I am so excited to have the privilege of teaching your child this upcoming year in Spanish Immersion Kindergarten! We will have an exciting, busy year together, and this summer I'll be preparing materials, organizing my classroom, and praying for this school year and your child.
I am also looking forward to developing our classroom community this year. Some of you I know better than others, and I thought I'd take some time and space here to introduce myself and give you a little background on where I come from. So, here we go!
About Me / Sobre Mí
I was born and grew up in the Boston, MA area. As I reflect on my childhood and young adult years, even now I see how God was forming me with cultural and language experiences to prepare me for what I do now. For example, I did not grow up knowing how to speak Spanish--I started learning in 4th grade with VERY basic FLES-style classes (you know, colors, numbers, etc.). Even though I really didn't know much at all, I thought I was really good at it (read: not at all!) and loved to learn the language! Whenever I would meet a native speaker, I would be so excited to listen and try to speak back to them--even though I was never very successful.
The first time I went to Mexico in high school, God really shook me up and it was clear to me that He had plans for me to use Spanish in my life. After high school, I continued studying Spanish at Grove City College in western PA, during which I spent a semester abroad in Seville, Spain. When I returned to Mexico for several summers to work with a mission organization, I met my (now) husband Miguel. My spoken Spanish was not very good at the time, nor was his English, but needless to say, we learned! ;) After college, I moved down to Mexico, where I spent the majority of my adult life living in the Texas-Mexico border region.
In my professional life, I taught for several years at a bilingual school in Mexico and then was a reading teacher at a charter school on the border in south Texas. I also have a lot of experience teaching ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages), both to children and adults, and I hold a Master's Degree in Language Education from Plymouth State University.
Fast forward to now: Miguel and I have been married for 10 years and have 2 wonderful children, Anaiah (1st grade) and Isaac (preschool). Both of our kids are in the Spanish Immersion program here at Holland Christian. After deciding to move up north with our family 3 years ago, we were attracted to the city of Holland for its diversity, job opportunities, and bilingual schools, and we'd heard it was great place to raise a family. (My brother had attended Hope College, which is how we heard about the city.) We have lived here now for almost 2 years, and we can say that Holland is our home. Our family attends Engedi Español and we remain committed to raising our children bilingually, biculturally, and with the knowledge that the love of Jesus transcends every language and culture.
I strongly believe that immersion education is for ALL students, regardless of background, culture, or native language. By exposing children to another language and culture, we are giving them a little taste of just how big and marvelous is God's world and His creation. While I have had many years' experience teaching language, it is also an amazing privilege for me to have the opportunity to teach your child from a Christian perspective. By opening up the door to the Spanish language, who knows in what way God will use your child to further His kingdom?
In my future posts, I'll be discussing some of the questions you may have about the Spanish Immersion program and some suggested reading and/or activities for this summer. My purpose in starting my blog early is to spread out some information over time, but please, feel free to ignore my posts if you are in complete "summer mode"! Of course, if you have any questions you would like addressed, please shoot me an email and I will do the best I can to respond.
Thank you for reading, and until next time! ¡Gracias por leer, y hasta la próxima!
