This school year, the Spanish curriculum has changed. The Spanish teachers have changed their way of teaching reading, writing, language and speaking. The new curriculum was put in place to help the students remember and comprehend Spanish better.

This 2012 school year, the Spanish department came together to create a new curriculum. This curriculum focuses on helping the students have a better understanding on what they are learning. The Spanish teachers decided they needed a change in the way they were teaching to benefit the students.

With the new curriculum, the students spend a longer time on the material. Instead of spending a short three weeks, they spend six weeks to make sure they know what they are being taught.

Terry Neumann-Hayes, the department chair, said, “We want the students to have a global education; we want Spanish to be relevant to their lives and have them be able to use it with confidence.”

Since the material is studied for twice as long as it was in previous years, the students won’t feel rushed. They also get to use Spanish in real context and be able to comprehend it easier.

As for the teachers, Neumann-Hayes said, “It has been challenging and it has taken a lot of team work to give a different approach. We have changed the curriculum for all of the Spanish levels.”

Since it is still early in the school year, the teachers will not know the outcome of the new curriculum yet. “We teachers always make changes to the curriculum when it is needed. If we need to tweak it, we will,” said Neumann-Hayes.

Overall, the new curriculum gives the students a new opportunity to become successful with their language learning, as well as the teachers getting a new way to teach and connect with students.