My News (Noticias) Folder

At times when I'm reading the newspaper, I come across an article that I think my students would find interesting and enjoy discussing.  After finding two articles that fall into this category on two consecutive days earlier this summer, I decided to make a permanent folder for them so I know where to find them when the topic arises in class or when my students are ready for a change in the regular routine (as if I actually had a "regular" routine).  

 I admit that organization can be challenging for me at times, but I've discovered that once I make a folder or a file for materials, my organizational challenges are gone.  For my news articles, I took a plain folder with 3 rings inside, added clear protector sheets, asked my daughter to label it for me, and it was ready for my newspaper articles.

One example of an article I added in the last few weeks is "Living small in the big city", about "New York City planners who are creating mockups of tiny apartments to accommodate a growing population of singles and two-person households". Can you imagine living in only 300 square feet? That is a question I intend to ask my students in Spanish 4 or 5, and then let the conversation continue from that point.

The second article shown in the photo on the left is titled "Singles try to sniff out love", which is about a trend in which participants sleep in a shirt for a few nights and then put it in a plastic bag and bring it to a "pheromone party".  Each bag is numbered and the object is to pick your partner based on scent.  The whole idea of finding a mate by smelling their shirt is a little out of the ordinary in my opinion, but it sure will make for a great conversation in Spanish class.  Originally, I thought I would use it for my Spanish 4 or 5 class, because I can imagine the fun we'll have discussing this.  But, since I introduce the word "smell" (huele) in Spanish 1 in the second week or so, I could easily work this idea into a mini-story.  No doubt the students will think I came up with this idea to make the story bizarre, so after the story I'll show the article to them.

Yesterday my husband read a short, two paragraph article to me about an 1873 dime that sold for $1.6 million at Stack's Bowers Galleries.  Needless to say, I added that article to my Noticias folder.

These articles just prove that the strange and bizarre stories that TPRS teachers and their students create may not be as far-fetched as we think they are compared to real life situations.