Many of us Spanish teachers struggle with how to truly teach the cultural content involved in our courses when it comes to teaching about holidays and traditions that involve religion.  While this may be a non-issue for those of teaching in a Catholic school, teachers who teach in public schools or schools dedicated to other religious faiths may have concerns.  I wanted to give a few tips to those teachers as to how you can handle this delicate issue.

First of all, let me start by saying that I do think that in order for our students to truly understand Hispanic culture, religion needs to be a piece of the puzzle.  So many practices and perspectives of the culture are directly influenced by the beliefs of not only Catholicism, but of the indigenous cultures that preceded the arrival of the Spanish to the New World.  To me, there is a clear distinction between teaching ABOUT something and teaching students to actually DO or BE something.  Just as History teachers who teach about the Holocaust and the beliefs of Hitler are not encouraging students to practice Nazism, we are not trying to convert students to Catholicism just because we discuss the beliefs that they hold.

​It is definitely possible to teach about religion in a way that enhances student understanding and perspective and does not get you (the teacher) in trouble.  In 15 years of teaching in public schools, I have taught elements of religion as culture each year.  I have never received a complaint from a student, parent, or administrator.  Hopefully these tips will help you to teach the way you know you should without having to fear doing that.

Tip #1 - Give a Disclaimer - It is not a bad idea to tell students prior to the lesson that there will be certain religious elements mentioned.  Tell them that these things are only being mentioned to help them understand the perspective of the Hispanic people and the reasons behind what they do.  Make it clear that the lesson is in no way meant to devalue other religions or beliefs that people in the room may hold.

Tip #2 - Offer Students an Opportunity to Express their Concern - Tell your students that if they think the fact that religion will be discussed will make them uncomfortable or would be a concern for them or their families to please come and talk to you.  This will allow you to find out ahead of time who may find a problem with your lesson and contact parents to discuss it directly prior to the lesson.

Tip #3 - Be Careful with Your Pronouns - Remove your personal religious beliefs from the conversation, whether they are similar or different than the ones you are explaining.  It is important to dissociate yourself from the religion.  Do not make statements that start with "I" or "We" as these will give students the impression that you are speaking about your own beliefs rather than that of the Hispanic people.  Instead, begin statements with phrases like "According to the Catholic religion..." or "Many Hispanics believe...".

Tip #4 - Preview Materials - If you will be showing a video on a holiday, a song, or even a lesson.  Stay true to your word and choose materials that only share religious information with the direct goal of helping students understand the perspectives of Hispanic culture. Materials that share religious opinions that do not directly relate to the matter at hand should probably be avoided.

If you are looking for some holiday materials that address religion in a way that would be suitable for a public school environment, here are a variety of lessons that you can look through.

Mother's Day is a very important holiday in Mexico.  It is celebrated on May 10th each year and some bosses even give mothers the day off work (this must be why Mother's Day is always on a Sunday here in the U.S.). 

This year, my students will be learning about how Mother's Day is celebrated in Mexico.  Then they will use some guided writing graphics to describe their mothers.  For my Spanish I students I created a fill in paragraph to help those who need it with the structure.  It is getting close to Final Exam time, so this lesson contains lots of review of things we have previously learned (adjectives of description, giving basic information, talking about likes & dislikes, jobs, etc).

Finally, I have some useful phrases for them to learn and include in "Día de las Madres" cards for their mothers.  Lord knows that mothers of teenagers ESPECIALLY need to feel appreciated! 

Check out the activities I created for my students for "El Día de las Madres" here:

Día de las Madres Activities

It's a scary, yet valid, question.  Are we (we being language teachers) becoming obsolete?  Will the children of tomorrow even need to actually "know" a language in order to communicate in it?  Will Rosetta Stone, Duolinguo, and other programs make us irrelevant and expensive?

