Todos los posts (All the posts) :)

After reluctantly starting Spanish 1 in highschool, I quickly fell in love with the language and the culture. I'm forever grateful to my homeschool Spanish teacher who challenged me and taught me to enjoy Spanish. My homeschool class competed in a regional language competition with public and private schools and other homeschool groups in the area. Being an over-achiever (and obsessed with Spanish), I volunteered myself to represent my class in the Spanish culture bee in thi

I love Spanish for many reasons – the culture behind the language, the roll of the rr, and the unique words (and practices) like sobremesa... which means "over the table" but refers to time spent after a meal, hanging out with family or friends, chatting and enjoying each other's company. But mostly I love being able to communicate with Spanish speakers. Communication and connection with others is the goal for me and I hope that idea is contagious to my students as well.​I o

I frequently tell my students that grammar isn't everything. Our goal is communication and oftentimes we can get our point across without perfect grammar! Ain't that right? However, we also strive to learn and use good grammar! So, let's give a moment to definite and indefinite articles. What does it look like in a real-life sentence? Let's use the masculine word/object "book" (el libro). 📖📚 Tengo un libro (I have a book) Tengo el libro (I have the book) Tengo los libros (I

As they say, perfectionism is the enemy of progress. That applies to learning a language, too! One of the unexpected keys to learning Spanish is this: Do away with perfectionism! 🗝️ In my live office hours (available to my ​Self-Paced Spanish 1 and Self-Paced Spanish 2​  students), sometimes we practice pronunciation. Occasionally, students will apologize when I correct them on how to pronounce a certain word. I’m quick to tell them not to say “sorry” when they make pronunci

My philosophy is that learning Spanish should be fun. It can be hard work, but it's also exciting and if we aren't having some fun while doing it, something is wrong! When it comes to learning verb conjugations, I often have students draw their own verb charts instead of just memorizing out of the book... more of the brain is involved in learning and it's just more interesting. Seeing their sketchnotes is a highlight for me! The artistic students absolutely shine and the non-

“I’ll pick you up ahora .” It was March 2017 and I had recently moved to Spain. I was making plans to go to dinner with a friend that evening and she texted me: “Te recojo ahora” which means “I’ll pick you up ahora .” I translated “ahora” in my head how most English-speakers would translate it: now . And when we say “now,” it means SOON! Pronto. ASAP. So, I gathered my things quickly and waited for my friend. And waited. And waited some more. It turned out that “ahora” didn’t

“You’re not supposed to know.” I said this to a student of mine in live class one day when they said “I don’t know what all those words...

Listening to music in Spanish is a catchy way to learn! I suggest a ton of songs in my Elementary Spanish Class but also play some music...

When I was taking high school Spanish , my teacher required us to memorize Bible verses in Spanish. As you can imagine, this was a huge...

For seven years, I lived in a small Spanish city just an hour or two from the Portugal border. While Spain and Portugal share the Iberian...

Learning the alphabet isn’t just for preschoolers or elementary school ! At least it isn’t when you’re learning a brand new language 🙂...