Welcome!

Dear Parents,

I’m Mr. Hinks, your child’s world language teacher. I’ve been teaching at MMS since 2015, and I’m proud to call it my home! Before joining MMS, I taught bilingual kindergarten for eight years, which was a big change from the high school Spanish honors program I started with. I’m a fluent Spanish speaker and even lived in Costa Rica for a while to sharpen my Spanish skills. Besides teaching, I’m the advisor for the yearbook club and the comic book club, which I run with Mr. Riordan. I love traveling, exploring new cultures, and I’m also a proud dad of two, with two dogs and a guinea pig at home.

In my exploratory class, we have five terms, each lasting seven weeks. Each grade level learns different aspects of language, including both foreign language and culture.

• 6th Grade: We explore world languages like American Sign Language, Latin, Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Japanese.

• 7th Grade: Students learn basic Spanish phrases, build vocabulary, and study the history and culture of Spanish-speaking countries.

• 8th Grade: We dive deeper into Spanish, focusing on phrases, vocabulary, grammar, and verb conjugation. We also explore the history and culture of various South American Spanish-speaking countries.

I’m always happy to connect with parents and families—whether by phone, email, or in person—whatever works best for you. Remember, you are your child’s greatest teacher, so let’s work together to make their world language experience the best it can be!

On the following pages, you’ll find electronic copies of our classwork for each week. These are available as Google Documents and Google Slides. All materials are posted on our Google Classroom, which your child has access to. If you’d like to join our Google Classroom to help your child stay on track, just email me, and I’ll add you as a guardian.

Looking forward to a great year!

Sincerely,

John Hinks, M.Ed., MS

World Languages Teacher 

McHenry Middle School

Yearbook & Comic Book Club Advisor