Schools
Kids Plus iPods and Spanish Equals Success
Las Palmas Elementary uses iPod Touch devices and an immersion language program to turn out tech-saavy Spanish Speakers.
At the children are not strangers to technology and another language being used in the classroom.
Kids in the school's will be able to speak, write and read the language fluently by the time they finish fifth grade. To help them along the way, the school has added iPod Touch devices pre-loaded with educational software.
"Just having them is special," said Isaiah Yoways, a fifth grader. "It's great we can use them in the classroom. My favorite game is the Moron Test because it's so funny when you mess up."
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The educational programs are also a big hit with the students as well.
"My favorite educational game is Motion Math," said Tanlee Gasper of the fifth grade. "But for fun I like Plants vs Zombies."
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The iPods are another perk for students whose parents scramble to get them in Las Palmas' unique immersive language program.
"By the time the students are in third grade they will be able to toggle between English and Spanish," said Principal Kristen Nelson. "We are also trying to implement a reward program for students who use Spanish on the playground. If we hear them using it, we want to reward them."
Each class is evenly divided with native speakers of both Spanish and English. As students progress to higher grades Spanish is less emphasized and English becomes the dominant language. Children are also encouraged to help each other learn the languages, and they say they love the program.
"It's the best thing for communications," said Madison McClellan, a fifth grader at the school. "It was really useful when I went on cruise to Mexico with my family."
"Lucky," said Juan Garcia who also gave his input:
"I like both languages," he said. "I love to help other students and even the teachers sometimes, too."
Not only does the language program help with travel, it helps locally too. Native Spanish speakers find the program practical.
"I speak Spanish at home," said fifth-grader Naavit Silva. "But I use English when I'm at the grocery store or at the movies with my parents. It really helps a lot.
The program has been running for 15 years at Las Palmas and more languages could be added at other schools within CUSD.
"There has been some discussions about adding Mandarin Chinese to one of our schools," said Nelson.
