Student Exchange to Vilanova 2015
Showing posts with label Student Exchange. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Student Exchange. Show all posts
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Throwback Thursday!
If you guessed Profe Finaldi, you are right! This was taken when she stayed with a family during a short term exchange program with a school in Huelva, in the Provence of Andalucia in the South of Spain. Her host brother's name was Maximiliano Navas Garateo. They still keep in touch on Facebook!
Maxi
Thursday, October 18, 2012
ICFL Fall Conference Presentation
ICTFL Fall Conference 2012
NAVIGATION 2012: Celebrating our 25 Year Journey - Mapping the Next 25 Years" - ICTFL Fall Conference 2012
Sponsored by the ILLINOIS COUNCIL ON THE TEACHING
OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
Sponsored by the ILLINOIS COUNCIL ON THE TEACHING
OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
Implement Cultural Exchange and Blog about It!Lauren FinaldiBringing teenagers from different cultures together opens their minds, promotes world peace, and best of all does wonders for your foreign language classes! In this session I will cover how to: host a short-term student exchange at your school, organize a short-term home-stay trip abroad, and utilize technology to involve the travelers, parents and students back home. Examples shared from recent trips.http://www.slideshare.net/profefinaldi/high-school-short-term-exchange-programs |
Monday, April 9, 2012
Joliet Catholic Academy's Spanish Exchange 2012
JCA Spanish Exchange
JCA Short Term Exchange to Spain
May 8, 2012 at 12:40 p.m.
JCA Short Term Exchange to Spain
SCHOOLS ›
From the community
Joliet Catholic Academy's Spanish Exchange Club enjoys trip to Spain
May 8, 2012 at 12:40 p.m.
Students from JCA's Spanish Exchange Club pose for a picture during their trip to Vilanova, Spain.
JOLIET – A different language. A different place. A different pace.
“People are a little different when they’re at home,” nodded Lauren Finaldi, a Spanish instructor and the moderator of National Spanish Honor Society and Student Exchange. “When you have the opportunity to see your students living and speaking in this type of environment, it gives you more of a full picture.”
From April 5-18, 14 students from Joliet Catholic Academy’s Spanish Foreign Exchange Club viewed that picture in Vilanova, Spain, a suburb of Barcelona. JCA hosted the same families from Sept. 4-15.
“That gave us a certain comfort level,” Finaldi said. “Vilanova is a half-hour drive from Barcelona – like Joliet to Chicago, the same kind of distance. The kids were impressed that, even though it was a city setting, they could walk everywhere or they could ride bikes. We did a ton of walking over there.
“It’s a very nice lifestyle. Most of the kids either walked or rode their bikes to school, picking up their friends along the way, and you can’t drive in Spain until you are 18. A lot of the kids won’t drive even when they turn 18 because it’s not really necessary. Anywhere that you have to go, you can walk.”
Traveling during the school’s Spring Break to Spain from JCA were seniors Anne Schmig (Joliet), Brittany Rosales (Joliet), Jasmine Smith (Joliet), Nick Humbles (Wilmington), Alessa Smith (Shorewood) and Marissa Cardenas (Plainfield); juniors Carolyn Hall (Plainfield), Madeline Mutz (Joliet), Taylor Madlener (Plainfield), James Hunter Warning (Shorewood) and Michael Kaminski (Joliet); sophomores Alexis Rotnicki (Shorewood) and Cesar Mireles (Joliet); and freshman Nataly Cardenas (Plainfield).
Also along as a chaperone with Finaldi (Naperville) was Katie Drabik (Joliet), who teaches Spanish at JCA. And as educators, Finaldi and Drabik were thrilled to witness the classroom coming alive in real time.
“It was so gratifying to hear the students,” Finaldi said. “There are things you teach in class – the language, obviously. But there are other things you may have told them or tried to teach them.
“Until they go there and they live it, it’s different. Then you hear them talking to each other and they’re saying something like they have discovered it for the first time, and it is amazing how it sinks in.”
For her part, Finaldi considered the trip the realization of a dream and thanked Jeffrey Budz, JCA’s Principal/CEO, for approving the trip. Finaldi went on student-exchange trips in high school and college.
“I have done this many times, so I know the value of it,” Finaldi said. “I went and we hosted students when I was in high school, I went as a college student and I spent a semester there as a grad student.
“I have always dreamed of doing this because I know how much it has shaped my life. It’s the reason I became a Spanish teacher. And for our kids, they will make friends from Spain that can last a lifetime.”
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