Tuckahoe Spanish Immersion Program

Recently, I noticed a big divide within Tuckahoe Middle School. There are native English speakers on one side and English language learners on the other. It seemed like these two groups hardly interacted, and the language barrier was just too big. One day, sitting in my Spanish class, I realized that there is in fact common ground: all of us are trying to learn a language! Some people are trying to learn Spanish, and others English-- and we both seemed to be struggling. So I organized a part club, part study group called the Tuckahoe Spanish Immersion Program. In this group, native Spanish speakers would help us learn their language, and we would help them with English and other classes. After explaining my idea to teachers, administrators, and students, I finally started work on assembling the club-- which proved more challenging than I had anticipated. By the end of the year, there were three native English speakers (including me and the host), but there were about 8 ELL kids who were happy to meet every week to play games and get help with schoolwork, so I'd call it a huge success. And, I'll be honest, they helped me prepare for more Spanish tests than I can count. By 9th grade, though our group had dissolved, one of the members happened to be in my gym class and we became good friends. And recently, my old Spanish teacher reached out asking for a copy of the flyers so that one of the participants, Hannah, could start it up again. 

Check out the form I used here.

When schoolwork and the pressures of middle school life are piling up on you, it's hard to do anything more than survive. Despite this though, I think there's hope for the future. In the end, devotion is contagious, and we are certainly not covering our sneezes.