The Valley Catholic
catholic schools
CATHOLIC EDUCATION INSPIRES
knowledge .
February 3, 2015
9
St. Lucy Students utilize technology
to connect with Spain!
St. Lucy offers a robust Spanish 1
curriculum for all students in grades
six, seven and eight. There are two Senoras on campus, who are passionate
about their culture and eager to share
their enthusiasm with their students.
In 8th grade Spanish class, Mrs. Williams turned to technology to help
make the new Spanish textbooks come
alive for her students. The text books
follow four pairs of travelers as they
visit different Spanish-speaking countries plus our own United States, where
Spanish is the second most common
language behind English. The books
weave together vocabulary and grammar along with culture and history.
Spain was the first unit of the school
year, and Mrs. Williams knew just how
to reach her students. She contacted a
friend of hers who teaches English in
Spain, and arranged for her students
to ‘Skype’ him during their class time.
The students were able to see him live
on a classroom projection system, and
speak with him directly by asking him
questions...all in Español of course!
The beauty of this is that she surprised her students! They had unknowingly prepared three questions ahead
of time for “a young man in Spain.”
They practiced with each other, and
then practiced with the entire class, and
they wrote down all of their questions.
When they walked in to Spanish class
last week, they were quite surprised to
see “Diego” from across the world on
the big screen projection system, and to
be able to talk directly with him- live!
Students took turns sitting in front
of the laptop to converse in Spanish.
They first had to introduce themselves
and then ask a question they had prepared ahead of time. Students asked
about the weather, favorite foods,
sports, music, entertainment, and other
general questions about life in Spain.
It was so fun that many students came
back to ask additional spontaneous
questions. After about half an hour,
they all had a good laugh when Diego
revealed to the students that he is in
fact an English teacher! They continued in English for a bit longer which
allowed the students to ask more indepth questions.
Mrs. Williams hopes that this has
helped inspire her students, and she
plans to be able to reach out to other
countries in the coming trimesters.
“Given the nine-hour time difference, Diego was very gracious to chat
with us for 45 minutes, well past his
bedtime! The benefits of such spontaneous conversations are tremendous!”
says Mrs. Williams.
Cristo Rey boys soccer team wins first game
The Cristo Rey boys soccer team captured the first win in the school’s history
with a 3-2 triumph over Luis Valdez.
www.dsj.org