In the modern language classes at Santa Fe High, teachers take a variety of approaches to teaching and learning.

French students in Ms. Rebekah’s class have lots of hands-on experiences to help learn the language. For example, recently she had her French II students draw pictures to the French song “Les Eaux de Mars.” Students drew a picture for each line of the song with the lyrics beneath the picture. These pictures were then compiled into a video with the song.

Ms. Rebekah likes to have her students help each other. She likes to think of herself as not present in the classroom, preferring that students interact with one another. “I don’t teach,” she said, explaining, “There’s no such thing as teaching, only learning.” Ms. Rebekah says this method of teaching is very effective: “I always love it when administrators walk in and ask, ‘Where’s your teacher?’ because you want to be on their level. I think it’s better. You don’t want to dictate over your students.”

Ms. Rebekah loves to answer the question, “What are we doing today?” with “I don’t know. What are we doing today?”

In his English Language Development classes, Mr. Gaspar Garcia helps teach Spanish-speaking students English. He also teaches Spanish language arts.

When it comes to Mr. Gaspar Garcia’s teaching style, he likes to use Open Access: “Como maestro me deja avisar los tiempos, limitar hasta cuando va estar disponible, y califica los assignments automático.” (“As a teacher, it lets me monitor the times — to limit when work is available. And it grades the assignments automatically.”)

Mr. Gaspar Garcia adds that since his class is a language class, he likes that students can film themselves speaking to upload as assignments.

Mr. Gaspar Garcia likes his method because it really seems to work with his students. “Incluso los estudiantes que tienen dos meses y medio aquí ya entienden,” he said. (“Even the students who have been here for two and a half months already understand.”)