World language teacher Martin Rocha will be teaching a new class next year. This class will be a social studies current issues class in half Spanish and half English. It will focus on current issues in Latin America.

Students can expect a fun learning environment while learning about Latin American current issues.
Sr. Rocha is very excited to teach this class.

“I’m looking forward to the combination of both English and Spanish speakers in this class,” Rocha said.

“This class can count for a credit toward your graduation also. It can be a fun alternative to other social studies classes, and you get to learn in Spanish. The class will count for a social studies credit,” Rocha said.

Rocha wants the class to be fun and to keep students engaged.

“I want to do more of a discussion through pictures and films, Netflix if possible. I would like more test-based than projects,” Rocha said.

Any student that has Spanish experience, finishing Spanish 3 Honors or jumping from Spanish 2 Honors to Spanish 4 Honors, and has good grades can be in this class.

“Any student that is skipping from 2 Honors to 4 Honors Spanish or anyone that has completed Spanish 3 Honors can take the class,” Rocha said. “Students can expect to learn about what’s happening in Latin America.”

This class can be counted as a dual language class on your transcript and also will be counted for a history credit.

“The new class will be a dual language current issues class, and it can be repeated over and over again because current issues are always different,” said Valerie Padgett-Krause, world languages and EL department chair.

This can offer a fun new way for students to earn credits. This will keep students wanting to learn and make them more informed on what’s happening in not only the States but also the world.

“The focus will be on the home country of the students. We will see who is in the class and where their families are from, and we will talk about what’s going on in there,” Padgett-Krause said.

There is a current issues class already being taught in the social students department.

“The class will be very similar to the current issues class we have now, but will be conducted in primarily Spanish,” said Adrijana Bisevac, social studies department chair.

There is plenty of room for students to grow with this class. There are hopes to make more dual language classes in the future.

“The goal is to kind of expand this. Next year we are offering the current issues dual language, but the year after that we want to offer a world history dual language,” Bisevac said.