The Spring Lake elementary schools have added a new program to the school year: Spanish!
Since there is now only one music teacher, after the retirement of Rebecca Kaufman, the district has decided to add a Spanish immersion program. The Spanish and music classes switch every six weeks: the Jeffers students will have Spanish class for six weeks while the Holmes kids have music class, then they switch.
The new immersion class is taught by Jenna Miller. The kids start off by learning basic words and phrases, how learn how to say their names, and how to say if they like something or not.
So far, teachers at the elementary schools think that the new class is beneficial for students. One parapro told the Anchor, “It gets them thinking about how big the world is, and that they can learn another language.”
The high school Spanish teachers are going to a conference next week to discuss more about the Spring Lake Spanish program as a whole. Since children are now learning Spanish as young as elementary school, the middle and high school programs might change to reflect the new cohorts’ language skills.
High school Spanish teacher Laura Westhoff said that the high school classes might be different in the future. “As Spanish shifts to the lower grades, what we do in the high school will be different,” she said.
Westhoff also expresses her excitement about elementary Spanish classes: “I’m very excited! The new class provides such good opportunities!”
