Dear St. Simon Parents/Guardians,

My name is Aleksandra Rukonic and I am the Spanish teacher for Grades K-4 at St. Simon School. I would like to tell you a little bit about myself. I was born and raised in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. I came to California with my husband 13 years ago. Both my children Mislav, 11 and Anya, 7 were born in Santa Clara, California. They speak both Croatian and English fluently. As a child, I started learning foreign languages very early.  Apart from Croatian, which is my mother tongue, I speak English, Spanish, German and Italian. I have a BA in the English language and literature and the Spanish language and literature.

I have more than 18 years of teaching experience. I started as a teacher in primary grades, teaching English only at first. Later, I worked as an EFL and SFL teacher with teenage and adult groups in a distinguished private school in Zagreb. I am a member of HUPE (Croatian Association of Teachers of English) and have attended their numerous workshops both in Croatia and abroad.

This is my seventh year at St. Simon and I have truly enjoyed teaching your children. Spanish lessons in our Kindergarten groups  will take place once a week for 30 minutes. Children in Grades 1-3 will continue having Spanish twice a week for 30 minutes. Grade 4 will be having Spanish on Tuesdays for 50 minutes. Longer learning time will give the fourth graders an opportunity to work on more complex tasks, such as cultural projects, without being interrupted.

You may wonder how one would teach a foreign language to children who can barely speak or write English as is the case with our very young children. I teach Spanish to young children by having fun with songs, games, puppets, coloring and a lot of repetition. I try to give them a lot of practice and gently correct them.

As for my second, third and fourth grades, since they feel more comfortable with the basics of Spanish they learned in previous year/s (saying their name, age, feelings), we will continue building up our basic vocabulary (colors, numbers, school supplies, food, family, date, birthdays, etc.). There will be able to learn more about the customs and traditions of Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries and will also hear a lot of stories in Spanish. By learning Spanish, our children have an opportunity to grow intellectually and culturally – soon they will realize how Spanish words look so much like English ones. Of course, the pronunciation is different, but they will learn that this is because 80% of English vocabulary is of Latin origin and Spanish developed from vulgar, non-classical Latin.

I truly hope we will have an interesting and exciting year here at St. Simon learning Spanish together. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the Spanish class, please contact me via e-mail and I will be glad to answer any questions you might have. Finally, please check our class pages under Enrichment, Spanish GK-4 to learn more about what your children have learned in our Spanish class. The pages will be updated monthly.

Sincerely,

Aleksandra Rukonic

Spanish teacher, GK-4

St. Simon Catholic School

arukonic@stsimon.org

• Kindergarten Rooms A and B: Friday, 30 minutes
• Grade 1, Room 6: Tuesday and Friday, 2x30 minutes
• Grade 1, Room 8: Tuesday and Friday, 2x30 minutes
• Grade 2, Room 2: Monday and Thursday, 2x30 minutes
• Grade 2, Room 4: Monday and Thursday, 2x30 minutes
• Grade 3, Room 3: Tuesday and Thursday, 2x30 minutes
• Grade 3, Room 5: Tuesday and Thursday, 2x30 minutes
• Grade 4, Room 7: Tuesday, 50 minutes
• Grade 4, Room 9: Tuesday, 50 minutes

Classroom rules

As already mentioned before, Kindergarten children will have Spanish once a week for 30 minutes. When there is a worksheet we will work on in our Spanish class, it will be sent home together with the rest of their schoolwork on Thursdays.
Grades 1-3 will have a Spanish folder which contains a Spanish workbook, a composition book and two pockets to store some extra copies in them. From time to time students will bring some schoolwork home and this is where the parents should get involved and encourage the children to share more about the Spanish they learned that day/week.

Grades 4 will receive a binder, dividers, binder paper and will be responsible for getting a Spanish-English/English-Spanish dictionary to be used at school and at home.
Students will follow general classroom rules as with their homeroom teachers.

Furthermore, the rules stated in the St. Simon Handbook will be applied to all students.

Evaluation/Grades

I have a system of awarding points during our class to motivate and reward students. For a correct answer in Spanish or making an effort to do so, student may win a point. Children in Grades 1 and 2 need to collect 5 points each to collect a small prize and then they start the second round and so on. Children in Grade 3 follow the same system except they will be challenged to collect 10 points before winning a prize. Prizes may include a sticker, a pencil or a small toy. Sometimes a whole class may be rewarded with stickers for a job well done or outstanding behavior or effort made.
Grades for Spanish in Grades K-4 follow the same system as presented in the official St. Simon Handbook.

Homework

Students will not be assigned any homework. However, they may be asked to bring a family photo or their favorite stuffed animal, as the unit will require. Sometimes they will also need to complete or finish a worksheet that they have not finished in school. Hands-on learning experience is very important for children of any age.

Grade 4 will have homework assignments.

Birthdays

Birthdays will be observed monthly at the beginning of every month. We will sing “Cumpleaños feliz” to all of our students born in that month. The student/s who is/are absent on that day will hear their song on the first possible occasion. We will celebrate summer birthdays in June or the end of May. Parents and/or older siblings are invited to share their knowledge of Spanish. Whenever possible, parents and/or siblings should engage in learning Spanish with their children and encourage them to use it as much as possible. E.g. if going to the zoo, parents should encourage children to name the animals they see in Spanish.
We have our Class pages on the school website. You should check the link to Enrichment, Spanish K-4 and find out what new things we have learned in our Spanish class. There you will also find useful information and links that you can use to practice Spanish with your child/ren. Even if you are not familiar with Spanish or know only the basics, the children would love to “teach” you some Spanish. It gives them a great sense of having accomplished something and builds their self-esteem while motivating them to learn the language at the same time. Try it, it is a lot of fun.

I hope this will help you understand better what will take place in our Spanish class during the school year. Should you have any doubts or questions, feel free to contact me via e-mail: arukonic@stsimon.org

Please check this section in late September.