Welcome back to school! I'm looking forward to the upcoming school year. I am excited to start my 10th year at Irving!
What does a typical Spanish class entail? Fun and learning! We sing songs, dance, play games, read, role-play and learn all in the target language. Our classes are hands on, interactive and lively! Instruction is almost 100% in Spanish. Instruction is not based on vocabulary lists and drills but more of a natural organic approach using hands on learning.
At times, Spanish can be overwhelming for Kindergarten and new students but over time they will learn all the routines in Spanish and feel at ease with hearing the language.
It takes approximately 240 minutes to improve in Spanish and our students only have class 60 or 90 minutes a week. On average, students need to hear a word approximately 100 times before they can effectively and efficiently produce the word. Therefore, most of our students are novice learners that need context, visuals, and familiar contexts to help them communicate, and they do so best with those accustomed to interacting with language learners.
This year, I will teach Ms Heaphy and Ms Gullo's Kindergarten classes, 1st, 2nd, 3rd (Homann and Williams), 4th, and 5th (Sakellaris & Balicki). Ms Nieto will teach Ms Parkinson, Ms Grogan, Ms Kaunelis, Mr Baker and Ms Browning classes.
If you are on twitter follow me @IrvingEspanol for updates and pictures in Spanish class.
