Welcome

Hi! Now that I have had the opportunity to meet my students and some of the parents I would like to take this time to welcome you to my edublog. This technological instrument is to help me as a teacher, my students, and parents to keep a great communication line. I know that having to learn Spanish is difficult and not very many people have enough background to assist their child in their Spanish homework so this will be a great "go to" tool. In saying both you parents and students should check this edublog often for there will be important dates, notes, and helpful tips to make this course as pain free as possible. I am really looking forward for a successful year. Please feel free to drop a comment whenever and if immediate assistance feel free to reach me at school. So what do you say LETS DIVE IN!!

Useful Websites

Hello fellow students and parents. I hope everything is going well. We are almost to the end of a very successful year. I have really enjoyed every single one of you. However, the year is not over yet and there are still a lot to learn. I have came across some wonderful websites which I believe can be useful for all of us. Please take time to visit these websites and see what they have to offer.
I. Name of Web Site: Todo para el professor de espanol como lengua extranjera Web Site Address: http://www.todoele.net/
II.Web Site: La Pagina del Idioma Espanol
Web Site address: http://www.elcastellano.org/

Present Tense Verb Estar

In these past few weeks your child has learned regular Present Tense -ar Verbs as well as the Present Tense Ser Verb and now we are touching base with the Present Tense Estar Verb. This verb comes with many complications. I'm pretty sure that with a lot of practice and notes your child will be able to master this verb as well as the ones we have already learned. The first complication we have to tackle is that Estar has the same meaning as the verb Ser. The second complication is that the verb Estar does not have a pattern to remember when conjugating so your child will need to memorize the conjugation. The final complication is one which they have yet to see but have known that it was coming. This complication is that the verb Estar has accents on some of its forms.


****Notes*****

Here is a simple acronym to help remember when to use the verb Estar.
C- Condition (sick-enferma)
L- Location (school-escuela)
A- Action taking place now
S- State of Being (tired-cansada)
S- State of Mind (loca-crazy)

Estar is used to describe something temporary.


Estar

yo= estoy tú= estás él, ella, ud.= está nosotros= estamos ellos, ellas,uds.= están

Because this is very confusing I suggest to use the following websites for extra practice and notes.

You have already seen the website businessspanish.com before with the verb Ser but this is an excellent website it gives a short lesson over Estar and gives a detailed description on the difference from Ser and Estar.

ZADOR Spanish Schools in Spain also gives a short detailed lesson over the verb Estar.


The Conjuguemos website offers a great activity which will help your student distinguish when to use Estar and when to use Ser in the Present Tense. Try it!

Present Tense Verb Ser

In Spanish like in English we have both regular verbs as well as irregular verbs. One of the most common and misused verbs is Ser. Ser means to be. However, we also have another verb in Spanish which also means to be and that is Estar. Today we learned how to conjugate Ser in the present tense and like said it is irregular so there is no pattern except for memorization.


****Notes**** Here is a simple acronym which will help remember when to use Ser.
C - Characteristic (smart> inteligente)
O- Origin (american>americana)
M- Material (wood>madera)
P- Profession (student> estudiante)
U- Used with impersonal gesture (boring>aburrido)
T- Time/Date/ Day (Monday>lunes)
E- Event (birthday- cumpleaños)
R- Religion/Relationship (sister-hermana)

These are all permanent and don't change over night.


Ser (Present Tense)
yo= soy tú- eres él, ella, ud.=es nosotros=somos ellos, ellas,uds.= son


The following websites will be useful for extra notes, extra explanation and extra practice with the verb Ser.


ZADOR Spanish school in Spain gives an excellent lesson on the verb Ser.
Rocket Languages breaks down the Present Tense Verb Ser into a more detailed lesson.
One of the best websites which gives a more detailed lesson and a broken-down description on the difference of the verb Ser and Estar.

Present Tense -ar Verbs

For the past few weeks we have been learning Regular Present Tense -ar Verbs in class. Your child has came to understanding that the Present Tense Verbs are used to describe an action that is taking place today. This tense is one of 7 verb Tenses which your child will be learning in Spanish 1 & 2.


*****Notes:****** To form the Present Tense Verb form you do the following steps.
1. Take the infinitive (verb) drop the ending -ar
(Ex: Hablar >>>drop the -ar>>>Habl
2. Add the correct -ar ending to match the subject
yo= -o tú= -as él, ella, ud.= -a nosotros= -amos ellos,ellas,uds= -an
(Ex: subject is nosotros hablamos)

Hablar--- hablo, hablas, habla, hablamos, hablan
!!!!!!Hint!!!!! There are some context clues which will tell one when to use Present Tense Verbs. The following are just two of many context clues which will help one with this verb tense Hoy and Ahora.

The website which Barbara Nelson from Colby College offers a great exercise for Regular Present Tense -ar verbs.

A great website which gives a very detailed lesson of both regular and irregular -ar verbs is offered through one of the students of Perdue University Fort Wayne.

The most helpful website for Regular -ar Present Tense Verbs is offered by Bloomington which offers wonderful notes and great practice.

How to describe yourself

Hello once again we are into the middle of our 2nd six-weeks and I will be the first to say it has been pretty hectic around here. The past six weeks we have been learning just the basic present tense sentence structure and just your basic Spanish vocabulary to describe oneself and other objects. In two weeks we will be taking an oral test in class (don't worry it will be okay!). The test will consist of you being able to describe oneself (or someone else ex:family member) in 5-7 sentences, you will also be asked to describe an object which will be presented to you at the time of the test.
Parents I know that this will most likely stress your child out but here are a few websites which will help your student out to prepare themselves for my test. Please take the time to help them practice their vocabulary. Remember you help them learn while you learn as well.

Here are some websites which I have chosen as great references:

Rocket Languages Website- This website will assist you with some of the most common adjectives used when describing a person, place, or thing. It will also serve as a reference in future grammatical and vocabulary lessons.

Wiki Books Website- This website assist students with every subject possible. It's a great reference for Spanish Vocabulary. This website gives lists of the most commonly used Spanish vocabulary.

Intro2Spanish.com Website- This website specializes in the Spanish language. By assisting one with vocabulary, verbs, and verb conjugations. What a wonderful website!

The University of Texas at Austin provides us with this wonderful website of Spanish Proficiency Exercises by assisting with sentence structure, vocabulary, and providing video in different topics in Spanish.


EX: Soy la Srta. Martínez. (I'm Ms. Martinez) Soy Mexicana-Americana. ( I'm Mexican-American.) Soy baja. (I am short.) Soy maestra. (I'm a teacher.) ***Note***It may be easier this time to come up with 5-7 sentences in English describing yourself and then translating. If you need help and the following websites do not help feel free to come in for tutoring.