Michelle Adam
Spanish InstructorI arrived in Albuquerque this year to teach at La Luz del Monte Learning Center after four years of teaching Spanish on the East Coast. I am a certified Spanish teacher with practice teaching 8th to 12th graders Spanish (levels 1-5) in a public school in New Hampshire, as well as younger students (K-5) and adults. My classes are strongly influenced by my background: I was raised in Spain—among other places—and carry Argentinean roots. Also, as a professional writer and creative person, I bring creativity, music, culture, and hands-on activities to the classroom so students can feel the most direct and applicable connection to language and culture as possible.
I teach La Luz Del Monte students in grades 7 and 8 who take Spanish levels 1A and 1B, respectively. The majority of 7th graders come into Spanish class with prior Spanish classes under their belts from earlier 4th, 5th and 6th grade levels in the Southwest Primary Learning Center. Some students, who arrive from other schools, experience Spanish class for the first time.
During classes that last 1.5 hours a day, four days a week, I provide 7th graders with review lessons in introductory-level Spanish that include basic conversations, key every-day Spanish vocabulary, and grammar for fundamental Spanish. 8th graders, who I have 1.5 hours a day, 3 days a week, experience a more advanced Spanish, Level 1B. In this level, they take their basic Spanish knowledge and expand upon it with more complex grammar lessons and conversations, as well as more in-depth projects that allow them to practice using Spanish.
In all classes, my goal is for students to learn how to speak, write, read and listen in Spanish, while also learning the geography and culture that pertain to Spanish-speaking countries. I conduct classes using very hands-on, interactive, and dynamic approaches to learning language. By the time students graduate from La Luz del Monte they should easily be able to enter into a Spanish level 2 in high school or beyond. For those students who enter the classroom with greater fluency than is typical for level 1 students, they will have completed more advanced reading and comprehension of Spanish for higher levels of Spanish in high school.