I have a suggestion for you next time you are out finishing your holiday shopping. There is a beautiful new art gallery at the 12 Oaks Mall called the State of Mind Gallery. It's located on the second floor near Macy's. Forty-five Michigan artists have rented this large space and are working there, so the people you meet on the floor are the artists themselves. You will find all types of art media there, from glass to paintings, ceramics, woodworking, jewelry, metal sculptures with and without g…
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Added by Emily Serafa Manschot on December 21, 2009 at 2:30pm —
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Japanese Language Teachers: The brochures for the 2010 MI/Shiga Student Exchange program have been mailed to schools who have had students participate in the past 2 years. If you did not receive a brochure, please e-mail contact information to mcdon288@msu.edu and I'll see that you receive one of our comprehensive brochures!
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Added by Kathee McDonald on December 14, 2009 at 2:30pm —
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Over eight Summers that I worked at El Lago del Bosque (Concordia Language Villages) I learned many songs that would become part of my repertoire in my Spanish classes. I love many of those songs but there are two that I kept very close to my heart: Había Un Sapo and La Familia Sapo. In fact I love all kinds of animal songs. I also love to make animals toys, usually knitted.
About a year ago I made my first stuffed frog. Meet Paco, el sapo:
Por más de 8 veranos he trabajado en El Lago del Bosq…
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Added by Paulino Brener on December 4, 2009 at 11:07pm —
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Last Friday night I attended my 40th (gulp!) high school class reunion. The Livonia Bentley High School Class of 1969 held a combined reunion with the classes of 1968 and 1970 at the Radisson Hotel in Livonia. Over two hundred people attended, including spouses. There was a decent turnout, but I was hoping for more--there were about 150 classmates, and Bentley was a big high school--it held over 2500 people.
It was a pleasure being on the reunion committee, even though at times I had to drag my…
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Added by Emily Serafa Manschot on December 1, 2009 at 9:00pm —
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Some people know that I am half Italian. I speak the language a bit, have been to Italy several times and had a big fat Italian wedding. That's on my mom's side of the family, which is the culture we celebrated since my paternal grandparents died when I was very young.
My father, Charles Serafa, was born in Malta. If you don't know where Malta is, the toe of Italy kicks Sicily. Malta is just south of Sicily. It's a small island surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea. I do not speak Maltese, but I…
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Added by Emily Serafa Manschot on November 16, 2009 at 8:30am —
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This morning, MIWLA President Margaret Cottrill and I attended the CLAM Conference at Wayne State University. We were invited session presenters. Our topic was "Practically Speaking", which also is the theme of the MIWLA Conference for October, 2010.
Immediately after we had parked the car and left the parking structure, we found little signs with the CLAM logo showing us the way to the conference center. Margaret and I were excited. Looking for the next sign was like a little treasure hunt on…
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Added by Emily Serafa Manschot on November 14, 2009 at 9:30pm —
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My students participated in a mini field trip today, courtesy of my friend Pam Kaatz. Pam is a retired Spanish teacher from Texas, who owns a company called "The Color Connection." This website,
www.colorconnection.com, is a must visit for any Spanish teacher. Pam is the creator of the famous Spanish Verb Wall, (
www.verbwall.com) which I have premanently affixed to the wall in my classroom. She is also responsible…
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Added by Emily Serafa Manschot on November 13, 2009 at 12:00pm —
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Last night I was grading papers at the kitchen table, my usual hang-out between 7:00 PM and 9:30 PM almost every night. My husband was in the living room watching a new program called "In The Middle". Suddenly he yelled out "'Milia! Turn on channel 7!" I reached for the remote and turned to the proper channel. Here is this poor little kid, about 10 or 11 years old, discussing his school project with his mother. He just happened to be building an ancient pyramid...out of SUGAR CUBES! I screamed o…
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Added by Emily Serafa Manschot on November 5, 2009 at 9:51pm —
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Yesterday, Northville middle school and high school teachers attended a workshop given by Dr. Marcia Tate, of DeKalb County, Georgia, entitles "Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites." As you know teachers are apprehensive of most workshops. I can count the number of workshops that my district has sponsored that have been beneficial on one hand, and in 37 years, that's not a very good batting average. However, this one was very informative and entertaining. Even though I knew most of the material, it d…
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Added by Emily Serafa Manschot on November 4, 2009 at 2:30pm —
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Last Friday night I was flipping through channels (as usual) and saw that one of my favorite programs of all times, "Spain...On The Road Again" was in reruns. This program, on PBS, features Mario Batali, the famous Food Network Iron Chef, actresses Gwyneth Paltrow and Claudia Bassols (from Barcelona) and Mark Bittman, a food and wine critic from the New York Times. Together they traverse Spain looking for the best in history, culture, and cuisine. They hit almost every autonomous region and eat…
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Added by Emily Serafa Manschot on October 31, 2009 at 8:30pm —
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Hi all, well, time to blog about Parent Teacher Conferences again.
I really enjoy meeting my students' parents. I am really fortunate to have good, motivated students. However, the helicopters come out in full force from time to time.
