FLES (pronounced "F-less")

FLES (Foreign Language in the Elementary Schools) is something I have recently become a huge fan of. I've always liked younger children, but never thought I would want to teach elementary school....however, these past few days I've felt differently on the subject. I've been teaching/helping in Senora Turco's class at Green Hope Elementary school for the past three days. Because I am K-12 certified I have to spend time teaching in each of the grade levels. My days have been filled with songs, games, excitement, ethnusicatic kids, hugs, smiles, more singing, kids wanting to hold my hand and sit in my lap, kids wanting to be in school, and of course, more songs. I have loved it. Each day Mrs. Turco sees a Kindergarden, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade class. The school has five classes of each grade level, so each class gets Spanish once a week for 40 minutes. Essentially Mrs. Turco repeats her days five times each week (what SIMPLE lesson planning!!!). Also practically nothing is written in a FLES classroom...it's all verbal (half the students can't even read in English yet anyway). Today we played musical numbers with the kindergartners to learn numbers in Spanish and used PICTURE dictionaries to create really cool family trees with the 4th graders. I play all day!...and I love it.

The great thing about teaching a foreign language in general is you can be creative and play even in the high school level...because they too are learning basic speaking skills; but sometimes it's just harder to get those high schoolers to be excited about singing little songs and doing the hokie-pokie in Spanish. One great thing about high school are the relationships you can form with the kids...slightly different then the relationships you can form with the younger kids.

I'm not saying I've made a life altering decision to switch to elementary school, I'm just saying it's been refreshing and fun to be part of these past few days and I'm glad my licensure is K-12 so that I always have the option of teaching any level I choose. For that I am thankful.