCA is looking for students interested in volunteering at our Caritas! event on March 2nd. We know it is 'unofficial', but if you are tired of the same-'ol drunk-student-zombie experience, then come to the YMCA and volunteer some time while we celebrate our Latin...

Theresa Calkins ¡Hola!  My name is Theresa Calkins.  I am a senior at the University of Illinois, studying Communication and Spanish.  After I graduate, I want to work as an event and meeting planner, and hopefully will be able to use Spanish, either working with Spanish-speaking clients, or maybe even in Latin America or Spain.  Learning Spanish has been a huge part of my education for the past eleven years, and I know that I have really improved my ability to speak Spanish during my last few years here at U of I.  I am going to write the rest of this blog entry in Spanish so I can practice escribiendo en español! Empecé a estudiar el español cuando tenía once años.  Durante la escuela primera, no me gustaba la clase de español.  Era muy difícil para mí a recordar todas las reglas de gramática y el vocabulario nuevo.  Aunque no me gustaba la clase de español, sabía que sería muy beneficial y importante si podía hablarlo en el futuro.  Por...

by April Nwatah ¡Hola a todos! Some of you may remember me from my blog posts from last school year but for those of you who don’t, my name is April and I’m a senior (yikes!) in Global Studies. Within the Global Studies major my concentration is “Social Work in Latino Communities”. I have been studying Spanish since the 7 th grade but I did not get a solid grasp of it until I studied abroad in Ecuador during my sophomore year. In addition to a semester in Ecuador, I spend last summer in Honduras doing missions work (and am looking forward to doing it again this summer!) I really enjoyed taking SPAN 232 so I worked this class into my Major Plan of Study and made sure to work my schedule around taking SPAN 332 this semester (it was that serious to me!) From being in this class, I look forward to expanding my Spanish vocabulary to be able to discuss terms that I can use in a professional field (since I would eventually like to do social work in a Latino community). Additionally, I...

by Ann Abbott When I opened my mail this morning, I saw the newest newsletter from UIUC's National and International Scholarship program . Here is the information about Brittany Koteles, my former student, and her Fulbright work in Spain: "Brittany Koteles, a May 2011 graduate in Spanish and a self-designed major in public and community service, is studying best practices in the field of social entrepreneurship in Spain. She is working with ESADE Business School to write ten case studies for the first 10 participants in the Momentum Project, an incubator for social entrepreneurs/ social enterprises. Brittany has enjoyed traversing (often with fellow runners) the 'narrow streets, cool cafes, cute boutiques, and lots of plazas' in her neighborhood of Gracia in Barcelona. She has become obsessed with the fruit spread, membrillo, and Mató, a cottagecheese-like spread." I'm working with Brittany to find a way for her to ...

by Ann Abbott If you are in SPAN 232 or 332, please take advantage of this opportunity to help Spanish-speaking parents at Central High School and help yourself reach those 28 hours. Oportunidad de voluntariadi Parent-teacher conferences a Central High School Jueves, 15 marzo, 5 pm-8 pm Viernes 16 marzo 8am-12pm Contacto: Janet High                  217-351-3911         highja@champaignschools.org These two students will be there!

by Ann Abbott I am very happy to see that the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Maryland, College Park has created a Master's Degree in Applied Hispanic Linguistics that includes community service learning (CSL).  I think that the combination of courses will appeal to students. I also think that this is by no accident--the description of the program shows that they have conceived of this program from their own academic perspectives but also from the students' perspectives and goals. This is a sign of the growing place of Spanish community service learning not just as a pedagogical tool for our undergraduates, but an effective one for graduate studies, too. I would also love to see programs that include CSL in the methods course--or even as the topic of a separate course. (I know exactly how I would teach that course!) Congratulations and good luck to Professors Manel Lacorte, Roberta Levine (whom I know well from CIBER business languages conference...

by Tessa McGirk Hello! This is my first time ever writing a blog, but I have to say I am excited about it: especially because it is all about Spanish! También, me considero una bilingüe; entonces, a veces voy a escribir en español y a veces en inglés porque ambos son partes importantes de mi vida. My Spanish experience started a long time ago. In fact, it basically started when I was born. My mother used to teach Spanish, so, growing up, I learned colors and numbers and some food and clothes. However, my dad does not know Spanish, so, besides a few phrases like “Déjame verla” y “Dame la mano,” that was the extent of my Spanish exposure until school started. The school system I was in did not start teaching Spanish until sixth grade, and even then, we did not get further than nouns. For that first year I felt on top of the world because I already knew most of what we learned. After that, though, I was on the same level as everyone else. High school was especially fun. I learned...

by Ann Abbott This semester I have really felt reinvigorated in my teaching. I have always loved doing community service learning in both "Spanish in the Community" and in my Spanish and social entrepreneurship courses. I feel a strong personal connection with the Business Spanish course, too. But I feel like my energy for designing classes and creating activities took a real leap when I began to integrate smart phones (plus iPads and laptops, of course) and social media into almost every class I teach. For now, I just wanted to share a screen shot of the Facebook page that my students and I use often during class. Soon I will write about how I use it. And, as always, I'd love to hear about ways that you use Facebook and other social media with your students!

by Ann Abbott I feel sure that my ¨Spanish and Social Entrepreneurship¨ students have really understood the two basic components of a social enterprise (1. create social value; 2. generate income for economic sustainability). Now I have begun to move on to the second "big concept" of the course: how to create linguistically and culturally appropriate programming. This is hard! We all see things through our own cultural filter. But when you work in human services and in the nonprofit world, you need to know your stakeholders very, very well. Here are some of the highlights from today's class: 1. Localization.  The old way of approaching international development and nonprofit programming was for the "elites" (in whatever way) to both define a community's problems and decide the solutions to those problems. The trend now is to partner with communities as they define their own challenges and solutions. As a very simple example of why the first approac...

by Ann Abbott   I have been aware of Pinterest for a while, but it didn´t seem like a tool that I could use for my professional interests.  Recently, however, I decided to really dig in and start exploring. I looked at the "education" category, but everything I saw there was about elementary education. Teachers were sharing classroom activities, bulletin boards and classroom organizational solutions.  At first glance, that has nothing to do with me: I teach at the university; I specialize in Spanish community service learning and social entrepreneurship; and I don't have a classroom of my own. However: I write activities and lesson plans that I like to share with others. They are on my blog, but you have to know about my blog to find them. I do in fact have a bulletin board outside my office. It is there to promote the Spanish community service learning opportunities for students, but I rarely update it. I should! More and more, I see my classroom as existing...