Espanol

Well, I did it. I officially committed myself to teaching Spanish. I haven't decided if I've completely lost my mind or not, but I'm sure I'll know on day 1 of classes. I'm not sure why a class of first graders frightens me as much as it does...more than likely because I only know basic Spanish and I have not been given any curriculum info. as of yet. So yeah, I'm a little nervous. lol What I do know is that I will be teaching 1st graders for 30 minutes one day per week. I'm trying to focus on what Mark told me the other day "You could do anything for 30 minutes, shoot, you could be a trapeze artist for 30 minutes a week." He's right, I can do this, and that's why I volunteered. I think it will be really good for me, and if anything, it will freshen up some of my Spanish, and that's always a good thing when you live in Texas.
I have to admit, I am a little aprehensive about the program though. It's strictly a volunteer program, and like most volunteer programs, there is a shortage of volunteers. The program only has enough people to teach Kinder through 2nd grade...the same problem they had last year. I am concerned that the Spanish we teach will be lost after the 2nd grade. The next Spanish they are REQUIRED to have is in High School, and they could wait until their Jounior year to take it. That is a HUGE gap! If we were teaching 3rd - 5th only, as opposed to the lower grades, the children would be more likely to choose Spanish as an elective in Middle School, since the material would be so fresh. I don't know, maybe I'm thinking too much about this, maybe exposing them to a foreign language at such a young age will open their mind to something as simple as realizing that the world is bigger than Leander, Texas, and this will allow their minds to grow in ways I can't even really comprehend. Whatever the case may be, I'm excited and anxious to get started in a few weeks. How am I ever going to remember 20 kids names!!?