What is MisCositas.com?
MisCositas.com is a free web resource that offers teachers a variety of materials for teaching languages: Spanish, French, Italian, Thai and ESL. Available on the site are:

• Videos for teaching simple vocabulary, "in-flight movies" for fantasy trips, karaoke and cultural clips
• downloadable thematic curriculum units complete lesson plans, student worksheets and resources
• downloadable materials collections with activities, manipulatives and mini-posters
• over 40 virtual illustrated picturebooks organized thematically in Spanish, French and English
  
• a list of vetted links for language teaching and authentic realia tied to the stories and thematic units

Who can use MisCositas.com?
This site was originally created by a teacher for other teachers to use in a classroom or computer lab. However, people from all over the world have written in about how they use the site in a variety of settings. Parents have used MisCositas.com for home schooling and for enrichment. Administrators have used the site in after-school clubs and staff development sessions. And anyone interested in learning a language can use the site to enhance their studies.

Who created MisCositas.com... and why?
Lori Langer de Ramirez created MisCositas.com first as part of her doctoral dissertation work in 1996. The first incarnation of the site contained three stories with a few illustrations. Since then, the site has grown to house folktales, original stories, curriculum units, lesson plan ideas, and other materials that she created for use in her own teaching.

Lori began her career as a teacher of Spanish, French and ESL. She holds a Master's Degree in Applied Linguistics and a Doctorate in Curriculum and Teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University. She is currently the Chairperson of the ESL and World Language Department for Herricks Public Schools.

Lori is the author of Voices of Diversity: Stories, Activities and Resources for the Multicultural Classroom and Take Action! Lesson Plans for the Multicultural Classroom as well as several Spanish-language books and texts, such as Cuéntame: Folklore y Fábulas (a folktale-based reader with activities) and Mi abuela ya no está (a picturebook about the Day of the Dead). She has contributed to many textbooks and written numerous articles about second language pedagogy and methodology. 

Lori has presented workshops at professional conferences both in the US and internationally. She has served as a consultant for world languages and ESL both nationally and abroad. She is the recipient of the Nelson Brooks Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Culture, several National Endowment for the Humanities grants to study in and develop lessons about Mexico, Colombia and Senegal and a Fulbright Award to India and Nepal. Her areas of research and curriculum development are multicultural and diversity education, folktales in the language classroom and technology in language teaching.

For more information, visit these links: 
Lori's curriculum vita  |  books by Lori  |  staff development & workshop offerings