From “Um…” to “¡Hola!”: Building confidence in Spanish

In this episode, we sit down with Mrs. Garner to talk about her role in the Spanish department at Mount Pisgah and what inspires her as a teacher. She shares insights into her teaching style, how she brings Spanish language and culture to life, and what makes her classroom experience unique.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:20

You're listening to Beyond the Bell, a student-produced podcast from Mount Pisca Christian School. I'm Luca Orassi, and this podcast is a space where students, teachers, and the whole community can connect. Here, we believe every person has a story to tell, and we want to bring these stories to life. In this episode, we will be talking about the important role of the Mount Pisca Spanish Department in helping students explore a new language and culture while building valuable communication skills. Through engaging lessons and interactive activities, students are encouraged to step outside their comfort zones and develop confidence in speaking and understanding Spanish. I am now here with Miss Garner talking to her about the Spanish department and what makes it so special. So, what inspired you to become a Spanish teacher and how did you get started in the field?

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Okay, thanks, Luca. I'm excited to be here today. I'm excited to talk about this stuff. I really liked Spanish class in high school. My teacher was one of my favorites. I thought it was interesting, but it was just kind of a fun class to me at that time. When I went to college, my original plan was to be a psychology major, and Spanish was just gonna be my minor. But I think God had other plans and put people in my life who were like really close friends, almost like family, that were Spanish speakers, and that's where my love for the language actually came from. Um I didn't have a lot of confidence as a child that I could learn another language, but through those relationships, I think God was trying to teach me that He's given all of us the ability to learn language.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Yeah, that's awesome. How would you describe your teaching style in the classroom?

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Um so life is really a collection of stories, and so the focus is on stories, whether it's story structure, character development, um telling about our lives and learning about other people's lives, it's just interesting to see what we have in common. So each unit is surrounded around a story, it could be a novel or a film study or something else. Um this really helps language learners to understand more vocabulary because our brains are built and wired to follow story structure.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Yeah. And are there certain ways you try to make um learning Spanish fun and engaging for students?

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Yeah, so my goal is to have a variety of different types of activities that support those story uh studies that we do in class. So, like some days it may be like an internet game, like a Kahoot or a Gimkit that contains like questions about that. And then other days it really might be more engaging to do something that's really low-tech, um, like playing bingo with questions about our stories to like isolate the listening skill.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

And how do you incorporate Spanish culture into your lessons?

SPEAKER_00 3:01

Yeah, so the really cool thing about culture is that um it's in every aspect of our lives and people all over the world. So, with so many Spanish speaking communities everywhere, there's an infinite number of possibilities with regards to culture. So each story that we study in class is set in a different part of the world, and we get to see how the culture of that community impacts the characters.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

And what are some ways you think um makes your class unique compared to other language classes?

SPEAKER_00 3:31

Yeah, so I'm not sure that this necessarily makes my class different, but the focus is really on building up a foundation of highly useful vocabulary that helps learners have tools in practical everyday situations. Research actually shows that there is a very small set of high frequency words that drives most everyday communication, and so a core group of common verbs carries a lot of that load. So we intentionally use those a lot, which is easy to do because they're so important.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

Yeah. How do you support students who may find learning a new language chat?

SPEAKER_00 4:03

Yeah, so I I really get it because as I said earlier, when I was a little kid, I didn't have confidence that I could learn another language. It felt really overwhelming to learn a lot of words, so I totally can empathize with that situation. That's why I'm passionate about helping students. Um, I think visual aids are extremely important, and I provide text for everything we study, whether it's a summary of a scene from a film study that we're doing or like a review of a chapter of a novel. Um, I just like to provide a lot of extra text and repetitions of that vocabulary.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

And what is your favorite activity or project that you do with your students?

SPEAKER_00 4:40

Um, so I think favorite for me might be a different favorite than what students would have because I adore anytime I get to see students create with language, and that could be like something as um maybe not as exciting for students, like just like answering a question on a test. It's like open-ended. Or it could even just be like a kid telling me what they did over the weekend in Spanish, and maybe like I can see in their brain, they're like, Oh, how do I say that? And then they kind of work through it. That's like something really exciting to me, just to see kids um being able to like try something new and different and take risks.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

And what do you hope students ultimately take away from your class by the end of this year?

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Yeah, so I have a lot of little goals, like I want students to learn this this vocabulary or get more comfortable with these types of verbs, but my main number one thing is that I really want them to want to learn more. So for like, I know that um doing your schedule as a high school student can be really challenging because you have extracurriculars and like family responsibilities and social obligations, and you have all these different classes that you have to like organize into a schedule. And so, not everyone gets to continue language learning in a formal setting, like a classroom. But my main goal is that at the end of the year, kids want to keep learning more Spanish.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

So well, thank you so much. Um, this was an awesome interview, and I appreciate um your role in helping making the Spanish department great. The Spanish department at Mount Pisca offers students more than just language instruction, and it provides opportunities to connect with new cultures, build confidence, and develop lifelong skills. With passionate educators like Miss Garner, students are able to experience a learning environment that is both supportive and inspiring.