Woodstock School District 200 dual language teacher wins trip to Spain
Woodstock School District 200 elementary teacher Cristina Aguilar has won an award and international trip for her work at Mary Endres Elementary School.
Aguilar teaches dual language students at the elementary school.
She grew up â€" and learned to speak English †" in District 200 herself, and graduated from Woodstock High School in 2009.
She now will have a chance to visit Spain as part of an all-expenses-paid professional development trip to Mester school in Salamanca.
Mary Endres Elementary is recognized as an international Spanish academy by the Embassy of Spain.
Roberto Garcia of the Embassy of Spain’s Education Office and Teresa Guardia of the Tourist Office of Spain in Chicago visited Aguilar last week at the school to discuss the summer trip.
Officials awarded Aguilar because of her creative, interactive curriculum used to teach second-graders about the work of Spanish artist El Greco.
Students in Aguilar’s class charted El Greco’s paintings, asked questions and discussed distinctions in his work, and learned about his background. They also used Google technology to take a virtual trip to Spain.
“The one thing that I really pulled out from this was that he was an artist who was very unique and underappreciated in his time,†Aguilar said.
Aguilar said she was thrilled to find out she’d won the trip and educational opportunity, and she plans to bring her mother.
“I was just blown away. I put my heart into it hoping to win, but never in a million years did I think I’d win it,†she said.
Teaching dual language classes is meaningful for Aguilar because she also learned to speak English as a student. Aguilar’s parents were born in Mexico and spoke Spanish at home.
District 200’s dual language program didn’t begin until she was in high school, so she said she is excited to be part of the program as a teacher.
“I was extremely proud to be from here, to get a job here and to become part of the dual language program,†she said.
'); // ORIGAMI AD $("#inline-ad").html(''); // BIG BOX AD } else { $("#first-ad").html(''); // BIG BOX AD }Source: Google News Spain | Netizen 24 Spain