senoracmt

Talking Trash

I had gone to Aldi with my good friend, a Sunday-post-church thing we do, to buy all of my healthy food for the week… You see, my resolution was to show love to myself this year… take time to get my eating, my finances, and my life in order! I had been really, really over extending myself!

When I got home and started to prep the fruits and veggies for the week, I ended up with this:

I felt terrible! If I was making this every Sunday (never mind all the ziplocs I was putting my fruits and veggies in), imagine the footprint I was leaving with my waste habits. So I started reading… I’m a sciency gal, it’s what I do. 🙂

I found lots of cool replacement things… Bamboo toothbrushes, reusable bags and bowl covers… compostable coffee pods…

But I knew I wanted to get my students thinking about their footprint as well. They LOVE units that challenge them to think (in Spanish) about the world and their place in it. Basura cero was born! We did the unit in Spanish 4 and they blew me away with their final assessments. So much of what is here is because of the way they responded as we studied the topic!!

My dear friend Nelly Hughes (check out her amazing products here) proofed the unit and now it is ready to share with everyone! I hope that together we can really start to raise awareness of the many ways to use less, waste less, and compost more!

Check out Basura cero here and if you’re looking to teach the Sustainable Development Goals look at my other units like:

Mar de plástico

Los años dorados

Dame dame chocolate

Viviendas del mundo (FREE)

Medicina o cura

Claus Encounter: An Arctic Crime (FREE)

Educarse para superarse

Comer para vivir o vivir para comer

Biodiversity and conservation

Water is Life

Orangutan in my bedroom

If you’re TOTALLY new to my units, I have an SDG SUPER DUPER bundle here that includes all of the above units (enough to fill almost a full semester!) at a discounted price!

Published by senoracmt

I began teaching Spanish in Illinois in 1994. I have taught levels 1-4 in a small rural high school, 8th grade introductory Spanish, Biology 1, and 101 and 102 at the community college level. My Spanish classes are partnered with the community college to offer students 8 semester hours of dual credit on completion of Spanish 4. In 2011 I met Carol Gaab and Kristy Placido and have since co-authored the book "La hija del sastre" with Carol Gaab and authored the novels "La Calaca Alegre", "Bianca Nieves y los 7 toritos." "Vector," "48 horas","Bananas", "Sostenible", and "Papálotl" through Fluency Matters. In 2006 I became National Board certified and I have been serving as a mentor both for candidates seeking certification in world languages other than English and a virtual mentor for candidates in all certificate areas. I completed my Masters degree in Spanish education in 2011 and did my research on the use of Understanding by Design to create meaningful cultural units for the language classroom. I am a frequent presenter on this topic, please consider me if you are interested in a workshop on backward design. In 2013 I was named the ICTFL Foreign Language teacher of the year and in 2014 I was selected as CSCTFL's teacher of the year. In November of 2014 I was lucky enough to be one of the five finalists for the ACTFL National Teacher of the Year in San Antonio, TX. What a "Cinderella" experience! You can reach me via email at carrie at somewheretoshare dot com.

One comment

  1. […] Part of a Unit: At the end of the school year, Sebastián Yatra released En guerra. I loved it and have blogged about it here. This is a great example of a song that carries such a heavy meaning, it is better within a unit of study. Using the song as a catalyst, students become engaged in using their developing language to discuss deep topics. One of my favorites from a few years ago is Morat’s song Aprender a quererte! I used it as part of a unit on education. A song inspired me to address one of the SDGs before I even knew about the SDGs! […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply