World Languages Celebrated in BSD Schools

For Thirty-Six Years, BSD’s ISA Offers Students Biliteracy

The goal of the International Spanish Academy (ISA) is to offer a language acquisition environment where students can reach advanced proficiency in reading, writing, listening and speaking. Started in the fall of 1986, the ISA program educates students to become biliterate and multicultural by the time they graduate from high school by offering the opportunity to study Spanish in an immersion environment from kindergarten to twelfth grade.

The ISA program is recognized by the Ministry of Education of Spain, which offers resources and programs to ISA schools worldwide with the hope that students will be prepared to participate in an international university program. After initial kindergarten entry at Puesta del Sol Elementary, BSD students who wish to join the program must submit an application. At the secondary level, the program is currently housed at Tillicum Middle School and both Newport and Sammamish high schools, where students are prepared to take the AP Spanish Language and Culture course by their freshman year.

This year, the ISA program welcomes Angela Marin Ambrosio to Tillicum as auxiliar de lengua (language assistant). Support from The Center for Spanish Studies, an extension of the Education Office of Spain in the United States, and in partnership with Javier Montero Pozo, Director of the Center for Spanish Studies, allows Ms. Ambrosio to join students for language supports every week as well as lead a reading club and weekly lunch conversations in Spanish. Last week, together with Tillicum Special Education teacher, Tom Askew, she taught students how to prepare gazpacho, a traditional Spanish dish.

ISA Students and Alumni Find Ways to Share their Passion for Language

Current ISA students and recent graduates use their language mastery to engage in multicultural opportunities. Recently, two seventh grade students from Tillicum entered the writing competition Escribo en Español and wrote about where they would go to improve their Spanish. In the past decade, ISA has had multiple winners of this competition representing Tillicum. For the first time, six students from the seventh grade, comprising two separate teams, entered the ISA video competition. After learning about economic activity in South America, students created a product and made a video in Spanish (with English subtitles) to promote their product.

“ISA graduates go on to attend universities across the country, with many pursuing a degree with a minor in Spanish to ensure they keep up with their studies and don’t lose the language.” – Dr. Damjanovic

Anita Damjanovic, ISA teacher at Tillicum recalls many ISA graduates who have gone on to apply their ISA language skills after exiting the program including a student from Newport High School Class of ‘16, who utilizes Spanish as a literary translator and an Americorps volunteer in Wenatchee, Washington and Haiti. A former ISA student from Sammamish High School Class of ‘20, graduated during the pandemic and chose to study nursing. She intends to use her Spanish-language skills to better care for Spanish-speaking patients.

Newport Creates Global Connections in French Language Classrooms

Although the pandemic has limited global travel, students in Rhonda Eastman’s French classroom at Newport High School have been engaged in cultural exchange. This year students have the opportunity to participate in a virtual exchange program with a partner school in France. So far, students have formally corresponded via email, but many continued the exchange through social media posts on Snapchat and Instagram. Soon students will be able to share video exchanges around topics like schools, activities, sports, and life in their hometowns.

Students in Rhonda’s classroom are about to take part in another program that actively engages students during the month of March, La Manie Musicale. This month-long event inspired by basketball’s March Madness (Go Zags!) is designed and coordinated by teachers on the East Coast. More than 100,000 students from across the country participate by voting daily for their favorite French song. By the end of March, a champion French pop song of the year will be crowned. Students are eager to participate and Rhonda believes that though this is the first year Newport students are taking part in the national program, it will become a March tradition for her French class.

Newport Creates Global Connections in French Language Classrooms

Rhonda and colleague Karen Boschker were recent recipients of a Bellevue Schools Foundation’s Arts, Enrichment, & Innovation (AE&I) Grant. The funds from this grant were essential to develop a French reading library for Newport students. Now students spend the first five minutes of each French class reading silently. Students have created their own bookmarks, which not only hold their spot, but allow them to see the markers of other students in the books they are ‘sharing.’ Once a week, everyone shares or draws images from their reading to discuss with the class.

“This library has had a huge impact in the classroom community based on the new routine and the feedback from students. We have a generous selection of books that vary in skill level and genre, from children’s books to crime novels and modified French literature. What the students have enjoyed is a calm routine start to the class, a shared experience but at everyone’s pace and choosing. We are all equals and there is no stress or competition.”  – Rhonda Eastman, Newport Teacher and Bellevue Schools Foundation’s 2021-22 AE&I Grant Recipient