Passing it On

One of the best things about All Saints is the way that older students and younger ones interact together frequently.  Nearly every day, I see pre-K, kindergarten or first graders hugging or high-fiving our middle schoolers, and often they pair up with buddies for special activities.  This was reflected in the final project for my 8th grade class.  They decided to make Spanish videos for the younger students here, especially the 5th graders.

This 8th grade class amazes me with their initiative and maturity.  They came up with everything on their own--designed their own themes, wrote their own scripts, did all of their own filming and editing.  And they did it in less than a week! This was their project from start to finish, and it turned into a remarkable gift for our younger students.   Although I cannot share all of the videos for privacy reasons (some included last names), they were so much fun.  And the looks on the faces of several of the younger siblings who saw their brothers and sisters in the videos were absolutely priceless!  The 2015 class set the bar very high for our younger students, not just academically, but in every way.  But I believe the upcoming classes are ready to follow in the steps of this class, and the example from the 8th grade class will inspire and encourage them in the coming year.

  

Happy Spring!

Spring is a busy time of year!  As we are heading into the last few weeks of school, the students are still working hard.  Our 8th graders took a Spanish Placement Exam for a local high school with an outstanding Spanish program this week.  Several did very well on the Spanish III exam, and most of them performed excellently on the Spanish II test.  It is always interesting to see how students do on tests outside of our own program, because the approach and material can be quite different.  I hope that the 8th graders are very proud of their achievements, and I am confident that they will continue to succeed in Spanish at any school they attend.

For a final project, the 8th grade students are designing Spanish videos to help out the 5th grade students as they strive to master verb conjugation and Spanish vocabulary.  I am so excited about seeing these videos.  To make it even better, many of the 8th graders have younger siblings in the 5th grade class!  I know that they will enjoying seeing what their older brothers and sisters pass on to their class.

During the NCEA conference that I attended, one of my favorite workshops featured learning games, and I have had so much fun adapting them for my classes here.  We have taken advantage of the gorgeous weather to take "Frederico" (the students' name for the beach ball--not sure where they got that) outside and practice.

Depending on the class, we have several variations.  For some, the color that their right thumb lands on when they catch the ball determines the type of word.  Other simply practice verb conjugations by using one in a sentence and sharing what it means.  Some use it for vocabulary practice.  The one constant is that we stay focused on Spanish while having a lot of fun!