ESTE ES EL ARTICULO QUE APARECIO EN EL PERIODICO:
Spanish kids say adios at West
By BARBARA S. ROTHSCHILD • Courier-Post Staff • September 28, 2009
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Del.icio.us Facebook Digg Reddit Newsvine Twitter Next Page1| 2Previous PageCHERRY HILL — For 15 exchange students from Spain, baking Toll House cookies as their final activity at Cherry Hill High School West on Friday afternoon was a kind of test.
It required using their newly improved English skills to follow the directions and avoid ending up with a cookie sheet of glop.
The baking experiment in Charlene Kronk's World of Foods classroom turned out to be a piece of cake -- interrupted only by a fire drill. After the drill, the Spanish students were joined by CHHSW teens who'd hosted them, had been on the first part of the exchange to Spain, or both.
The students munched cookies, laughed, cried, took photos and said their goodbyes and adioses before the Spaniards headed to Philadelphia International Airport for the trip home.
"I enjoy my stay. I have a place here -- a home," said Ana Larranaga, a senior at the Instituto Leonardo DaVinci in Majadahonda, Spain.
Cherry Hill West had held exchanges with Italy before, but this was its first Spanish exchange program, Spanish teacher Jonathan Yanover said. The school joined forces with the Instituto Leonardo DaVinci, one of five public high schools in Majadahonda, a suburb of Madrid.
The Instituto previously held exchanges with Haddon Township High School, which did not participate this year. Instead, Yanover recruited 13 Cherry Hill West students to stay with Spanish host families during three weeks in June and July, and arranged for 15 Spanish students and two of their teachers to spend three weeks here at the start of the new school year.
In Spain, Cherry Hill students arrived too late to attend classes with their counterparts. Instead, they visited cities such as Segovia, Cordoba, Toledo and Seville.
Here, the students from Spain spent nine days attending classes at West, and also visited an elementary school. They went to New York, Philadelphia, Atlantic City and Washington, D.C., attended a Riversharks game, and spent a day at Hershey Park honing their English.
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"The best way to learn language and culture is immersion. The Spanish kids must use English without having someone correct them. They get their point across even if they make a mistake. Negotiating meaning is important," Yanover said.
Maria Jose Valles, an English teacher at the Instituto, said English is mandatory for Spanish students beginning in elementary school.
Children in Spain start school at 3 and can graduate at 16. Many students continue two more years to prepare for higher education. They take a national exam to determine where they can continue their studies and in what disciplines.
The Spanish exchange students were amazed at American high school electives. They said that in Spain, all subjects are academic. There is no high school band or choir, very little school-affiliated sports -- and no cheerleaders.
"We have no cheerleaders in Spain because we don't have American football, we have rugby," Larranaga said.
Javi Ferrer, 16, a junior at the Instituto, wore a Donovan McNabb Eagles jersey on his last day in America.
"My favorite sport in America is football," said Ferrer, who plays soccer at home but is also partial to Eagle Brian Westbrook.
Instituto junior Flor Garcia, 16, said her favorite trip was to Hershey Park.
"I went on seven different roller coasters with my host sister," she said.
West junior Samantha Farkas, 16, who hosted Flor, went to Spain with the exchange in June. So did senior Brittany Moore, 17, who hosted Ferrer.
"I miss my Spanish host family. The experience really changed me. Now I'm interested in becoming an ESL (English as a second language) teacher," Moore said.
Before it was time to depart, Principal Joe Meloche gave the Spanish students honorary exchange awards in purple West diploma cases. Valles presented the Cherry Hill students with awards, as well.
Alana McIntyre, 16, a junior at Cherry Hill High School East, hosted two boys and a girl this month.
"We teach each other all day long," said McIntyre, who hopes to go on the next exchange to Spain.
Said her mother, Maggie, "I will miss them. They feel like part of the family."It required using their newly improved English skills to follow the directions and avoid ending up with a cookie sheet of glop.
The baking experiment in Charlene Kronk's World of Foods classroom turned out to be a piece of cake -- interrupted only by a fire drill. After the drill, the Spanish students were joined by CHHSW teens who'd hosted them, had been on the first part of the exchange to Spain, or both.
The students munched cookies, laughed, cried, took photos and said their goodbyes and adioses before the Spaniards headed to Philadelphia International Airport for the trip home.
Cherry Hill West had held exchanges with Italy before, but this was its first Spanish exchange program, Spanish teacher Jonathan Yanover said. The school joined forces with the Instituto Leonardo DaVinci, one of five public high schools in Majadahonda, a suburb of Madrid.
The Instituto previously held exchanges with Haddon Township High School, which did not participate this year. Instead, Yanover recruited 13 Cherry Hill West students to stay with Spanish host families during three weeks in June and July, and arranged for 15 Spanish students and two of their teachers to spend three weeks here at the start of the new school year.
