¡Hola a todos! Happy summer break to all of us teachers!

Although I am thrilled to be on break and get to manage my time how I’d like, I have a lot of work to do. I accepted an offer at a new school (two new schools in two years, I’m tired already!). I’m excited about this new school for many reasons, yet it comes with a heck of a lot of curriculum planning…

I’m headed to a small private school and will be tasked with teaching Spanish 2 through AP (4 preps, NBD… said no one) and to top it off, the school is looking to switch to a CI curriculum *YAY*. That is certainly a big part of what swayed me to accept their offer, as I have learned lessons in the past about how important curriculum and approach/methodology has become to me… however, on the flip side, they are looking to “switch,” meaning, absolutely nothing is planned. I’m not interested in rolling out CI with only level each year either as some might suggest because quite frankly, I do not even know how to teach with a textbook.

So here I am, almost two weeks out of my last school and I’m knee deep in planning with SOMOS for Spanish 2 next school year. My goal is to plan out ALL of Spanish 2–create slides (I use Canva, not Google slides because I’m, well, stubborn), plan out bell ringers, Special Person interviews for the entire year. I need to do this so my head doesn’t spin entirely off next year. My head will still spin… but hopeully it won’t come off.

And, this my friends, leads me to create this post. I’m currently at the point of planning immediately after Somos 1, Unit 12 (Somos is a ADI/TPRS curriculum written by Martin Bex). I know from previous experience that Spanish 2 students need a lot of exposure to high frequency verbs such as Saber and Conocer and man, the meaning difference to us English speakers can be tricky (although in context, students start to get it more and more!). So, I’m a fan of using the Comprehensible Classroom’s Saber vs Conocer unit, filled with readings on the six degrees of separation of Kevin Bacon and finding the “Bacon Number.” The lesson plans do a great job of explaining the theory and having multiple exposures to sabe vs conoce, etc. If you don’t have the unit, pick it up!

The “Bacon Number” can be found for celebrities. If you google it, you’ll see… but I wanted a way to personalize the lesson more, and then, a light bulb went off. Voilá, we have Chatgpt now!

So, I hopped on Chatgpt and asked for MY Bacon number, if that was possible. It promptly told me it wasn’t possible after I answered its question that no, I have not starred in any Hollywood films (dare I say, yet…?). However, it then offered me to play Teacher Edition: Bacon Number Challenge to which I said, YES!

It asked me a few questions, I answered, then it produced this:

My Bacon Number is 5… I will take that! I also love that it produced language that is quite comprehensible to Spanish learners!

And then, it asked me if I wanted it to make a poster for me for class, to which of course out of curiousity, I said yes …BUT THEN, I reached my image limit. Wah-wah. I will update this post when my limit has been re-set again!

I find this all hilarous and also an amazing tool to do LIVE with students… so, I then asked it:

As long as I can access ChatGpt on my new school’s network (not sure about that, but maybe at least through my free personal account?), I think we’ll have a lot of fun finding out Bacon Numbers in a more updated way! AI for the win!

(Side note: I cannot 100% verify Dwyane Wade was actually in Domino: Battle of the Bones. I haven’t seen that one yet!)