The Abintra Annual Fund is a donation-based fund that covers a small portion of the budget not covered by tuition. One of the components that the Annual Fund supports is Professional Development for faculty and staff. Throughout our Annual Fund campaign, we'll share stories from faculty members about how Professional Development opportunities have enriched their experiences at Abintra. Here, we spotlight Carmen Sanchez. What is your favorite part about working at Abintra? The children! Always the children. This is what’s most important, every day. They are the windows through which we can learn and grow. What is your role at Abintra? I am a Lower School Spanish guide. I introduce the students to the fact that there are different cultures, different foods, different languages. We work with basic words that you use in the daily routine, like buenos días  (good morning) ,   cómo estás (how are you), and caminando (walking). We sing and read books in Spani

It's been a wonderful semester so far! It is a great joy to work at a school for over 20 years and experience the growth of our program. We’ve added more foreign language options for Upper School after hearing requests from the students. So far we offer German, French, and Spanish, and the children love it! We started the year by asking the students how they learn best and what they enjoy most during our Spanish lessons. Almost everyone asked for more conversation. Together we created many conversation flash cards. We start and finish our classes with the students choosing their own conversations cards and practicing with another student. The conversations are a fun way for foreign language students to practice without embarrassment. We still use the Total Physical Response method in our lessons, as well as TPRS (Total Physical Response Storytelling) Reader Theatre, which highly engages students in understanding our stories and lesson

The Farm Chronicles is about what happens at Emerson Farm. A new Farm Chronicle will be released every two to four weeks. It includes recipes, facts about plants and animals, and more! We will also put pictures from Emerson Farm in our posts. The Farm Chronicles is brought to you by Ella Mc., Lily S., Lillie C., and Tula M., with help from our faculty advisor, Claudia C. Photo by Lily S.  Photo by Lily S.