Broken Spanish and laughter fills the halls as classrooms of kids take their attempt at learning Spanish.  Every Thursday of the week, Lori Nielsen’s PAP and AP Spanish classes board a bus and caravan out to the neighborhood Westside Elementary school not even five minutes away.

This weekly field trip for the high schoolers is a weekly treat to these kids, as they get to look up to and learn from “the cool big kids” from the high school.

“We started traveling to the elementary schools to teach Spanish back in 1989. We found it was a great opportunity for these students to be introduced to foreign language in some form in their early years of school.  The AP Spanish kids really enjoy it.” Lori Nielsen, Spanish teacher

At the start of each week, Spanish students must prepare a lesson plan and list of words they think their class might enjoy learning.  They prepare games and stories so interaction and learning will be fun and memorable for the kids.

Ranging from Kindergarten to third graders, students choose accordingly, to an age range they can get along with best. Students never assumed able to teach–or handle young children for that matter–surprise one another, as they realize they can connect easily with these kids, and have fun doing so.

“Apparently I’m great with kids. For some reason, they adore me.  I really like teaching to these kids, because they’re all so funny,” Senior Cody Johnson said.

Sarah Grimes, another group member of Cody’s shared her feelings on teaching.

“They’re a lot of fun,” Grimes said. “They love to joke around with us, and It’s cool to finally get to be the boss of someone.”

Nielsen said for some of her students, it’s great for them to see the other side of the coin.

“They can understand what it feels like to be interrupted in class during a lesson,” Nielsen said with a smile. “It’s all good fun.”

Spanish students really have enjoyed getting to teach the younger kids; It proves a great experience and highlight of the week for both the student and student teachers.