One young lady's mother was especially annoyed that her daughter is not getting an A at this time. She has an 87.5% average, which is a B+. I simply told her mother, "She's a very good student." And she is. I like this girl very much. She can light up the room wi…
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Added by Emily Serafa Manschot on October 21, 2009 at 5:41pm —
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It's taken me almost the whole weekend to recover from the MIWLA Conference 2009. I slept until 9:10 AM on Saturday and 9:15 AM today. I also took a long nap both afternoons.
I drove from Northville to Lansing on Wednesday night. Flora, Daryl and I had dinner at Nuevo Vallarta, which is in walking distance from the Causeway Bay Hotel, formerly the Holiday Inn South. The food was decent--I had chiles rellenos, and though they were a bit greasy, I liked them. The service was friendly and speedy.…
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Added by Emily Serafa Manschot on October 18, 2009 at 5:20pm —
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Today something happened in school that was almost surreal. I have first hour conference period. I read my email and was about to go to the copy room when our principal, Rob Watson, announced over the PA that all students and staff were to evacuate the school immediately.
Since I hang my coat on the back of my chair every day, I immediately put it on. I debated this morning before I left if I should wear a coat or a jacket. Since the winds were wailing, and had knocked out power from thousands…
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Added by Emily Serafa Manschot on October 7, 2009 at 10:30pm —
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I had dinner with a friend on Saturday night. She shall remain nameless because of a comment she made.
This is a woman who is American, but celebrates her ethnic culture a lot. We had dinner at Mirichi, an Indian restaurant, on Grand River just east of Novi Road. When we arrived, there were a few people there, mostly Indian and a few gringos. A brightly colored Bollywood movie was playing on the big screen.
My friend didn't know what to order, being an Indian food "virgin", so I made a suggest…
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Added by Emily Serafa Manschot on September 28, 2009 at 7:42pm —
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Flash from AOL:
Barcelona Named Top City to Beware of Pickpockets
Tourists beware: Barcelona, Spain tops the list of cities to watch for pickpockets, according to a list released by Tripadvisor.com.
Based on comments from travelers and editors, Barcelona's Las Ramblas, a tree-lined pedestrian mall that is open all day and night, is the "perfect place" to get your purse snatched. Pickpocketing is so prevalent in Barcelona that one reviewer compares it to "a generally practiced and accepted…
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Added by Emily Serafa Manschot on September 28, 2009 at 4:00pm —
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I received an email from Karen Tajer, the mother of one of my students:
"We had the opportunity to attend a benefit at the Detroit Science Center and we learned of an upcoming exhibit that may be of interest to you or your students. It is called - Accidental Mummies of Guanajuato. It is the largest traveling exhibition on Mexican culture to tour the United States. I believe it opens to the public on Oct. 10. For more info
you can visit the website www.sciencedetroit.org."
I visited the website…
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Added by Emily Serafa Manschot on September 23, 2009 at 7:30pm —
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Last Sunday I was pushing a small cart around CVS Drug Store just to pick up a few things. On my way to the pharmacy, I passed the pop (soda, for you Easterners and Coke for you all in Texas) aisle. I saw something there that I had never seen in any store--Sunkist Sparkling Lemonade. They even had the diet version for people (like me) that should not have any sugar. Well, I immediately transported myself overseas to many hot afternoons when we would sit in a café in Spain and enjoy a cold bevera…
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Added by Emily Serafa Manschot on September 19, 2009 at 9:54am —
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Hello everyone, Nimen Hao,
I
I hope the new school year has started off very well for you. I know that all of you are very busy but I hope you will help me. As I have been working on curriculum, lesson plans and teaching methodology in the Chinese classroom I would like you to respond to the following hypothetical situation.
The situation concerns two foreign language classrooms in a high school, ninth through 12th grade; one classroom is a Spanish language classroom the other is a Chinese lang…
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Added by Marcus Marshall on September 13, 2009 at 10:47am —
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I'm not a blogger...I dabble in Facebook here and there (more this past summer than I know I will starting next week once those little cherubs arrive!) But when there's something I think everyone in the WORLD should hear I'm going to do this.
I teach Spanish at Clarkston High School. I am fortunate enough to work in a great district with tremendous colleagues. Our department is like any family...we have our issues, but we always come together. While we may not always agree with each other, ther…
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Added by Daryl Biallas on September 2, 2009 at 7:11pm —
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This blog is dedicated to my beautiful grandmother, Emilia Vizzini, who I miss everytime I am in the kitchen.
Italian grandmothers are famous for their love of tomatoes and know every way to prepare them. Some tomatoes were saved for salads, the majority for canning, but a few were used for "sangwiches". (My grandmother was in her 20s when she came to this country and married my grandfather, so I guess she could never say "sandwich" properly. Too many consonants in a row! But, according to my f…
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Added by Emily Serafa Manschot on August 31, 2009 at 2:00pm —
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State of Mind Gallery
MI/Shiga Student Exchange Program
Meet/Conoce a Paco, el sapo
Chinese learning
True dedication and true friendship
