¡Hola!
My name is Heather Fairbank; I’m the 5th - 8th grade
Spanish teacher at Assumption-St. Bridget. Since I
started teaching I have taught locally, and in Bolivia,
Ecuador, and Peru. I am excited to be co-teaching
with Mary Johnson, our Spanish intern this year! I
look forward to another great year in Spanish!
I am Mary Johnson and this year I will be the 5th- 8th
grade Spanish intern teacher here at Assumption-St.
Bridget. Currently, I am in graduate school at Seattle
Pacific University pursuing a master’s degree in
teaching with an endorsement in secondary Spanish. I
will be working with Ms. Fairbank, co-teaching
throughout this school year.
The goal of the Spanish program at ASB is that students will graduate with basic conversational and written Spanish that
is comparable to the first year of Spanish in high school. We use the TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and
Storytelling) method, so you will see your child bringing home short stories that we read in class and that the students
wrote. Our classroom philosophy is to nurture learning while having fun in a safe environment. We expect students to
speak aloud and participate in activities; however, we never want anyone to be uncomfortable with speaking in a new
language, so we will continue to work on building confidence, taking risks, and understanding how this helps us learn.
We are starting out the year with a review of vocab and concepts learned last year. Especially after our review in the
first few weeks, we expect students to have a working understanding of last year’s vocabulary and grammar concepts.
We re-handed out the vocab list from last year for their reference and study guide. If your child doesn’t have the list,
he/she should get it from us or copy a peer’s! The main grammar concepts that we are reviewing are gender; number;
conjugating verbs; and sentence structures, especially those that differ from English.
This year students will continue learning more advanced sentence structures and building on the grammar concepts and
vocabulary that they know. We will focus more on conjugating verbs, reading more complicated narratives, and writing
in more complicated structures. They will read their first short chapter book entirely in Spanish (Brandon Brown versus
Yucatán) and write longer narratives. They will write and perform skits and short stories; review vocab through games
and music; and do many more engaging grammar and vocabulary activities! Students will also study aspects of Spanishspeaking cultures.
Students will be assessed orally and through writing. This will determine their marks in the Spanish Content area on the
report card. In the standards-based grading mindset, behavior and content achievement are graded separately.
Therefore, participation, timeliness, attitude, and effort during activities will be reflected in the Spanish Effort and
Behavior area on the report card. Regularly, students will be given homework to practice vocabulary learned in class.
They will each need to create a quizlet account so that they and I can monitor their skills on-line; we will do this in
October. It would be great if you could support your child in learning a new language by using new vocabulary around
the house as well.
Please contact us with any questions/concerns at <hfairbank@asbschool.org> and < mjohnson@asbschool.org>.
¡Gracias!
Heather Fairbank
hfairbank@asbschool.org
Mary Johnson
mjohnson@asbschool.org