During my lifetime, I have been fortunate enough to spend time in seven different Spanish-speaking areas of the world: Argentina (2 months,) Venezuela (1 month,) Spain (2 weeks,) Mexico (2 weeks,) Costa Rica (1 week,) Puerto Rico (1 week,) and Uruguay. I hope to share these various experiences with you as part of your world language and culture education.

I am very happy to have you in my class this semester and have very high expectations for you. Learning another language is hard work, but it can (and should) be fun. I will do my best to provide a variety of learning experiences for my students to accommodate different and unique learning styles. Some work and all tests are completed individually; however, much time is devoted to working with others since the element of communication is critical. You will perform brief skits and conversations in front of the class from time to time and will also spend a lot of time speaking Spanish with your classmates.

Please note that while Spanish is an elective, it is also an academic course. Therefore, some students may experience difficulties at times. Your success is important to me and I will be happy, if needed, to provide additional assistance to any student who experiences such difficulties. We offer free tutoring by members of the National Spanish Honors Society (and by myself, schedule permitting.) Please contact me for assistance with making arrangements for tutoring sessions, if desired.

Thank you for taking the time to read this information. For details on specific class assignments, online practice activities and more, please visit my class webpages at: http://www.quia.com/pages/ebyspanish.html

I look forward to a great semester!