Miss Read Tries To Become Bilingual

Hi everyone! Its been a while since I last posted! While most of you who are already teachers are finishing up your school year, I am floating around in limbo with nothing much to do. I've been spending a lot of time looking for jobs, both for the summer and for the fall. For the fall, I've been applying for just about any special education teaching job I come across, and I've also sent my resume to a few private therapeutic day schools in the area even though they didn't advertise for job openings. I've sent out about 35 applications so far... and people have been telling me that a lot more jobs will start cropping up sometime in July. I've also been working a lot on getting my professional portfolio ready, in case I do get an interview!
For this summer, I've been applying everywhere! I've been applying at day care centers, schools with ESY programs, summer day camps, health clubs with child care rooms, and more. The only reason it is somewhat difficult for me to find jobs is because I'm leaving town for a while during the first week of August, and many jobs want you to commit to the entire summer without taking time off. :(  I also made profiles on a few tutoring sites. Even though its summer, some people want to get tutors for their children to keep their brains sharp for next school year! 
I like to have a project to keep me busy when I have a lot of time off. One thing I've been trying to do is learn Spanish. I found this app for my Kindle Fire, called Spanish In A Month. Its an app that tries to teach you Spanish without involving any English at all, basically by showing you pictures and saying the Spanish words, and then quizzing you. Each lesson starts out easy by showing you pictures accompanied by one Spanish word, and quizzing you on six pictures at a time. Then it starts showing pictures with two words, such as a word and a description or action. For instance, "red dress" instead of just "dress." Pretty soon its giving you short sentences, like "The girl is wearing a red dress." And finally, towards the end, you're getting quizzed on long sentences such as, "Is the girl wearing blue pants? No, she is wearing a red dress." If you try this app, you'd be surprised at how fast you start understanding the sentences! The only problem is, although I can definitely read and understand many sentences and words in Spanish now, it is much harder for me to understand sentences I hear, and even harder to actually speak in Spanish off the top of my head. 
Another thing I've been doing to try to improve my listening comprehension and spoken Spanish is watching Spanish TV shows. I've Tivoed the Mexican version of Sesame Street... Plaza Sesamo. Stop laughing! Its very entertaining!
I've also been watching an old telenova called Carita De Angel. When I lived in Colorado, I was close friends with a Mexican family. We would often watch Carita De Angel at their house, and they would sort of describe what was happening, in English, so I could enjoy it too. Its a very cute show about this little 5-year-old girl named Dulce Maria, and her family. She goes to boarding school, but she also spends time at her dad's house, and even visits her deceased mother in Heaven. Also she has a puppy called Chipira. And the puppy talks.  Its adorable! I've been watching one episode each night, and trying to understand as much as I can. Its still kind of hard, but I can usually at least figure out what is going on! Its easiest to understand Dulce Maria because, being a little kid, she sort of uses easier words and talks more slowly, and more animatedly. She has the hugest brown eyes, and she's always rolling them!
I thought I'd show you a clip from Carita De Angel so you can see what I mean... maybe you'll get addicted too! 


For anyone who didn't catch that, Dulce Maria and the rest of the family have been hiding the puppy because the dad doesn't allow pets in the house. While Dulce Maria visited her mother in Heaven, her mother told her to name the puppy Chiripa, and that it would make her dad agree to let her keep the puppy. So in this part she's introducing the puppy and saying she's going to call her Chiripa, and the dad flashes back to a dog that he and his deceased wife had together, whom they had called Chiripa. He asks Dulce Maria where she heard that name, and she says she saw it in an old diary. So he lets her keep the puppy! (And did you hear the puppy talk?) In the bedroom scene he's telling Dulce Maria she can't put Chiripa in the bed, because pets shouldn't sleep with people, but Dulce Maria talks him into letting the puppy sleep in the bed. :D


Anyway... that's all for now! Let me know if you have any suggestions on how to learn more Spanish! 
Anyways... that's all for today! Thanks for reading!