¿Conoces la geografía de Sudamérica?

How much do you know about the countries of South America?

• How many countries in South America are not Spanish-speaking? Which countries don't have Spanish as their official language?
• Which is the largest Spanish-speaking country in South America?
• Does the United States have good relationships with South American countries? With which ones?
• Do you know the capitals of any of these countries?

El día de los presidentes

We didn't have school on lunes for President's Day, which honors American presidents. How much do you know about the past and present presidents just south of us in Mexico? Here are some notable (not necesaarily good) presidentes mexicanos.

• Benito Juárez was the first full-blooded indigenous president that Mexico had. He served as president for five terms! He was born in 1806 and died in 1872. He is still considered to be one of Mexico's greatest leaders.
• Porfirio Díaz was a very influencial and controversial president. In an effort to help Mexico's economy, which was in bad shape, Díaz invited many foreign investors into the country. This caused problems and poor conditions for local businesses and for workers. There was segregation during el Porfiriato (the time when Díaz was president) because he wanted to make Mexico look good to foreign visitors and investors. Indigenous people, very poor people and disabled people were hidden away from society. He was born in 1830 and died in 1915. He served two terms as president.
• Vicente Fox was born in 1942. He served as president from 2000-2006. His election was important because it was the first election in over 70 years in which the dominant PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Pary) was defeated. Fox is a member of the PAN (National Action Party).
• Felipe Calderón is the current president of Mexico. He was born in 1962 and attended Harvard University. Like President Fox, Calderón is a member of the PAN.

Que interesante, ¿no? Es importante saber de los líderes de otros países.

¡Que tengan un buen fin de semana!

¡Ponemos la mesa!

The 8th graders recently made place mats to show off their etiqueta. They did a great job putting everything in its place and making creative designs for their place settings.

Pack the Place

This year's second annual Pack the Place was a huge success! Los maestros y los estudiantes did a great job participating in the Spirit Week that lead up to the chicas home game on miércoles and the chicos game on jueves. Jueves was an especially fun Pack the Place day for me because I participated in the Pie your Teacher contest. Watch this video of me getting 'pied'!

Have a great weekend!

Trivia

See if you can answer some of this week's trivia questions.

• On TV's I Love Lucy, what country did band leader Ricky Ricardo come from?
• José Martí fought for the independence of which Caribbean nation?
• Can you name the group of islands off the southern tip of South America?

Check back next week for the correct answers.

Have a good weekend!

Cuba-Estados Unidos

After not making any public communications or appearances for several weeks, former Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, comments on U.S. President, Barack Obama, and the possibility of repaired relations between Cuba and the U.S. Castro doesn't think that the relationship between these two countries will be fixed overnight, but he seems optimistic that President Obama has vowed to improve relations between the two countries.
There are many Cuban refugees living in the United States. Per laws passed in recent years, they can only return to Cuba once a year to see their families. Some can only go every other year. U.S. citizens are not permitted to travel to Cuba without special permission. President Obama hopes to change some of these travel restrictions.

Read this article to learn a little more about Fidel Castro's opinions about President Obama and about his own country. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7846670.stm

Do you think that President Obama will be able to make the relationship between the U.S. and Cuba better?

PJ Day

Brr!!! What a cold and snowy week! Fortunately today was Pajama Day so many of us were nice and cozy at school despite the cold weather. Lots of teachers and students did a great job participating! Have a safe and warm weekend!