No Comprendo: Teacher Won't Speak English In Class

(Lexington County)- There's a mystery going around Red Bank Elementary about Jennifer Hood's kindergarten class. She teaches her kids science and math, totally in Spanish. In fact she never speaks English and no one in her class really knows if she understands English or not. She actually did her interview in Spanish, and we translated her responses: ?At this age the kids learn better in an environment of immersion,? she said. ?They have to listen a lot more and pay attention and watch because if they knew that I spoke English they wouldn't do that they would wait for me to translate.?

This is year one of partial immersion in Lexington School District One, the only program of its kind in the Midlands. It gives her students a half-day of learning in foreign language before they have English instruction in the afternoon. ?It's just really exciting because the kids when they come in in the morning they say hello to each other in the language,? Hood said.

Dawn Samples is in charge of the program. She says this isn't hard for this kids.

?They're still five year olds, and they don't know any different, that's their kindergarten and it's all they've ever known,? Samples said.

Another mystery for the district, how to recruit more teachers like Samples. They say that's the hard part. ?We do have to have teachers that are certified in early childhood education, but they also have to be fluent in another language.?

So does Hood speak English? She's not telling. ?No comprendo!?

And she says it's going to stay that way, for the good of her students.

?It's important in this global world that they learn another language because it opens doors for them.?

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