City High Students Go to Costa Rica

Every year City High takes about 20 students (mostly juniors) on a 2 week service learning trip to Costa Rica. In a previous post I linked the blog and videos from last years students as well as video from when I went.

This year I will be going with the City High students!

In preparation the students have started a blog sharing how they are preparing for the trip. They will update it when they are in Costa Rica as well.

Click here to read the blog.

Earn Hot Tamale points by emailing bordner@cityhigh.org a summary of what you read about.

Move from Monolingual to Multi-cultural

One of the reasons students are required to learn about another language and culture is that it helps students become aware of the larger world they may not have been introduced to yet, but in which they live. The idea is that the more you understand about other people, the more you can understand about yourself.

Many people around the world speak more than one language, and people in the United States are sometimes considered self-centered and lazy to think that everyone should just speak English because it's easier for us.

Hot Tamale Activity - What countries are these flags of? What continent are these countries in?

It's a stereotype that people in the United States only want to speak English, but there are actually many people who speak more than one language. Check out this article about different actors that are fluent in other languages. 

Check out this video of Will Smith speaking Spanish in a Talk Show. 

Hot Tamale Activity - What other celebrities/sports stars speak other languages?

Here is a video that describes the benefits of being bilingual. 

The video mentions many benefits of learning a language early, before high school. While that's true that was not my experience, I started learning Spanish in high school, just like many of you! You can still reap all the benefits of learning another language when you're older.

Hot Tamale Activity - list the benefits of learning another language described in the video

Super-Duper Extra-Caliente Hot Tamale option. (This is a bit Spanish-teacher-language-nerdy and is perfect for someone who really values understanding a vision of a diverse community and how to support it.) Click here to watch a 20 min. presentation of a Profesor in Chicago discussing the benefits of being in a society that supports a multi-cultural, multi-lingual country. Watch the video and write a reflection in an email.

Living on One Dollar a Day

As we learn about Latin America, many students that I've taught have a hard time understanding how what life can be like in developing countries. Watch this trailer to a movie below to see how one group of recent college grads went about understanding these complex issues.

According to The World Bank, poverty in Latin America is decreasing. So it would be inaccurate to say that the majority of people in Latin America live in extreme poverty. But it is accurate to say that people in Latin America, in general, have less than what many of us in the United States are accustomed too. It is also accurate to say that there are some pockets of the United States that have higher rates of poverty than in Latin America. (Source, OECD)

Hot Tamale Activities -

• Watch other videos from the Living on One Dollar YouTube channel and summarize the videos. What is your reaction? 
• Learn more about what these young men are doing from their website. What are they doing? What are some ways you can participate? Are there ideas that come to your mind of ways you can make a positive impact? 
• Here is a 18 min video of Zach and Chris presenting their project to a large audience. Watch and summarize the video in email.

We're all Americans

This week we are learning about Latin America. 

mural in Chile

Adam, an Engineer who was born and raised in Ohio and now travels around the world and blogs on Happiness Plunge, recently wrote an excellent blog post about the confusion around people in the United States calling themselves American, ignoring the fact that everyone in North and South America considers themselves Americans. 

Read the blog post here then respond to one of the following Hot Tamale Activities

• Summarize Adam's thoughts. Explain in your own words where you think he's coming from. Copy and paste a quote out of the blog post that best illustrates the problem with people in the United States referring to themselves as Americans. 
• Write a response/comment to Adam's post. Do you agree? Disagree? Did his post change the way you think about the term American? After you comment, copy and paste what you wrote in an email to bordner@cityhigh.org
• After reading the post, will you continue to use the term American to describe people in the United States? What other terms can you use?

Travel Blogs

I love reading about people's travels. It helps me learn about places in the world I know nothing about, it inspires me to explore, and it reminds me to have an open mind. I love bringing travel bloggers into the class as well. Students have interviewed Sarah, Jeremy and Mike.

This trimester I'm sponsoring blogging club, and we spend our time checking out Tumblr. I found this list of 21 Travel Tumblrs and also The Top 13 Travel Blogs of 2013.

• Looking at the lists, which one seems the most interesting to you? Why? 
• Explore a specific blog (or more) and write a short summary on it. Which blog post was the most interesting to you? Would you want to travel with that person? Explain your answers.
• Do the same for the Travel Twitter List (if you can get on twitter).
• Is there a travel blog not listed that you read or have recently discovered? Share the link and what you like about it!
• Our class was able to video conference with Mike from Kick the Grind because a student reached out to him. Email a travel blogger you would like to interview asking them to Skype/ Google Hangout with us and cc (add me) to the email.

