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HomeMy WebLinkAboutBryan College Station First Grade Spanish TeacchersWEATHER MONDAY High 82, Low 62 May 13, 2019 A blend of sun and clouds theeagle.com/weather ]Fhe E e $2.00 Bryan -College Station, Texas * theeagle.com 9i Similar journeys, same goal Editor's note: In recogni- tion of National Teacher Ap- preciation Month, The Eagle will be profiling area teachers throughout the month of May. If you would like to suggest a teacher for a future profile, email news@theeagle.com. Teachers find each other after traveling from Madrid to B-CS to teach Spanish By KATY BARBER katy.barber@theeagle.com Twlao nguage edu- cation specialists packed up their lives in Madrid to share their experience and knowledge of languages around the globe. Though they didn't know each other prior to landing in Bryan -College Station as first -grade Spanish teach- ers, Paloma Ganado Alocer and Alba Galan Inigo have shared similar journeys, working and volunteering with international pro- grams, teaching English and Spanish in countries such as Nicaragua, Thai- land, Belgium and Italy. The two are part of the multi -language program at International Leadership of Texas -College Station, where students receive See TEACHERS, Page A3 Alba Galan Inigo, left, and Paloma Ganado Alocer are first -grade Spanish teachers and part of the multi-langaage program at International Leadership of Texas -College Station. TEACHERS: Both include parents in experience on inued from Al equal amounts of instruction on core concepts such as mathematics, read- ing, science and social studies in both English and Spanish. For 45 minutes Per day, the first -graders also receive instruction in Mandarin Chinese four days per week with two days of art and music instruction in between. Their classes are the first time most Of their students have had Spanish lessons, Galan said. As a result, she said, the teachers worked to adapt the coursework with images, gestures and songs in ways that reinforce the new language and concepts. " I am a lover of creating material," Galan said, noting that Ganado is the mastermind of their collaborative ap- proach to teaching. Part of that approach is including the parents in the classroom experience. In January, the two teachers began offering families a chance to learn Spanish together while incorporating the Spanish culture through a pro- gram they call Parents University. There have been nine sessions so far, with lessons that include re-creat- ing a market for parents and their stu- dents to purchase ingredients to cook a traditional Spanish meal together, layering the lessons with cultural im- mersion. They hope to continue the Program next year. Parent Andrea Carpenter attended all of the after -school sessions with her daughter, Michaela, and said her younger children have started picking up the language thanks to the tools Provided by the teachers. "I've been extremely impressed with [the teacher's work in the classroom], but they went further and offered Par- ents University," Carpenter said. "It also helped keep me more in contact with her teacher [to] discuss different ways that we could promote Spanish in the home," Carpenter said. That's the goal, the two teachers said. "Education is not only built here,,, Ganado said during an interview in her classroom. "We need to be in contact with parents, so that we all know we are on the same team and we are on the same page that we all want the best for the kid and for the kid to succeed.,, Galan said that in her experience, parents in the United States are able to be more involved in their children's education and they felt that they could help fill the gap in the children's lan- guage acquisition by teaching their Parents and giving them the tools to assist their children. "We believe that it can be challeng- ing for a parent if they feel like can't help their child, so we wanted to give them the tools, an opportunity to learn with them and to have a bonding time all together," Ganado said. "We believe in a global education where school and families work together. So that is why we came up with the idea for [Parents University], so parents could come with their kids and see how we learn how to write and read in Spanish, do some activities similar to the ones that they do in the class- room. Allegra Abbey, Ganado's English instruction counterpart at the school said Ganada and Galan's relation- ships with the parents have helped advance the students in both English and Spanish lessons. "Now that the parents know us as educators and people, there is just so much more confidence that the par- ents have in this program, [and we've all] seen incredible growth together. That speaks especially to the Spanish teachers, who have worked incredibly hard because not only are they teach- ing the content, but they're teach- ing the language. They're working double-time.,, 2