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High Life Monday, January 31, 2000
Features
Spanish Immersion premieres with class of 2003
By Amanda Earp and Angie
Jeffreys
Co-Features Editors
Eyes open—six freshman girls in
a typical Grimsley Spanish class.
Eyes closed—beautifully spoken
Spanish flows from six fluent
tongues as the girls di,scuss their
weekend with their teacher, Mrs.
White.
These girls are pioneers. They
are the first class of Grimsley stu
dents in the Spanish Immersion pro
gram. After ten years of intensive
study, this new class has reached
Spanish VI.
At five years old, students are sur
rounded by Spanish in every class.
At Jones Elementary School, Span
ish Immersion students learn each
subject in Spanish, from reading to
math. “These students are living
proof of the importance of begin
ning language study at an early age.
The later students begin to learn an
other language, the harder it is for
them to produce the proper sounds
of the language and internalize vo
cabulary and speech patterns,” says
Mrs. While.
Katie Pclkcy, a freshman and
Spanish Immersion student says,
“There was a big difference between
what we did and what the rest of the
children did in elementary school.
Because of this, we spent all of our
lime with each other [the other Span
ish Immersion students.]” While
these girls may have felt isolated in
elementary school, once they
reached Kiser Middle School, this
feeling changed into admiration from
their peers. Tliis admiration resulted
from the girls’ increased interaction
with the other students at Kiser as they
only had two Spanish Immersion
clas.ses. Pelkey reports that Grimsley
students extended the same welcome.
Only taught first pericxl, Spanish Im
mersion has evolved into more of a
guided study at Grimsley. Through
out the week, Mrs. Wliite assists the
class with a variety of their core sub
jects, or in some cases they assist her.
“On Tuesdays, the students teach me
math,” says Mrs. White.
Spanish Immersion provides ben
efits for participants, including fluency
in Spanish and near-native pronuncia
tion, according to Mrs. White. In ad
dition, the girls’ knowledge of the lan
guage could also potentially enhance
their career opportunities. Mrs. White
says, “I hope that they will combine
their linguistic skills with their future
careers—some want to work in health-
related fields and could certainly use
their skills to work with our burgeon
ing Hispanic population.”
However the benefits of the pro
gram are not only long-term. These
girls have access to the Spanish-speak-
ing world that includes everything
from soap operas to pop songs. “One
of the best examples of how [this class]
differs from other classes is that I can
play a song that they have never heard
before and, midway through it, they
begin singing along with the refrain,”
says Mrs. White.
Like the pioneers in any new pro
gram, Spanish Immersion’s first class
of high school students has experi
enced minor difficulties. “Almost ev
ery year we have had a different
teacher for Spanish which is a prob
lem because of all the different styles
of Spanish speaking. For example, last
year was our first year with a teacher
from Spain, and we had some miscom-
munications since we weren’t used to
the differences in the language,” says
Pelkey.
Other setbacks occurred due to the
method of learning itself. As the girls
learned Spanish like natives, certain
grammatical and lexical errors have
become ingrained in their minds. Due
to these weaknesses, Mrs. White
hopes for more formalized instruction
in grammar and spelling to come in high
school. “We have the same grammar
problems in Spanish as we do in En
glish, so we have to learn what is right
just the same as in our English
classes,” says Jannelle Perry, a fresh
man.
Despite the drawbacks of their pro
gram, these six girls found more than
just fluency through their years to
gether—they found friendship. In fact
the girls do not only spend time to
gether during their class each day.
Upon each girl’s birthday, Mrs. White
takes the class out for a Saturday lunch
to celebrate. Mrs. White says, “[One
of] the biggest problems has been ad
justing to the energy level of the class.
These girls have been together since
kindergarten and are totally bonded;
sometimes, it’s hard to get them to
focus on the subject at hand be
cause all they want to do is talk.”
In Spanish, of course.
Students converse with one another and Mrs. White fluently in
Spanish as they begin their Immersion class. These six girls have
become close friends as they have been together in this program
since kindergarten.
Weaver Center provides education alternatives
By Emma Burgin
Reporter
Junior Sean Cain wakes up ev
ery morning around 6:45 a.m.,
eats breakfast, hops into his car
and drives to his TV Production
“Weaver is at the mercy
of all the other schools’
pep rallies, school as
semblies, and other
school activities.”
-Mrs. Sneed,
Weaver teacher
class at Weaver Center five min
utes late, still ahead of his other
classmates.
Cain drives back to Grimsley
for three classes and makes an
other drive back to Weaver for
English 11 and Computer Graph
ics. His after-school activities
consist of countless minutes at
Weaver helping to clean up the
TV Production area or working
on his computer graphic designs.
Stella Maher, a senior, spends
her mornings in Weaver’s Com
mercial Photography class, and
during 5"’ and b'” periods she is
busy rehearsing with Weaver’s
advanced theater company, ETC.
Maher also often stays after
school at Weaver to work on her
photographs and extra rehears
als and performances.
These are just two of the many
Grimsley students who spend a
part of their school day at
Weaver. Weaver is an educa
tional center available to Guilford
County Schools’ students. It of
fers frequently requested but
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otherwise unavailable classes
such as dance, computer pro
gramming, auto-mechanics, culi
nary arts, and electronic music.
Maher says, “Students who do
not have access to classes such
as Calculus can take these
courses at Weaver. Plus, they are
able to offer many specialized
classes that public and home
“The students take
classes of their choice.
That makes for a better
learning environment
because everyone
wants to work. The at
mosphere is more re
laxed but also more fo
cused.”
-Stella Maher,
senior
schools cannot. It is a wonder
ful place to explore specific in
terests and talents in classes that
are oriented towards a career.”
According to Cain, the atmo
sphere at Weaver is very relaxed
compared to that of Grimsley.
There are no administrators
roaming the halls in search of acts
of wrongdoing. The teachers
and students create a profes
sional and comforting atmo
sphere because, as Maher says,
“The students take classes of
their choice. That makes for a
better learning environment be
cause everyone wants to work.
The atmosphere is more relaxed
but also more focused.”
Students who travel to
Weaver also run into scheduling
conflicts with Grimsley’s in
school assemblies, pep rallies,
and tests. Cain says, “I miss the
morning announcements every
day, sometimes I receive tardies
from my Grimsley teachers for
being late from a Weaver class,
and if something is going on here
then I miss my classes at
Weaver.” Maher had a difficult
time working out her class sched
ule at the beginning of the year.
“I was unable to take Commer
cial Photography for the full two
hours this year if I wished to take
AP European History. The coun
selors were wonderful about
working to create a one hour pho
tography course for me,” she
says.
Mrs. Sneed, a math teacher at
Dudley High School who teaches
a zero period Computer program-
ming class at Weaver says,
“Weaver is at the mercy of all the
other schools’ pep rallies, school
assemblies, and other school ac
tivities. Scheduling for Weaver
classes is very confusing be
cause Weaver wants students to
take two classes instead of one
so that you don’t have to come
and go so quickly.”
Weaver is a center for cre
ative use. Some think that
Weaver is for super-smart stu
dents, but the students who at
tend, such as Cain and Maher,
disagree. Weaver simply offers
the courses students want to
take. Weaver is a place to explore
the world of options and experi
ence creative learning. Hands-
on courses and interactive cur
riculum provide Weaver students
with a relaxed, yet highly effec
tive learning atmosphere.