Program brings Spanish lessons to Muldown

Inside a classroom at Muldown Elementary, teacher Patti Faustini is instructing her students. She speaks in English and then transitions into Spanish — her students never miss a beat.

One student gets an answer right and she replies “estudiante brillante” or a brilliant student.

On a recent day students were playing bingo using the Spanish pronunciation of letters and words for the squares of their cards. Faustini calls out the words, but interrupting the game as necessary to give quick lessons.

“What are the Spanish words on the Montana flag?” she asks the class.

“Plata,” comes from one student. Another says “oro.”

“Don’t forget the name of our state is in Spanish,” she says. “Montaña is Spanish for mountain.”

When students forget the Spanish word for a color, Faustini tells them to just sing the song. To the tune of “Are You Sleeping?” students sing through a list of colors in English and Spanish. The class ends by playing “beat the teacher.” Where students face off with Faustini as they race to answer the Spanish word for the English words that are given.

Faustini is leading a new program at Muldown this year that teaches kindergarten and fourth graders Spanish. She also leads the ALPs or Accelerated Learners Program.

“The district has wanted to have foreign language at Muldown for a long time and this is the first year we’ve been able to offer it,” she said. “The kids just love it. I really believe kids can learn anything.”

Faustini previously taught at the middle school before retiring several years ago. She returned to the district to run the new programs at Muldown.

The Spanish classes began this year by focusing on the two grade levels with plans to expand through the school from kindergarten through sixth grade. Faustini is hoping to create videos using her current students that can be played in the other classrooms. Teachers can play the videos and then Faustini will visit the students for follow-up instructions.

In the ALPs class, students move through higher level lessons at a faster pace. The students, who are in first through fourth grade are learning Spanish now and will move on to a section about Chinese, and speech and debate.

Faustini said its important for students to learn languages and about the world.

“There’s relevance of both those languages,” she said. “Speech and debate gives them the ability to present their thoughts and articulate them.”

Last week students were practicing a three-person dialogue involving a restaurant. Next month students will have the dialogue perfected and will perform it for parents.

Faustini had three students stand before the classroom behind music stands. She instructed them to adjust the stands to the correct height and smile at the audience before beginning.

“I want you to learn to relax,” she said. “The No. 1 fear of people is public speaking, but I want you to learn to beat that fear.”

Students took turns with the different parts and Faustini checked their pronunciation and fluency of the text. She gave pointers to the students about the words and their stage presence. She reminded the audience of students to be polite.

“I’m preparing you for the real world,” she told the students.