About 5 years ago I was tired of my students trying to pass off work done on Google Translate as their own, so I prepared an entire lesson showing them the limitations of online translators like Google.  We looked at the translators inability to choose correctly between the verbs SER and ESTAR, the Preterite and the Imperfect Tenses, and to select the correct word when it's English counterpart had multiple meanings.  I dusted off this lesson just this year and found that I can no longer use it.  In just 5 years, the sentences and examples that the translator of 2009 was getting wrong, the translator of 2014 was getting right. 

I recently read an article about a new technology, a pair of glasses actually, that translates in real time what you say to the language of your choice.  Traveling abroad?  No need to know the language!  Just drop some dough on these glasses!

I truly believe that our profession is on the brink of a big shift in purpose and if we don't adapt (which, let's face it, the educational system here is not known for timely change), we will find our jobs outsourced to these cheaper alternatives.  The good news is that I also believe that there is something that we do that can not be replaced by these technological advancements.  Ironically, it is the one thing that we probably neglect the most in our classrooms - culture.

The key to keeping our jobs and staying relevant is to teach the language through the culture.  To help students understand how to use words in a cultural context.  To help them see the values and belief system of the people that they will need to work with, play with, or live among.  To understand the social, environmental, and political issues that are affecting change in these places.  To enjoy and appreciate the cultures of others and allow them to make your own life richer.  These are things that machines would be hard pressed to accomplish.

Postcrossing is an online project that allows its members to send and receive postcards from all over the world.  When you sign up you can request a certain number of random addresses of other postcrossing members.  You send out postcards to these addresses and the users log them via the site when they receive them.  Then, your address is sent to other random users who in turn send postcards to you. 

My goal was to receive at least one postcard from every Spanish-speaking country.  In addition to the random postcard addresses, you can search their database for other members by country.  I was quickly able to make contact with people from almost every Spanish-speaking country and arrange to exchange postcards.  I was overwhelmed by the generousity of these strangers.  They not only sent me postcards, but books, CD's, brochures, newspapers, magazines, coins, and a lot more.  They were very interested in the idea of sharing their country and culture with students in the U.S. and I was excited to make these postcards a part of my class.

Each week we have a "Culture Day" where I would share one of the postcards.  We would read the messages, locate the countries on maps, and look up the tourist attractions on the cards themselves.  I bought a box of postcards, and each student wrote a thank you postcard to one of the people and talked a little bit about themselves and our school.  I would then send a thank you postcard to each postcrossing member that contributed to our project.

As our collection of postcards grows, I look forward to thinking of ways to take this project further.  I have toyed with the idea of a traveling postcard display that could visit the various elementary and secondary buildings in our district.  Perhaps a future grant idea, I don't know.

At any rate, if you are looking for a way to make culture real and interesting for your students, I would definitely recommend becoming a member of Postcrossing.  I have to admit even I learned a lot of some countries that I previously only knew very little about...the side effect being that my travel wishlist has grown quite a bit.  Happy Postcrossing!

Ah, it's that time of the year again when Spanish students across the world begin bugging their worn out teachers for a party in celebration of a holiday they are clueless about.  I've never been big on classroom parties, not because I'm an "aguafiestas", but because I don't really think kids learn much from eating copious amounts of chips and salsa (the only thing the students usually remember to bring).  So, each year when the next group comes along and requests this party, I ask them to explain what they would be celebrating.  Party or no party, I will not let another student leave my classroom without knowing the answer to that question. 

This year, I have created an interactive, Choose Your Own Adventure style reading activity that will hopefully help them to see the history behind this holiday and what it has come to represent for modern day Mexicans and high school students who will try anything for a day off.  In this activity, the students will play the role of Benito Juarez, and be asked to make the same decisions he had to make.  Will he pay the money Mexico owes to Spain, France, and Britain?  Will he wait until the French reach the Capital before he rallies his troops?  Will he sit on the beach and drink Piña Coladas after the Battle of Puebla?  What WILL he do?

Here is the link:

Cinco de Mayo:  What Would Benito Juarez Do?