Garry Kids Learning Different Languages, Cultures

It’s been just three months, but Ellen Gillespie’s class has a killer travel itinerary.

Fiestas and fireworks in Mexico. Baseball and seaweed in Japan. In-line skating in Germany.

It’s an eighth-grader’s dream, but that’s the point of Gillespie’s class. Four languages and a cultural carnival of dancing, food, music and history, tightly shoehorned into a semester so that even a 13-year-old can’t get bored.

“It’s a really cool class,” said Shawn Craig, 13.

The Garry Middle School teacher’s class is so cool that it was honored at a recent school board meeting, lauded as a model for the district.

Sacajewea and Chase middle schools on the South Hill offer similar classes. Administrators say they plan to offer it at Shaw and Glover soon.

Gillespie starts the year with a smidge of Latin, then spends four weeks each on German, French, Spanish and Japanese.

“I like the r-r-r-r-r-r-r” in Spanish, purred Miranda Robinette, 12.

Basic vocabulary includes numbers, days of the week, body parts and animals. Food is emphasized in French. She avoids verb conjugations.

“I have kids who can say hello in the (four) languages after a year,” said Gillespie.

“The studies show if they learn it young, they learn it better.”

The class is now into German, after learning Japanese and Spanish. French comes this winter.

Gillespie says the cultural exposure is almost as important as vocabulary, so she decorates her room with newspaper clippings and snapshots. A huge bulletin board shows Dachau victims and asks, “6,000,000 million Jews were killed by Hitler. Why?”

One day this week, Gillespie displayed an Austrian “dirndl” dress and walked a room of Converse and Vans through a German folk polka.

“It’s polite to slurp in Japan,” said Karri Stowe, 13.

”(Germany) has a lot less insurance laws, so you can skate anywhere,” said Craig, a hard-core in-line skater.

Gillespie seems a perfect fit for the curriculum. She was born in Germany and took Spanish in high school. After graduation, she spent a year in Austria and picked up French.

At Eastern Washington University, she studied German and tutored Japanese students.

Languages seem to cling to her. After a three-week Greek vacation, she could carry on a rough conversation.

“Languages are my thing,” said Gillespie.

After the ice storm, hot lunch

In the throes of Ice Storm ‘96, Brentwood Elementary principal Dave Stenersen offered to take the student who was without power the longest out to lunch.

Seven students from the Woodway Park neighborhood tied the record - 11 days without electricity. Kindergarten teacher Teresa Buddington topped them all, a cold, dark 14 days in her Newman Lake home. She gets lunch, too.

Red Robin restaurant managers, learning of the reward, offered to pick up the bill for Wednesday’s meal.

Here are the winning students: Rachael and Seth Schurman, Clarissa and Joilynn Wolfe, Troy Haught, Amy and Shawn McMurtey.

Congratulations, scholars

Congratulations to seniors Jonathan Arras, Faith Gallinger and Sam Zaprzalka of Riverside High, Beccon Holland of Shadle Park High and Stephanie Smith of Rogers High, all of whom were named National Merit Commended Scholars. They are in the top five percent nationally of students who took PSAT.

Evergreen winter music program

Evergreen Elementary’s winter music program will be Dec. 18 at 7 p.m. in the Whitworth College Cowles Auditorium. For more information, call Kathy Meredith at 468-3022.

Safety Santa visits schools

The Spokane County Sheriff’s Department “Safety Santa” is touring North Side schools next week.

The old guy with the fuzzy red getup will tell kids how to stay out of trouble, what to do if they get into it, and what employment opportunities there are in the seasonal icon business.

On Dec. 11, Safety Santa will be at Meadowridge Elementary at 9:30 a.m., at Nine Mile Falls Elementary at 10:30 a.m., at Linwood Elementary at 1:30 p.m. and at Colbert Elementary at 2:30 p.m.

On Dec. 16, Safety Santa will be at St. Matthews Lutheran at 8:30 a.m., at Brentwood Elementary at 9:30 a.m., at Farwell Elementary at 11 a.m., at Chattaroy Elementary at 1 p.m. and at Evergreen Elementary at 2:30 p.m.

On Dec. 19, Safety Santa will visit Riverside and Deer Park elementaries.

, DataTimes MEMO: Education Notebook is a regular feature of the North Side Voice. If you have news about an interesting program or activity at a North Side school or about the achievements of North Side students, teachers or school staff, please let us know. Deadline is Monday. Write: Jonathan Martin, Education Notebook, North Side Voice, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. E-mail: jonathanm@spokesman.com. Call: 459-5484. Fax: 459-5482.