¡Ya voy, Costa Rica!

With deep gratitude to the committee from the National Spanish Exams, I am thrilled to be able to study at the University of San José this summer. I got the scholarship! And I am stoked!

Video para la beca

I didn't want to make my friend holding the camera do another take, so here is the raw footage.  And for my non-Spanish-speaking friends, here's a translation:

Greetings everyone!. My name is Sinde Wickersham, and I am a Spanish teacher at a Catholic high school in Birmingham, Alabama.  I imagine that it's obvious that I'm American: I was born and reared in Indiana, where I started studying Spanish in high school and continued studying it in college.

With teaching Spanish as my objective, I knew that I'd have to study and travel abroad as much as possible.  With 25 years experience in the classroom -19 in Plano, Texas, and 6 here in Alabama- I need to go abroad again as a student, mainly to study, learn, and improve my teaching.  I prefer Costa Rica because I've never been to Central America, and I really would like to get to know the people there, and of course learn the history and culture. But what I would like the most is that my students and my own children see me with the desire and the initiative to keep on learning so that they know that life is always a great adventure.

I offer my deepest thanks for the opportunity to do this.  Thank you.

(Besides the other mistakes, or words that don't sound too clear, what are the odds that I taught the vocabulary word "aventurero" just minutes before attempting to say "aventura"?   :)   Clearly I need this practice by immersion!)

Here I am at work in my classroom at John Carroll Catholic High School in Birmingham, Alabama.  This year (2010-2011) I have ninety-nine students in five classes: two sections of Spanish II (regular and honors combined), two sections of Spanish III (also regular and honors combined), and one class of AP Spanish Language and Culture.  

By the way, I love these kids.

Since I can't be home eating bon-bons and watching General Hospital, I'm glad I get to be here.  (And being surrounded by my turtles is icing on the cake.)

Al Comenzar

A new adventure begs a new blog. Espero que haya razón para los dos.

My name is Sinde (rhymes with Linda) Wickersham, and I am a finalist for the National Spanish Exam Teacher Study Abroad Scholarship in Costa Rica.