AnnMarie Dionne's Blog- April 2010

The National Capital Language Resource Center (NCLRC) in conjunction with the Spanish Embassy and George Washington University offered a Spanish Immersion in Washington, DC in June 2009.  There were a myriad of enriching activities that enhanced my professional development, my curriculum and the skills of my students.  It was an exciting and worthwhile opportunity!

The Spanish Immersion began with a session on Spanish film presented by Sheila Cockey.  Several years ago a Spanish professor at the University of Virginia, David Gies, wrote a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to compile not only clips from various Spanish films, but accompanying lessons and activities.  Sheila is one of the site’s contributors so her guidance was quite valuable.  We were led through the comprehensive site and shared movies that we have successfully used in the classroom.  I looked forward to sharing this resource with my colleagues as a way to bring authentic language and culture into the classroom!  The website, called Cine Con Clase, is located at:  http://hitchcock.itc.virginis.edu/SpanishFilm /principal.html

The next session took place at the Spanish Embassy.  It was exciting to go inside and be “in Spain.”  It was wonderful to hear the Spanish accent again!  The Embassy provided us with a tour of their website and several educational materials published by the Embassy to take back to our classrooms. In a subsequent session presented by the Spanish Embassy, we learned about España Verde, the most northern regions of the country.   I have not yet visited that area of Spain and I learned that I am missing out on a beautiful landscape and a unique experience on the Camino de Santiago!

In the afternoon, our group received a private, guided tour of the Spanish collection in the National Gallery of Art.  I enjoyed seeing the Picasso and Dalí.  Afterwards, we viewed the Alejandro Amenábar film, Mar adentro.  It was a sad, heavy topic, but the film is beautifully put together.   A discussion of the film followed.

Prior to arriving for Spanish Week, we were all asked to provide a lesson to share with the group.  Each of us had time to share our tried and true lessons with one another.  Since we were a varied group of teachers, from grade 3 through college, we were able to brainstorm ways to adapt the lessons to the different language levels.

The Spanish Immersion also featured a session with a Spanish-speaking teacher/guitarist.  That session marked the first time I had ever held a guitar! The guitar sessions were a source of struggle for me.  It was tough to look around and see others jumping right in and playing songs while I plucked along trying to make sure my fingers were in the right spot to play the chord!  It later came out that those who just “got it” had some prior musical instruction.  However, in the midst of my frustration I realized a couple things.  One was that experienced guitarists make it look easy to remember the chords to a song, form the chords, play the chords and sing along all at the same time!  The second thing was that I was glad I was experiencing frustration while learning something brand new.  I know that there are students who experience the same anxiety and frustration as I did with guitars with language learning.  It served as a valuable reflective teaching moment for me.

I encourage other teachers to connect with CEEF about future opportunities.  Throughout the grant process I felt comfortable and supported.  I appreciated that the grants committee asked questions about my proposal that demonstrated a true interest in my professional development idea.

A big thank you once again to CEEF for making this professional development experience possible.  It was both worthwhile and enjoyable.  I was able to learn from colleagues in other parts of the country, practice my own skills, visit the Embassy and garner a wealth of resources and ideas for the classroom.  I have created lessons based on materials from the NCLRC website and Cine Con Clase.   There is a selection of Internet resources for colleagues at: http://guest.portaportal.com/srtadionne.