"Rainbow at noon, more rain soon"...or so goes the proverb

It was September, and it was the time I usually teach the students about how to talk about the weather, en español. That time of year in Florida is always interesting because the weather is still very warm and we typically get a lot of thunderstorms. Unfortunately, when the weather is poor, the students do not get to play outside at recess; therefore, they are quite interested to know when the rain will "go away."

Just as students apply the National Standards "5 C's" or five goals that focus language learning, by using comparisons, students will develop insight into the target language and culture (as well as their own). From an early age/level, their classroom investigations should provide them with a deeper understanding of how Spanish culture reflects the perspectives, practices, and products of the people who speak Spanish. 

Now, bring in the Educational Technology instruments. Use the "Weather+" and "Google Earth" apps to investigate the weather and location of Latin American countries. Utilize information found to create "El Pronóstico de Tiempo" of certain country capital cities around the world. Next, find a teacher in one of those countries with whom you can Mystery Skype using the "Skype" app, and then, discuss the weather. Communicating or interacting with an authentic classroom in another part of the world allows students to hone their valuable (interpersonal mode of) communications skills.

This time, in addition, I created a beautiful Haiku Deck presentation to capture my student's interest, and also to help orally teach the words of a song I used to utilize from the Realidades program. Later, the Haiku Deck slides (as seen below) can be printed as "board game play cards" for a mean game of Spanish-style Candy Land!

Here are a couple links to use and/or share:

http://www.phschool.com/atschool/realidades/hiphop/level1/L1_PE2_lyrics.mp3

http://www.phschool.com/atschool/realidades/hiphop/level1/pdfs/L1_PE2_lyrics_text.pdf



El Tiempo - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Watching videos in Spanish provides students with the opportunity to practice their (interpretive mode of) communication skills. Simple use of an appropriate video from YouTube is a great example of integrating technology into instruction to enhance learning.

Un video de SAS Curriculum Pathways:


It is unusually cold here in Florida as I edit this post. Keep warm, wherever you live in the world; and please let me know if you have more ideas about how to engage students with weather lessons.