Are you one of the many teachers in District 21 who speak English and Spanish (and possibly other languages, too)? If so, you likely communicate with students and their families in both English and Spanish. Of course, when writing in Spanish, there are additional characters that do not exist in English, and while it is no problem to include accents or punctuation marks when using handwriting, it is necessary to know how to create these same symbols in the computer--especially since leaving an accent out can dramatically change the meaning of a word or sentence and negatively impact communication with parents and/or students.

On both Apple's Mac OS X and Windows, there are multiple ways to enter these characters, the fastest and easiest (once you memorize it), is to know the key command shortcuts. A shortcut is when you typically use multiple keys at more-or-less the same time to quickly accomplish a task that otherwise must be down by using the menu bar at the top of the screen.

Click here for the PDF of these key commands, print it, and keep it nearby when you are typing in Español.

From Rosemarie Meyer, our Assistant Superintendent of Bilingual and English-as-a-Second Language Programs, here are some PDFs that can provide useful support for providing all-important English-language vocabulary instruction for our students who are learning English.

http://www.scoe.org/aiming_high/docs/AH_kinsella1.pdf

http://www.scoe.org/aiming_high/docs/AH_kinsella2.pdf

While explicit and consistent high-level academic content vocabulary instruction is important for all students in School District 21, such instruction is particularly important for students who are learning English.