Way to go, Joe! (and Marmot Mamá of the Month)

Turning now to a non-traditional way of reaching students in the beauty of the Sierra Nevada when the snow starts to fly...

Please take a moment from your weekend to see and celebrate the work this trimester of SBA student Joe Piercy, who has made two memorable videos in his Spanish 3 class in the weeks before and after winter break.

The first video Joe made - just before winter break - was his illustration of the song Tranquila by Javier García. Students in Joe's Spanish 3 class were asked to download images which would clearly demonstrate their understanding of the song's lyrics, and to import those images along with an mp3 of the song file to iMovie or MovieMaker. They were then to time the appearance of images to coincide with the corresponding song lyrics and upload the finished product to YouTube.

Culturally, the assignment was designed to expose SBA's Spanish students to one of the world's biggest Spanish language music sensations. Grammatically, the song dovetailed with the class's studies of command structures and the subjunctive.

Here is Joe's work on this project:

(To see the rest of the class's work on this particular project, click here.)

I am particularly fond of Joe's work on the class's latest music video, which was less culturally or grammatically-focused and more geared toward vocabulary development. The chapter theme was tied to health - illnesses, symptoms, and remedies. Our Spanish textbook series, Realidades, fortunately supplies its own catchy tunes on the publisher's Web site to teach vocabulary by theme.

This time, students were asked to take their own photographs to upload to their movie projects, and, as before, to time these photographs to demonstrate their comprehension of the song's lyrics.

(You will notice that there is a guest star in this video:)

Sandi Piercy gets my vote for Marmot mamá of the month!

To see the rest of the class Mamá projects, click here. You will see that there was some nice dorm collaboration going on - some non-Spanish students were clearly recruited to help out. Thanks to them for giving some of their time to their peers!

How about some cyber applause to Joe Piercy for some stellar work!