Darlington School: Private Boarding School in Georgia Thursdays at Thatcher: Los Jueves en Thatcher (Part 1)
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Thursdays at Thatcher: Los Jueves en Thatcher (Part 1)

Luke Chaffin | March 5, 2015 | 290 views

Follow the ELA-8 adventures of the Communication Office staff each week on social media by using #ThursdaysatThatcher to see and read more.

Today I switched gears (and languages) completely, and got to learn Spanish with my amigos in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade! 

I recall first learning Spanish at my elementary school as a second-grade student. It was an exciting year filled with a new group of friends, new concepts to learn, and one of the best teachers I have ever had. Mrs. Swanger made Spanish come alive in a variety of ways, and to this day I can STILL remember most of the songs we learned in our world language unit.

When I stepped into Mrs. Mann's first class of the day with the Smith Smarties in pre-kindergarten, I thought that "hola" and "adios" would be the extent of the lesson. May I just say that these little learners would have run circles around the second-grade me. The morning exercises included a review of the days of the week and months of the year. Even their accents were spot on as they shouted the answers in unison. Following the warm-up, our teacher called out numbers in Spanish, and we had to count out goldfish crackers and put the correct number into a fishbowl. There are just some things like the excitement the students glowed with calling out the correct answer that can be completely understood regardless of your native tongue.

Next I made my way up through the Early Learning Academy to kindergarten, where Spanish got a little harder and excelled, as the youngsters continued to amaze me with what they could remember and retain. When I really stopped to think about it, I began to realize that many of the concepts and words that the students were learning in Spanish for the first time were taught to these same students in English not that long before...talk about being bilingual!

I decided to continue with first grade as the Harrison Heroes taught me how to play Simón Habló (similar to Simon Says). In the game we did a quick review of body parts, using some Spanish words that I had never even heard! Our profesora (teacher) was able to combine art, math and world language in a fun way where we were asked to draw (dibujar) shapes (formas) to create monsters. Mrs. Mann would call out particular body parts for us to create, and then instruct us to use certain colors and quantities (in Spanish, of course!). The Heroes were excited [appropriately enough] to use morado (purple) to color the monster's body.

In second grade, Spanish students are making monsters as well, choosing their own colores, and then writing reports about themall in Spanish. I don't recall being able to construct complete sentences in second grade beyond Me llamo Luke. Writing mini-reports in Spanish would have been "big kid stuff" to me back then. Perhaps it would be helpful to learn in Spanish how to say, "Darlington students are lightyears ahead." The longer I work here, the more I realize that I could reuse this same phrase over and over in a variety of instances, beyond referring to our world language courses! 

It only made sense to go to third grade next, where students were doing activities in a weather unit. With the constantly changing Georgia climate this winter, the unit held particular relevance, and it was easy to get a feel for each season and type of weather pattern that Señora Evans was teaching. Students were creating an "interactive notebook" where little illustrated paper discs representing weather conditions were matched with as many Spanish phrases that could be applied. On this particular day, we would say está lloviendo ("it is raining"), and maybe tomorrow, hace sol ("it is sunny").

As a broadcast journalism major in college, I especially enjoyed seeing the technology integration in fourth-grade Spanish. Señora Evans had students working together to film "about me" speeches on iPads...but there is a twist. The students are taking on the personalities of paperbag puppets that they have made in class, and truly, each marioneta had a personality all its own! It was interesting to see the different words that they used to add color to their puppets, and which characteristics they chose to highlight.

In fifth grade, students are also using a variety of skill sets to complete projects about animals. Instead of "who I am," however, they are taking more of a "what am I?" approach, writing descriptions of animals in Spanish, and then drawing pictures of the corresponding creature. When the project is finished, younger students will walk around a "zoo," read the descriptions and guess the animal based on the clues. The real answer will be revealed only when the students use the QR code readers on their iPads to show the student-made artwork of the animal.

After getting initially acclimated into the Darlington family, I met several staff members of the Upper School world languages department and developed a true appreciation for the globally-minded citizens that they were helping to shape. What I learned last jueves (Thursday), however, was that this process starts much earlier than freshman year, or even in my case, before second grade.

As soon as a child walks through the doors and becomes a Darlington student, no matter the age or grade, they immediately begin walking the road to cultural awareness. What's more, the path to an understanding and appreciation of diversity doesn't begin or end with Spanish at Darlington, though; it is truly interwoven into every subject and activity that students enjoy here on our 500 acres. 

While I may not have understood every word that was spoken at Thatcher Hall that day, what I could indeed comprehend without a doubt was the sincere appreciation and excitement to learn a new language. As our ELA-8 students grow and advance in their studies, this foundation laid for them to learn, comprehend and speak world languages with passion will never leave.

At Darlington, we are raising global citizens, and this early introduction to world language and culture gives our little Tigers the jump-start they need to embrace diversity in an ever-changing, globalizing world!


Click here to read the second part of the two-part blog series, Los Jueves en Thatcher.