Spanish

All faculty members have to have a plan for their own professional development. I asked that my professional development plan include taking a Spanish class on campus. I had already spoken with Socorro, the professor for the class I wished to join, and she was enthusiastic about the idea. I was told that, although this was an unusual request, it clearly related to my research area (English Language Learners at Head Start) so it was approved. My dean really thought it was a great idea. I was even able to charge the cost of all the textbooks to my professional development account.

I am loving it. Improving my Spanish will certainly help me in conducting my research, but I also just love being in this class. Socorro and I have a great relationship. I am in the class to learn, but I also help lead some activities which is great fun. I sit next to Alex, a young lady from Zeeland, Michigan, whose grandparents emigrated from Mexico. I have really enjoyed getting to know her as we often work on class activities together. She will be graduating at the end of this semester, but plans to stay in Sioux Center as she has a job here. I am trying to convince her to continue her Spanish studies after graduation so we can continue to be partners.

Some of my own students are in this same Spanish class, which really creates a fun dynamic. I also have a student from Nicaragua in one of the courses I teach. She has now started talking to me in Spanish. I practice a lot on Jon Felipe. I'll say my Spanish words and phrases out loud and he will tell me in English what I've said. If I don't get the pronunciation quite right, he makes this funny face at me and says the equivalent of "huh?" in Spanish. It is quite comical. If I forget to match the gender of the adjectives to the nouns, he corrects me. He has also started using a more sophisticated Spanish vocabulary with me. Of course, the new words he is using don't usually match the new words I'm learning at school, so I'm often left with no idea what he is trying to tell me. Still, he and I are having fun with the language. I'd say my Spanish class is another blessing.