January & February 2016

¡Hola!

    Hello, my name is Mr. Kinney and I will be your child's Spanish 4 teacher this spring! I am very excited to teach this advanced language course! Spanish 4 is a wonderful opportunity for your child to develop true communication skills in the target language while deepening their understanding of Spanish linguistics and culture! It is a great way for your child to prepare for collegiate language study or for the workforce!

    This month we are engaging in a review of the three previous years of study and learning how to speak in the future and conditional tenses. The thematic vocabulary unit is related to talking about leisure activities and asking for and giving advice!

Señor Sachem: Parent Forum and Blog Post: April 2015

Señor Sachem: Parent Forum and Blog Post: April 2015

Spanish 3 CP / H

The students in Spanish 3 are moving forward in the curriculum. They are tackling challenging advanced material in their grammar studies, learning to speak and write with proficiency in the past tense. Their thematic vocabulary unit addresses health, fitness, and extra curricular activities!

Cultural Perspectives

The students in Cultural Perspectives are finishing their historical context portion of the class. In the past few weeks they have studied the evolution of man, man's earliest societies, and early Europe through the industrial revolution. We will look at 20th century Europe next week!

Señor Sachem: Parent Forum and Blog Post: March 2015

Señor Sachem: Parent Forum and Blog Post: March 2015

Spanish 3 CP / H

The students in Spanish 3 all performed wonderfully on their summative assessment to close out unit 1. They are now moving forward in the curriculum by learning about places in the community and how to talk about things they have done in the past. They are continuing to develop skills for reading critically, writing for a purpose in the target language and the English language, and speaking and listening in the target language! Our speaking and writing focus this unit is related to the thematic vocabulary unit on places around town, and using the past tense.

Cultural Perspectives

The students in Cultural Perspectives are continuing to complete one unit per week. Recently students looked at how the people of Scandinavia and the British Isles live today. This week students are learning about the peoples of Eastern Europe and a community of Romanians known as "Gypsies" who have dispersed throughout Europe. Next week begins their final unit which is on the Russia today!

Señor Sachem: Parent Forum and Blog Post: February 2015

Spanish 3 CP / H

The students in Spanish 3 are closing their unit of study on professions and home vocabulary. This unit will be assessed by the middle of the first week of March. The students will then extend their knowledge of target culture through the next segment of study of South American culture. In the upcoming unit students will extend their skills of communication in the present and past tense while learning thematic vocabulary related to places in a town or city and how to give and follow directions!

Cultural Perspectives

The students in Cultural Perspectives are completing a unit a week now. Each unit will focus on a specific land area. The past unit covered the peninsula's of southern Europe including Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal. In the coming month students will learn about the modern culture of central, northern, and eastern Europe. 

Señor Sachem: Parent Forum and Blog Post: January 2015

Welcome to the start of 2nd semester! My name is Sean Kinney and this semester I will be teaching your child in either Cultural Perspectives or Spanish 3 CP/H.  Every month I will update my blog to reflect the learning that is taking place in each class in the most recent unit. I also hope to share additional blog posts throughout the semester with information about some of our outstanding class experiences, national foreign language week, and honor society news!


Spanish 3 CP / H

The students in Spanish 3 are learning about jobs and professions as well as rooms, furniture, and chores in a house. They are developing a skill set to talk about these vocabulary units both in the present and past tense. Students in level three will be participating in a culture research project of a South American Spanish speaking country of their choosing.

Cultural Perspectives

The students in Cultural Perspectives are completing a unit that provides historical context for studying culture. Students will study the evolutionary timeline of our ancestors and determine when culture began, and what the implications of early culture were for the development of the first communities, cities, and early human empires.

Señor Sachem: Parent Forum and Blog Post October 21, 2014

ProfeKinney: Parent Forum

Below you will find comments on what is going on in Profe Kinney’s classes. The parent forum will be updated periodically to keep you informed of what great things are happening in your child’s language class at MHS. Feel free to add comments by clicking the comment button in the top right corner of the page! Enjoy!

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Cultural Perspectives: This week in your child's class are studying Eastern Europe and the impact of Romanian Gypsies on Western European economics and social order.. We placed a focus on Gypsies and their unique customs and lifestyle. Students viewed a BBC documentary on Gypsy teens and children and made cross cultural connections.

Señor Sachem: Parent Forum and Weekly Blog Post October 10th, 2014

ProfeKinney: Parent Forum

Below you will find comments on what is going on in Profe Kinney’s classes. The parent forum will be updated periodically to keep you informed of what great things are happening in your child’s language class at MHS. Feel free to add comments by clicking the comment button in the top right corner of the page! Enjoy!

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Cultural Perspectives: This week in your child's class we studied West Central Europe. We placed a focus on France and the compositions of Claude Debussy and the artwork of George Seurat. Students listened to famous works classical composition and created a pointilism style piece of art. Students also researched a topic of culture of their choosing related to the geographic region of study and presented their work to the class!