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It's time to finally unveil what we've been working on for the past year. This is one is huge. And yes, we say that all the time, but this time we mean it.

After much debate, we have made a tough decision. It’s a decision many of you will disagree with, but one I hope you consider deeply as you read our rationale.

Want to get involved in Wooly Week 2020?  You have all of March to do as much or as little as you want!

It's time to spill the beans: For the past 4 months, Juan Carlos Pinilla and I have been creating a new graphic novel about a well-known Sr Wooly character. It’s the most ambitious, detailed and complex project either of us have ever taken on, and bringing it to fruition has pretty much consumed both of our lives.

As Wooly Week draws to a close, I want to extend a heartfelt thanks and also applause to all of you. Whether you stuck it out for the whole week, or whether you just dipped your toes in one or two of the activities, I thank you all for taking some risks this week and for trying something new. We've done Wooly Week before, but we've never done Wooly Week like this. I hope that you had a good experience.

After over a year in production, we proudly release Billy y las botas 3!  I make two promises:

1) This is the last Billy y las botas ever. 
2) Your students will NEVER forget the ending.  
 
If you're an active subscriber, you can log in to your account and see it immediately. 
 
However, if you have a minute, here are 6 things you should know about this video:

 

 
Almost 3 years ago, we released the new version of SenorWooly.com.  It was an ambitious  redesign that featured the addition of student accounts and a gamified, acquisition-based curriculum.

Admittedly, it was also not perfect.  The curriculum was a little too repetitive, the activities didn't work well on small screens, and navigation was not always easy.  
 
But I have good news.
 
At the start of the 2018-19 school year, we will release Version 2 of the student curriculum. 
 
Let me tell you about it.

 

A Sneak Peek of
THE. BIG. VIDEO.

People have been requesting this video for years. And, truthfully, we really tried to have it ready for Wooly Week. However, it quickly became clear that, to do this amazing story justice, we needed a little more time.

With 25 music videos, it's very easy for newcomers to not know where to start.  What video should you watch first?  What is the appropriate level for your students?

I encourage you to watch this video blog, in which I help to answer this question.  

 Gorro, the devoted best friend of Billy la Bufanda, only wishes for two things in life.  First, he wants to help Billy find his beloved boots.  Second, he wants to keep your head warm.  

The winners have been selected!

A huge thank you to everyone who participated in this contest. We had a very large turnout, far bigger than we expected, and we wish we could have given a prize to everyone.  To all those you participated, thank you for the time and enthusiasm that you put into this contest.  Wooly Week and the Wooly Raffle were a ridiculous amount of work, and you all made every second of it worth it.  Thank you so much for everything.  

The Wooly Raffle

OVERVIEW

To properly celebrate Wooly Week, I wanted to do something a little offbeat with this raffle. This is not some run-of-the-mill raffle to win, say, a DVD.

Sure, you could just kick back and watch ¿Puedo ir al baño? again. But what if there was another way?  What if, instead, you could pull out your guitar and play it live?  Can you imagine it? You would become a legend.

Well, stop imagining.

Many people have told me that, although they're incredibly excited about the new Billy y las Botas graphic novel, they aren't necessarily sure how to teach with one.  And I totally get that.  It's a new medium, one in which the majority of the story is told through visuals, not dialogue.  It's for this reason that I spent the last month creating an 18-part video tutorial series on how to teach with a comic book!  

In this tutorial, we finally get into the classroom with Carrie Toth and her students.  Carrie will pre-teach some key phrases and vocabulary that students will need for the activities ahead.  This tutorial is also a primer on teaching with comprehensible input.  Length: 5:40

An additional video on pre-teaching, this time with a focus on the structure "se pone".  For those experienced in teaching with comprehensible input, you probably don't need to watch this video.  However, if these concepts are new to you, this video will have essential review alongside a handful of new ideas.  Length: 5:24

Volleyball is probably the single most concrete idea in this entire series.  It's easy-to-learn, easy-to-implement, and it's a phenomenal way to ensure that all students understand all of the comic book. Length: 4:29

This week, I release a fun Behind-the-Scenes video for Ya Está Muerto.  It doesn't have much educational value for Spanish, but it does provide insight into how much work and time goes into these productions. 

In 2005, I created this short video to introduce my class expectations in a fun way. It was one of the first videos I ever created, and it is still one of my favorites.

UPDATE: Feb 6, 2017.  This song now has an official music video!  Since the song/video is now fully supported as part of the Sr. Wooly curriculum, this blog page is now officially deprecated, and will be deleted soon.

This song is a simple rhythm combined with a melodic chant that was designed to teach the present tense conjugations of IR (to go). 

La Salvavidas is a song from my first album, Billy la Bufanda y Amigos.    It's a catchy little song about a boy who falls in love with a lifeguard.  It was very much inspired The Sandlot, a great little movie that I've seen far more times that I'd like to admit.  

¿Dónde queda el museo? is a song from my first album, Billy la Bufanda y Amigos.  It's a simple rhythmic song to teach prepositional phrases.  

Odio la clase de español is a song from my second album, Billy la Bufanda Presenta Más Amigos.  It's a silly little song about a kid in Spanish class that, well, hates Spanish class.  

Reviews of my music video, ¡Es Una Ganga! are all across the map. Some teachers have told me me that their students have never responded so positively to one of my videos, and others are telling me that it’s the worst thing I have ever made.

Sr. Wooly’s seventh activity is a unique take on the jigsaw puzzle. Unlike other activities in this series, this one requires very little explanation. Although there is nothing particularly ground-breaking about this puzzle, I think you’ll find that it’s simple, easy-to-administer, and valuable. I hope you like it.

Today’s video tutorial is the first, all-out competitive game that I have presented in this video series. And, for that reason, it absolutely will not be everyone’s cup of tea. However, in my opinion, it is ridiculously fun for both teacher and student.

What if I told you that there was an activity that you could easily implement with any age group, deeply engage all students for an extended period of time, and guarantee a much-needed tranquil classroom environment on that crazy Friday afternoon?

This activity is adapted from an old theater game.  It's extremely easy to implement, it’s also applicable to any age group and level of study. Quite simply, this is a fun and structured way to allow students to share their opinions.

This week’s activity teaches a concentration activity that is perfect for reinforcing any type of sequential vocabulary such as numbers, days of the week, etc. It’s a great supplementary activity to the video Las Excusas, since as you’ll see in the video below, it’s perfect for teaching ordinal numbers.

Assuming you are willing to sing in front of your students a little, this is a great activity that requires no preparation, no materials, and very little instruction. It’s also a phenomenal way to start the class.

Putting aside the ridiculous, attention-getting title of this post, there is of course no doubt that exposing students to authentic, native speaker materials is essential in any student’s Spanish education.