BY LIZZY SEVERE & ERIN FORD

On Feb. 15, students in Spanish IV and V classes at South conducted a videochat with students from Spain. South students have been talking with these students for a few weeks, but this is the first time a Spanish class has been able communicate via Skype.

Rachel Delzer, Spanish, has been trying to plan this for a while but just recently was able to have contact with the professor in Spain. 

“We went to go into Mrs. Delzer’s room at 1:20,” Sidnee Bruner, 10, said. “They set up the camera and we put the students from Spain on the Promethean board and Mrs. Delzer set up the camera so they can see us.”

Skyping with these group of students has been the plan all along. Delzer and her students are more than excited to be involved in this opportunity.

“This is the first time my students will skype because this is the first time I have made contact with Spain because of the time difference it has been impossible to get ahold of them,” Delzer said. “The kids started writing to my class and we have replied and so now they say we are pen friends.”

Spain is seven hours ahead of Wichita. Each class used this opportunity to reflect on for future Spanish assignments. 

“I was most excited to see what they think about us and what kind of questions they come up with and how things are taught differently compared to here,” Brenna Bonham, 11, said.

Each pen friend from both countries was able to have their questions answered and to hear the way they speak Spanish.

“I’m excited for the culture because it is an English institute so their students are learning English,” Delzer said. “Their professor is a native English speaker but he is from Ireland, so I feel like we will have an interesting discussion about culture compared to Ireland to Spain and to the United States so I am excited to share the different perspectives on lives.”

Delzer hoped that her students would learn from this experience and that the activity would benefit students that continue to learn more about the culture and overall language.

“In my Spanish IV and V classes, my students can only speak Spanish to me, but for this assignment I am allowing them to also speak English so their students can hear how we speak English and we want to hear how they speak Spanish so the original purpose is to hear the language and understand more culture.” Delzer said.

Delzer hopes this will be a recurring event for Spanish IV and V classes. It was a way to expand students’s knowledge about Spain. Students have also had contact through social media and can continue that long after the video call.

Rachel Dezler, Spanish, talks with students from Spain. Delzer talked in Spanish and English during the video call. Photo by E. Ford