Ms. Sheila Reyna Henderson is Blacksburg Middle School's Spanish teacher.

Spanish is offered to any eighth grade student with permission from a seventh-grade English teacher. Level I Spanish focuses on the development of students' commnicative competence in Spanish and their understanding of the culture(s) of Spanish-speaking countries.  Communicative competence is divided into three strands: speaking and writing as an interactive process in which students learn to communicate with another Spanish speaker: reading and listening as a receptive process in which comprehension of Spanish texts is developed: and speaking and writing in presentational context in which students are focused on the organization of thoughts and awareness of their audience in delivering information.

In Level I Spanish classes, students learn to communicate in real-life contexts about topics that are meaningful to them.  In order to develop the three areas of communicative comptetence, students are encouraged to use the vocabulary and structures needed in the various situations in which students are required to function.  Through the language learning process, students develop an understanding of how their own language is structured and how their own culture has unique aspects.  An important component of Spanish classes is the use of the Spanish language beyond the classroom in order to apply knowledge of the language in the real world.  In many cases, this is accomplished through the integration of technology into the classroom.  Technonology is an important tool in accessing authentic information in Spanish and in providing students the opportunity to interact with native speakers of Spanish.
 

Here's a link to a cool site devoted to Spanish Language pages: TeenZone--Earthlink