PAP Spanish II teachers, including Patricia Flores, are using a different approach that helps to personalize students’ learning and teach them to embrace current challenges while positively contributing to their communities. 

“As World Language teachers, we believe in integrating real-life examples to bring our community matters and our world issues to our classroom for students to become more aware of how their actions impact others,” Flores said via email. “At the end of the week, students will present information about health problems and offer solutions with supporting details and examples by creating a Public Service Announcement video to demonstrate, compare and contrast, or inform others.”

For freshman Grant Carlisle, the connection between Spanish and reality has helped better his understanding of the course.

“I feel like the vocabulary this week was easier to understand because it related to something that was currently happening,” Carlisle said via text. “They were terms I was basically already hearing every day so putting them into sentences and speaking were both overall less complicated more interesting.”

Students were even able to pick an assignment from a choice board and create an entertaining activity of their choice. Options included poems, posters, paintings, or a funny video.

“I think most students like interactive learning rather than a textbook reading and taking notes,” freshman Riya Khosla said. “Learning from more of a creative point of view makes me usually remember the material better.”

Stay-at-home orders can be overwhelming for students like freshman Saesha Dravekar, so teaching about the importance of taking care of yourself has been useful.

“Remembering self-care is very necessary but can be difficult especially at a time like this,” Dravekar said via text. “It’s nice that the Spanish teachers are putting in lessons that teach us to stay motivated and healthy.”

Flores also sees this week as a way to educate students about their mental health during this difficult time.Eric

“We care about our students and we miss them. We only imagine what they are going through, and some of us, with children of our own, can see the challenges from our own home,” Flores said. “So, we wanted to help students to learn how to take care of their mental health during this pandemic.”