Spanish Grade 4-8

             Welcome to my Spanish Class!!        

     Bienvenidos!  I am Señora Rebeca Arteaga and I will be your child’s Spanish teacher. I teach 4th to 8th Grade in Notre Dame Academy. This is my seven year teaching 5th to 8th graders, and my third years teaching 4th graders. I have been part of the Notre Dame family for the last 15 years, as both of my own children have studied in our school since Pk3. 
 
     I am excited to embark on this new journey together with your children as we learn about the Spanish language and culture.  Learning a second language is an exciting opportunity that is very useful in today’s diverse world. My goal this year is to help your child learn Spanish grammar at the level of each grade abilities, from 4th grade basics to 8th grade present/past/future grammar including regular and irregular verbs. 
They also will learn and appreciate the different Hispanic cultures around the world, and will be able understand the how and why of many traditions, celebrations, and the geography and conditions that make each Spanish country so unique.

     First trimester 23-24 for all my grades will have a short component about "The Hispanic Heritage Month" as we'll celebrate it from September 15th to October 15th. All students larned about this amazing celebration in the United States, in a deep cultural unit last year; but we still celebrate it each year.
                                           
      From day one, until December's break all my students will work, in Spanish, with the virtues of: Responsability, Fairness, Thankfulness, and Compassion as part of our Peace Curriculum: Virtues Project.

     8th graders on their first trimester will have a final review of: regular and irregular verbs, present and past tense, stem changing verbs, definitive and indefinitive articles. As many of them will be preparing their Highschool applications, new grammar will be incorporated after the HSPT test, by the middle of November.  
     
     7th graders will have a brief review also of 6th grade grammar, and will start working more with past tense for regular and irregular verbs until December, among other cultural celebrations such as Dia de los Muertos, Accion de Gracia, and Navidades.
     
     Our new Middle Schoolers, in 6th grade will work on their first trimester reviewing personal pronouns, regular verbs, articles, and only one Irregular Verb: "To Be". They will get the basics for their Movie Project, which will be premier on January 2024 :)

     For 5^th grade, Students will continue learning about the Spanish speaking countries as they will travel around the world learning all 22 of them. Personal pronouns will be the main focus of the 1st trimester, parts of a sentence in Spanish, and regular verbs. They will be asigned their Hispanic Country for their taveling.
     
     This school year 23-24, I am bringing a bit of grammar to my classes in 4^th grade, as they will learn basic pronouns and the parts of a sentence. They will keep learning vocabulary as their main focus with an extra component on nouns, some key words in Spanish, and information about our beautiful Hispanic Countries: Capitals, flags, and their location.

     Regards supplies all my students will need a regular composition notebook (no spiral), and from 5^th to 8^th a Bilingual Spanish/English dictionary. Any edition or printing house is ok but not small pocket dictionary. Here are my recommendations:

​​​ ​​​​​​​ ​​​​​​​

      In addition, 5^th graders will need a ½ inch 3 holes binder for their travelsJ.
Each class has their own Spanish Google Classroom, with details each week regards homework, projects, or any information about our class. I highly suggested that parents check them weekly.

     I emphasis cursive handwriting as much as possible, and I grade my students notebook’s. I rarely give lose papers, therefore there isn’t a need for a folder. All they will learn and need will be in their daily notebook.

  I am at school all week, and you also can contact me if you have any questions or concerns via email at rarteaga@notredameint.org It will be my pleasure to work along with you all, for the benefits of all my students.

 Who is Señora Arteaga?
  I was born in the beutiful city of Mérida, Venezuela. My mom is from La Grita, in the Andean Region in Venezuela which is part of South America's spectacular Andes Mountains; and my dad was from Cádiz, in Andalucía which is full of flamenco, art and warmness from the south of Spain. I love and celebrate both of my heritages and have family in both places, as I am the youngest of 8 siblings.
  I speak English, Spanish, and some French. I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the Universidad de los Andes in Venezuela, did my Master of Arts in International Affairs at New School University in New York City with a Major in Human Rights and Governance, and a Minor in Children’s and Minority Rights. I have my Diploma de Acreditacion Docente (Spanish Teacher’s Accreditation) from the Instituto Cervantes in New York City.
  I am happily married for 22 years and my husband and I have 2 kids who are NDA graduates: our son is a Freshman at Northeastern University, and our daughter is a Freshman at Horace Mann Highschool. I loved to travel, read, write, do crafts, dance, and learn from different places around the world.
         Can’t wait to start enjoying Spanish classes this year with all my students J