New Blog Features

At the bottom of the blog you will now find a French radio gadget, a French weather gadget, a Spanish "word of the day" and a Spanish art gadget. You can turn the radio feature off by scrolling to the gadget and clicking on the stop or pause button.

Upcoming Spanish I Assignments and Quizzes

Parents,

Please see below an estimated date for each of our upcoming quizzes and tests. I may change the date if I need to, but unless you hear otherwise please assume this is accurate. Students may re-take any of the tests or quizzes.

All the dates below are for "a" days and the b-day classes will take their test the following school day.

8/30 pre-quiz on parts of speech, subject pronouns, and the verb ser (multiple choice)
9/10 pre-quiz on tener, asking and telling ages, and numbers to 30 (multiple choice)
9/23 pre-quiz on classroom items, class commands, and spelling words (alphabet) (multiple choice)
10/4 Para Empezar Chapter test

Students should have brought you a packet with my syllabus and policies, or will bring you one today. Please sign it and return it to me. In addition, the students should be studying their flash cards for the upcoming pre-quiz. They can re-take the quiz if they choose.

Upcoming French I assignments, quizzes, and tests.

Parents,

Please see below an estimated date for each of our upcoming quizzes and tests. I may change the date if I need to, but unless you hear otherwise please assume this is accurate. Students may re-take any of the tests or quizzes.

All the dates below are for "a" days and the b-day classes will take their test the following school day.

8/30 pre-quiz on parts of speech, subject pronouns, and the verb etre (multiple choice)
9/10 pre-quiz on avoir, asking and telling ages, and numbers to 30 (multiple choice)
9/23 pre-quiz on classroom items, class commands, and spelling words (alphabet) (multiple choice)
10/4 Chapter 1 test

Students should have brought you a packet with my syllabus and policies, or will bring you one today. Please sign it and return it to me. In addition, the students should be studying their flash cards for the upcoming pre-quiz. They can re-take the quiz if they choose.

Flashcards

Flashcards were assigned to both A and B day classes. I apologize for any confusion. Students can still hand in their homework tomorrow or Monday (A-day tomorrow, B-day Monday) for 90% credit.

August 25/26

Students are doing a wonderful job so far. I am enjoying their laughter and enthusiasm for learning adjectives and describing themselves and each other. They have had their first (and now their second) homework assignments. The first night they were supposed to make flashcards and the second they will be studying those flashcards. We went over how to do that in class today. Also, they will ask you to sign up as a follower to this blog and to sign their agenda. They need for you to certify that they studied their words for at least 10 minutes.

Thanks! Gracias! Merci!

First A Day- August 23rd.

Today was a wonderful day. I can't say enough good things about the positive and energetic start I had. Students were respectful and did a great job participating. I look forward to a fantastic year.

Students who had me today will be doing flashcards for homework tonight and should bring them to class on Wednesday. They have to pick 20 out of 25 words and write the word/term on one side and the definition on the other.

Please note that all students need two folders, a composition book, and index cards for my class.

Spanish I, Block 1, A-day needs a Red folder for class
French I, Block 3, A-day needs a purple folder for class
Spanish I, Block 4, A-day needs a white folder for class


French I, Block 1, B-day needs a blue folder for class.
Spanish I, Block 3, B-day needs a green folder for class.
French I, Block 4, B-day needs a yellow folder for class.

The second folder is for homework and can be any color you want it to be!

Merci! Gracias!

Welcome! Bienvenidos! Bienvenues!

Dear Parents,

Welcome to my blog. I look forward to spending the 2010-2011 school-year with your children in either a French I or Spanish I class! My name is Nissa Quill- but you will now me as Madame Quill or Senora Quill (Please pardon the lack of accents- I have yet to figure out how to use them in the blog.) I just recently moved to Union Bridge from Ijamsville, and am happy to finally be living in the area where I teach. I have been at WMS for several years. Before that I was a WAHM (work from home mom), a small-business owner, and (before that) a teacher and YMCA counselor. I have been working with kids in one form or another since 1989. (Yeah, I started when I was six. ;)

I love teaching Middle School and I love teaching French and Spanish. I learned to speak both as a child and then neglected my Spanish for many years, eventually studying in France and earning a BA in French. I renewed my use of and interest in Spanish in 1993 and have used it in both academic and professional settings. I am working on my MS at Hood College right now and will be working on more Spanish (and French) as part of my degree.

It is important to me to maintain good communication with you all. To that end, I hope you will sign up as a "follower" on this blog- that way you will be notified of updates and that will keep you informed about upcoming assignments, assessments, and events that we will be experiencing in my classes.

Once you have signed up as a follower, please post a comment to the blog or email me at nissa.quill@fcps.org with some information about your child (name, age, interests, grade level) and anything you want me to know about your family.

Your child is enrolled in a high-school level class. The material can be challenging and it is important not to let the students get behind in their work. This means that I will expect them to study and do homework on a nightly basis. I will be teaching them how to study as well as how to identify the study techniques that work best for them.

Enjoy these last few days of summer!