I won $5000.00

It's true. No kidding. I actually won and award. Best Buy liked how I use technology to teach Spanish so they gave me money to go on a shopping spree and get more stuff. VERY Cool. My school wrote an article about it and has just sent it to a bunch of magazines and the local papers. Below is a copy of the pictures taken, and the article written by the Director of Communications of The John Cooper School. I don't usually blog about myself, just my kids, but they insisted that I include this one in the family blog.

The Headmaster of JCS (Mr. Maher) presenting me the award. Too bad this picture was taken in the Spring, right after I won the award and before I lost 30 pounds!

Best Buy Award to Enrich 'Inspired Spanish'
Classroom for 2009-10 School Year

Spanish teacher Millicent Yanko is looking forward to beginning her third year as a foreign language teacher in The John Cooper Lower School with a little help from Best Buy. As the recipient of a $5,000 Best Buy Teach Award, Yanko is excited about the 2009-10 school year, and the ability to extend a pilot program she initiated last year.

Spanish is taught at all grade levels at Cooper, from Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12. Yanko's pilot program, titled "Inspired Spanish Classroom," incorporates technology into her curriculum to create just what the title suggests.

“I took Spanish, and even though I was a native speaker, I just remember how boring it was,” Yanko said. “So much of learning a language is motivation and addressing learning styles. By adding technology you’re really reaching more children. It’s just the way of the future. You have to teach them in a way they can relate.”

When the computers she used to launch the successful program last year needed replacing, Yanko decided to pursue the teaching award and her work was recognized with a Best Buy Teach Award in the maximum amount for a Lower School – $5,000. The funds are to be used to integrate interactive technology into the classroom. Fourteen laptop computers were purchased with the award money.

Yanko doesn’t deny the value of the basics. “We conjugate verbs together the old-fashioned way – with pencils, paper and charts – but I reinforce it through technology. You just have to balance.”

The "Inspired Spanish Classroom" program uses five centers to engage students and address individual learning styles. The "listening center" is equipped with iPods. Students listen to conversations recorded by sixth graders and answer questions about what they've heard. “They can listen to it as many times as they need to, so it encourages them to figure it out.”

The new laptops are used in the "pronunciation" and "speaking and writing" centers. The computers are equipped with headsets and microphones. Students get immediate feedback as they speak so they can keep trying to improve.

“One of the best things is that now I can actually sit down now with three or four students and we can speak Spanish together while others are learning in the centers." Yanko’s award was one of 460 awarded by Best Buy to educators nationwide.

# # #

Picture of my students using the new laptops to practice their pronunciation using USB headsets with microphones. The pronunciation meter tells them how well they did. If they make it to the "green zone" they get their picture posted in the Pronunciation Hall of Fame.