Jon D Pennington

I have taken a leave from Hunterdon Central to work as the head of Spanish at the VIMSIA, an International Baccalaureate school located on the Island of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. This is a video that students made to introduce their school!

Since I am presently in Argentina with a group of exchange students and the program we built is going so well. I decided to propose a new exchange program to Argentine students to come to my new school St. Thomas.  The interest in the program has been amazing and already we have 7 kids who have put money to reserve their place in the program!  I am giving a presentation tonight to parents interested in the program so we expect even more students to enroll!
This is the Facebook fanpage for the exchange!

This was incredible.  Last year my Spanish IV conversation students connected with students in Bahía Blanca, Argentina and had some powerful video conferences where students from both countries shared with each other typical products they use and some of the practices they engage in each day.  During these conferences, it was apparent that my students we looking for something even greater- a way they could actually experience the lives of Argentine students.  After much planning and coordination via Skype with Alejandrina, the Argentine teacher, our proposal for an full student exchange program between Rosario Vera Peñalosa in Bahia Blanca, Argentina and Hunterdon Central in Central New Jersey was approved by our district’s Board of Education!   The first part of our exchange program begins in February of 2010 when 10 Argentine students will be staying with students selected.   We will be traveling to Bahia Blanca this coming June of 2010!

Visit our Site (password to view is argentina2010)

Bahía Blanca, Argentina

I have used the SIMS for language learning in Spanish levels I-IV within a variety of contexts which I plan to describe further in this post later.  Most recently, my Spanish IV Introduction to Composition class just finished a project using the Sims 2 that can be seen below.

Final Project Description and Requirements using the SIMS 2

Student Final Project: Dos Amigas y Una Pizza

Student Final Project:  El Fuego (The Fire)