¡Hola!

My name is Jennifer Madrigal.  I am thrilled to teach Spanish to your son or daughter at Sawyer Road Elementary School!  I know that your child is going to love learning Spanish as much as I have.

Learning and studying Spanish began many years ago for me.  At the age of twelve, I was invited to visit extended family living in Madrid, Spain.  Although I understood very little of what was being said at times, I became fascinated with the liveliness of Spain and the Spanish-speaking culture.  I enjoyed my experiences of touring and going to the capital city of Madrid for shopping, dinners out with my family, watching Flamenco dancers, riding mopeds, and even attending a bullfight (I probably won’t repeat that one, but I’m glad that I got to see it once).  We even went to a little town called Java to go to the beach.  After my visit and after returning home to the United States, I never stopped speaking and learning Spanish.  I took as many Spanish classes as I could find.  I later graduated from the University of Georgia with a BA in Spanish and I followed up by earning a Master's degree in Spanish education from Georgia Southern University.

I finished my master’s degree with a study abroad program to the Spanish-speaking country of Costa Rica.  When my tour group went home, I stayed in Costa Rica where I taught adults how to speak English for a year.  During my time there, I became much better at learning Spanish.  In addition to becoming fluent in Spanish, I learned more about the rainforest with its variety of plants and animals and beautiful nature.

My love of studying, traveling, and learning Spanish was soon followed by a love of teaching and a love of educating young children.   My experiences include not only teaching Spanish, but I have also been an instructor in various other subjects such as ESOL, reading, and early childhood.  Recently, I obtained a specialist degree in early childhood from the University of West Georgia so that I would know more about how to combine other subject areas with Spanish.  Along with my experiences of traveling to Mexico, Spain, and Costa Rica; I like to combine math and reading into my lessons.  Hands-on activities, arts and crafts, geography, and science lessons from Spanish-speaking countries are also typically included.

Although I have taught almost all age levels from elementary school through high school, my favorite age to teach is elementary school.  I have found that the younger the students are introduced to a language the better.  They absorb it like “little sponges”.

Thank you for entrusting your children with me.  I hope that I can share some of my experiences with them and that they will enjoy their language study as much as I have.

All my best,