TESSERACT STUDENTS CELEBRATE HISPANIC HERITAGE AND CULTURE
PHOENIX, ARIZONA—November 5, 2009—What do magic rings and Don Quixote have in common? Plenty, if you are a student at Tesseract School. In recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month, Tesseract middle and high school students are celebrating the contributions of Hispanic authors, athletes, artists, writers and scientists by bringing them to life as part of Tesseract’s Hispanic Heritage Day activities Friday, November 6 from 11:20 a.m. to 12:50 p.m.
“Because of the innovative structure of our curriculum, we, as educators, are able to empower our students to use their creativity to share what they have learned about the influence and contributions made by Hispanic people throughout the world,” explained Jessie Soto-Tolman, Tesseract middle and high school Spanish educator. “Some of our students chose to celebrate authors and literature—specifically Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra— through a skit in which they use magic rings to travel through time to join Don Quixote on his adventures.”
As part of their Spanish curriculum—Tesseract students start studying Spanish at the age of three—and in preparation for Heritage Day, students celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month, recognized annually September 15 through October 15. The culmination of this celebration for Tesseract students is the school’s first Hispanic Heritage Day.
On Heritage Day, the school’s lower school students will receive a visit from Tesseract’s middle and high school students where the older students will present, share artwork, sing and perform skits to teach their younger peers more about the history of Hispanic Heritage Month and the contributions of people of Hispanic origins to government, law, science, business, art and entertainment. Students were able to select a person, occupation or activity of interest to research, and then choose how they wanted to share what they learned with their peers.
“The students have been so enthusiastic about preparing for this day,” said Evelyn Montanez-Ramirez, Tesseract middle and high school Spanish educator. “Providing students with opportunities like this to take ownership of their learning is a vital part of our student-centered approach to education.”
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