Spanish for Educators Summer Immersion Program in Costa Rica and Nicaragua!
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Teacher Immersion Trip
Rating
4.93out of 5based on 14 customer ratings
Spanish for Teachers Immersion Trip; thoughts from a recent traveler:
I would say that my time in Costa Rica had truly met or exceeded all of my expectations! I came down knowing only a few words, and after three short weeks, I’m leaving with the ability to communicate in Spanish with my students and their parents – what a gift! I’ve also gained so much by being immersed in this culture and truly believe I will be a better teacher in the future because of it.
S. Stuntz, MA
Whether you are a classroom teacher with a high percentage of Spanish speakers, a dual language immersion teacher or a middle school/high school Spanish teacher, our Spanish for teachers immersion program in Costa Rica and Nicaragua is the best way to improve your Spanish over the summer!
Program Objectives: The goals of the Spanish for Educators immersion program are to help you:
- Improve your Spanish communication skills
- Gain insight into education norms and standards in Central America
- Connect linguistically and culturally with your LEP students and parents
- For Spanish teachers: fine tune your spontaneous and “out-of-classroom” grammar and vocabulary
For many classroom teachers, Spanish has become an extremely helpful tool to connect with Spanish-only parents; and the ability to understand families on a cultural level is invaluable.
Spanish teachers benefit as well! It’s easy to get into a rut with your Spanish if you’re teaching the same levels over and over every year. Spanish teachers know that every 3-5 years they should get abroad to immerse themselves in the language and polish their Spanish.
Continuing Education: Continuing Education credits are available for teachers who would like to apply for them.
Lodging: Stay with a host family, in a hotel or in a hostel! In Costa Rica this Spanish for educators immersion program is set in a small city. In Nicaragua, this immersion trip is based in a larger, very colonial & historical city. Your host families in either country will take care of all of your basic needs:
- Provide you with a private bedroom
- Share breakfast and dinner with you
- Make sure that you are as comfortable as possible in their home
We recommend host family stay to complete the 24/7 immersion aspect of the program, your general Spanish conversational skills will sharpen quickly! Of course, you have the option in both Costa Rica and Nicaragua to stay on your own in a hostel or hotel. You will miss out on some conversational Spanish, but if you need your private space, you can certainly get it.
Spanish for Teachers Immersion Classes: Spanish immersion classes are a central part of this Spanish for Teachers immersion program. Spanish classes are held four hours a day, Monday – Friday. You will take a Spanish placement test upon arrival to ensure that you’re working on exactly the grammar topics and vocabulary themes that you need most. As noted above, “Spanish for teachers” can mean a couple of things: Spanish for classroom teachers or Spanish for Spanish teachers. During the pre-travel period, you will define for us which type of Spanish immersion you’d like your classes to focus on.
- Our Spanish for classroom teachers curriculum revolves around classroom management and parent conversations in Spanish.
- Our Spanish for Spanish teachers curriculum could focus on simply refining higher level communicative proficiency in Spanish, and/or it can include a focus on tips and techniques for teaching Spanish back home.
Community Service opportunities: Our community engagement projects give you the opportunity to practice and improve your Spanish in an educational setting and a real life context. Not only will the community service activities help meet the needs of the under-served in Costa Rica, but they also require teachers to be using Spanish in a practical context to meet certain objectives. This is an important piece to your language development and improving your Spanish. We generally volunteer between 9 and 12 hours per week.
Learning Spanish well is not a quick endeavor. If you truly want to make progress on your Spanish skills, we suggest a minimum program length of two weeks.
Registration is open for summer 2017!
Complete the form below to see the Spanish for Teachers immersion costs and inclusions
For more details from Leslie Foster, director Spanish immersion for Educator Program watch this pre-recorded informational webinar:
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