Spanish Alphabet Sign Language

Some 9th graders started working with the Spanish alphabet last week. This weekend I came across videos of Spanish alphabet in sign language!

Chilean Alphabet Sign Language

Bolivian Alphabet Sign Language

Hot Tamale Activities - email your responses to bordner@cityhigh.org

• How is the Spanish alphabet different than the English alphabet?
• Compare the hand signs between the two videos. Which letters are different?
• Here are more videos of Spanish Sign Language. It appears as though each country has somewhat different signs. Describe the differences between signs of another two countries. 
• Create a map linking the different videos to the country they are in. 
• Here is a video on how to create a map
• Here is a video on how to add details to your map
• Sign your name (first and last) and spell it out to Mrs. A or myself! Or, you can try to stump us and sign/spell out something and have us guess!

While we're learning about important hand signals in Spanish, it's important to remember that some hand signals we are used to in our culture can be offensive in another. Check out this infographic below to make yourself aware of what not to do in other places.

Online Language Learning Programs

Recently some students have been inquiring about Rosetta Stone, a language learning software that cost between $150-$500 (depending on how many levels you buy).

When my parents went to Italy they bought Rosetta Stone for Italian. My mom described going through the program as "just OK." She said she and my father didn't get much out of it because they didn't take it very seriously. She said if she would do it again she would focus on it for an hour a day every day, and she thinks she would learn more.

Now I have a friend trying to learn Spanish. He is using a free online program called Duolingo. There is an iPhone app and you can work on it online. He likes it, but he often sends me screenshots of really silly sentences the program has him translate, like The horse is to the left of the books. He's frustrated because many of the sentences he's learning he will never need to communicate.

The Hot Tamale Activities 

Here are a few free online language learning programs. Check one (or more) out. For the programs where you can select to learn languages other than Spanish, feel free to select another language to learn! You may have to create an account, that's fine. After you've explored the program, email bordner@cityhigh.org a summary of what you thought of the program. Did you like it? Would you recommend it to someone traveling to another country?

• Spanish MOOC
• This is a college level 1 Spanish class. It goes really fast but you learn through listening and watching to YouTube videos of music in Spanish.
• Duolingo
• The free online/iPhone app program mentioned above. Android app coming soon. It's fun and similar to a game.
• BBC Languages
• Sophomores learn Spanish through this program (Mi Vida Loca) but they have program for other languages too.
• StudySpanish
• This is very similar to a textbook - but online. If you like to learn a language through a book, then this is good program for you!
• Spanish is Your Amigo YouTube Channel
• Kristen makes wonderful short videos explaining specific grammar topics or vocabulary sets. She has a website selling her own program as well. 

This is a Hot Tamale Activity, but I created a website with the end-goal being that students would explore different free online language learning programs, then rate and recommend them to other students. If this is something you are interested in doing for an Independent Learning extra credit grade, let me know!

Whether you learn online through a free program, a program that cost money, or with me and Mrs. Akhand in our classroom, you get out what  you put in. You have to engage, and make learning a priority. Otherwise you waste time (and with Rosetta Stone, money).

Crazy International Fast Food

Dried Pork and seaweed donut from Dunkin Donuts in China

Check out this list of Outrageous fast foods you can't have in the United States. Answer Hot Tamale Activities below via email bordner@cityhigh.org.

• Which food on this list would you try? Why?
• What fast food in the U.S. do you think is the craziest? 
• Find other "crazy" food from around the world. Describe the food and where it's from.

Below is a trailer about a documentary about how Bolivia kicked out McDonalds. You can read more about it here. Read the article/watch the video and answer the Hot Tamale Activities below. 

• Describe in your own words what you see in the video. How do Bolivians dress? How do they buy food? How is it different than the U.S?
• If you're a sophomore, how does this connect to what you have read in The Omnivore's Dilemma?
• Research - what other countries did McDonalds leave? Why do you think McDonalds was not successful there? 
• What kind of culture does a country need for a McDonalds to be successful? Is it possible for a society to be healthy if there are many McDonalds? 
• Should the government be involved in regulating fast food? Explain your answer.
• What are alternatives to fast food?

Confusing World Geography Explained

As we are learning Central and South American Geography, I wanted to share with you some information about World Geography.

Hot Tamale Activities - email bordner@cityhigh.org

• Summarize one or both of these videos in your own words. What did you learn that you did not know before?
• Create and label a map identifying the places described in the videos
• Create your own infographic explaining this information
• Play other geography activities on this page. When you get 80% or better take a screenshot of your score and email it.