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 eight year teaching 5th to 8th graders, and my four year teaching 4th graders. I have been part of the Notre Dame family for the last 16 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 24-25 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 learned about this amazing celebration in the United States, in a deep cultural unit the last years therefore, I am shifting this year the information with updates about the Olympian's & Paralympian's Winners from the Paris 2024 this past summer. This will teach them the names, nationalities, lifes, and efforts all of these Hispanic athletes did to accomplish their success.  
                                           
      From day one, until December's break all my students will work, in Spanish, with the virtues of: Determination, Respect, Gratitude, and Generosity as part of our Peace Curriculum: Virtues Project.

      8th graders on their first trimester will have a final review of: personal and possessive pronouns, regular and irregular verbs: present and past tense, stem changing verbs, definitive and indefinite articles, and demonstratives: adjectives & pronouns. As many of them will be preparing their high school's applications; new grammar will be incorporated after the HSPT test, by the middle of November.  If any 8th graders will be taking the SSAT or Bergen Academies tests, please inform me about their dates so I don't have any evaluation for them around that week.

Also any recommendation letter need it from the sufficiency in Spanish please inform me ahead of time, so we can have it ready for their high school applications' deadlines.
      
      7th graders will have a brief review also of 6th grade grammar: personal pronouns, regular & irregular verbs, including: Ser, Estar, Tener; 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. They will get the basics for their Movie Project, which will be premier on January 2025 :)
      
      Our new Middle Schoolers, in 6th grade will work on their first trimester reviewing personal pronouns, regular verbs, definite and indefinite articles, and only one Irregular Verb: "To Be" (Ser & Estar). Celebrations around the hispanic countries will be part of their units as well. We will have a game day by the end of September about traveling the world with their Spanish passports, and the binder countries they did previously in 5th grade. New students will catch up with the activity too, no worries! 

      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, the use of the bilingual dictionary, and regular verbs. They will be assigned their Hispanic Country for their traveling by the month of may 2025.
      
      This school year 24-25, 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 loose papers, therefore there isn’t a need for a folder. All they will learn and need will be in their daily notebook.

   Who is Señora Arteaga?
  I was born in the beautiful city of Mérida, Venezuela. My mom is from La Grita - San Cristobal- 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 23 years now, and my husband and I have 2 childrens who are Alumni from NDA. Our son is a Sophomore in College, and our daughter is a sophomore in High school.

   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.