FRENCH STUDENTS RECOGNIZE 

NATIONAL FRENCH WEEK

Every year National French Week is a celebration of the French language during November 6-12, 2024?

This year, Ms. Kefaliakos's French students explored numerous fun facts about French, which interestingly enough is spoken by more than 320 million people around the world. This week Ms. Kefaliakos featured two eleventh graders; Abigail Trinkus and Alexa Addonizio, in presenting us with some fun facts about La Francophonie. Take a look below at the video and photo below. Enjoy!

WORLD LANGUAGES HONOR SOCIETY

On Tuesday afternoon, the World Languages Department held its annual Honor Society Induction Ceremony. Congratulations to the newest members of our Chinese, French, Italian and Spanish Chapters. It was wonderful to see so many of our students recognized for their achievements in their language classes. The Master of Ceremonies was Hailey Sofia. We had a beautiful rendition of “Sorge il sol? Che fai tu?” performed by Elizabeth Ramos. Kyle Park, Nate Botta, Hannah Levine, and Daniella Knigin also gave beautiful recitations of poems in the language they are each studying. It was a lovely afternoon of honoring our language students.

Scroll down for photos!

¡Buen Provecho!

In Ms. Maldonado's classes, students ended the Buen Provecho unit with a fun cultural food party. Students were invited to share dishes from Spanish-speaking countries or their own cultures. Each student contributed a recipe and ingredients written in Spanish, all of which were compiled into a Spanish-language recipe book for each class. The book was filled with different cultural dishes from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, Colombia, Italy, Ireland, Israel, India, Honduras, the Caribbean and many more! 

The event fostered education about diverse cuisines, lively conversations, and enjoyment of cultural music. Students were excited to try new foods and learn the recipes! It was a fantastic and enriching conclusion to the Buen Provecho unit. 

Thank you to Ms. Maldonado for planning this activity and to all of the students who participated!

WORLD LANGUAGES WEEK 

POSTER CONTEST WINNERS ANNOUNCED

Congratulations to this year’s winners of the annual World Languages Poster Contest. Participants created original posters based on the theme “The Magic of Language”.

Our third place winner is Grace Maraglio, our second place winner is Madeline Maione, and congratulations to our first place winner Joseph Solorzano-Ruiz. Joseph’s poster will now move on to the district-level contest.

Thank you to all of the students who submitted their beautiful artwork!

See the winners and their posters below.

1st Place

2nd Place

3rd Place

World Languages Week 

March 4-8

The World Languages Department is once again holding its annual poster contest in honor of World Languages Week. This year's theme, "The Magic of Language", allowed students to develop their own creative perspective about the power and many benefits of speaking other languages. Posters are on display and voting will take place through Friday, March 8th. Contest winners will be announced on Monday, March 11th. The winners will advance to the district-level contest. Thank you to our World Languages teachers for encouraging students to participate in the contest! 

Once again this year, student volunteers read morning announcements in their native language or the language they are currently studying. The announcements shared fun facts and cultural information.  World Langauge students also researched how to write uplifting words in many languages to create collage-style murals of the expressions. The murals are on display in the World Language hallway. 

Thank you to Ms. Maldonado and Ms. Dand for reating a slideshow that teachers used each day in class to show a target language music video and trivia questions. Students who answered the trivia questions correctly were entered into a daily raffle for a prize.

Thank you to all of our student participants and volunteers and to the World Language teachers for their help in making the week a success!

Scroll down for photos of this year's entries and the mural.

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, is one of the most important celebrations in Chinese culture as it marks the beginning of the Lunar New Year.  The holiday lasts 15 days. 

In Chinese culture, there are twelve animals that represent the different years, and each year is associated with a specific animal. This year is the Year of the Dragon. In class, the students learned about the culture surrounding the dragon. Students also participated in a variety of activities to celebrate the holiday: they made dragons and lanterns to display in the hallway, did paper cutting, and practiced calligraphy. Mandarin students also decorated the library hallway display case with their work. The students made red envelopes for their favorite teachers and friends in the building, and received red envelopes from their teacher. On Friday February 9th, students will get to try traditional dumplings and noodles to celebrate the Lunar New Year. 

A special thank you to our Mandarin teachers Dr. Chen and Ms. Han for planning these wonderful Lunar New Year traditions for their students. 

See pictures below!

新年好 

P.S. I Love You Day 2024

To recognize P.S. I Love You Day, students in French, Italian, Mandarin, and Spanish classes created a mural of heartfelt messages of encouragement and kindness. The messages were written in a variety of languages to brighten the day of as many students, faculty, and staff as possible. See pictures of the mural below!

WORLD LANGUAGE HONOR SOCIETY INDUCTION 

2023

The World Languages Department held its annual induction ceremonies for Chinese, French, Italian, and Spanish on Tuesday, October 17th. The ceremony recognized over 125 students for their outstanding achievement in their language class. Thank you to our student emceee Nickolas Mascary and poetry readers Gianna Grewal, Stefan Caiazzo, Fiona Wong, and Angelique Gauthier! We also thank Hannah Islas for her beautiful rendition of "O mio babbino caro" and Hannah Levine for leading the Chinese induction oath. 

Thank you to our honor society advisors Dr. Chen, Ms. DeLuca, Ms. Kefaliakos, Ms. Sycoff  and Ms. Thienachariya for the time they took to help organize and run the day's ceremony and to Ms. Maldonado and the Calhoun yearbook staff for photographing the event. 

Scroll down for photos!

Mandarin 2H & 3H Students' Cultural Experience

9th and 10th grade students in Ms. Han's class had a unique experience this week in class. During the food unit, they had the opportunity to practice speaking in Chinese in simulated restaurant scenarios. Ms. Han also added a cultural component to the lessons by sharing information about popular Chinese foods. As a special activity, students acted out ordering a milk tea from "server" Ms. Han and actually received one to try! 

World Languages Department Contest Winners 

The Department of World Languages would like to congratulate the winners of our annual district-wide language contest. Calhoun students submitted entries in our essay, poem, and poster categories. Thank you to the entire World Languages department for judging and to the faculty, staff, and students who submitted votes for the poster contest. We wish to thank all of our students who participated and the teachers who helped make this event a huge success. See the list of all winners below.

Félicitacions! Congratulazioni! ¡Felicitaciones! 恭喜！Gōngxǐ!

Calhoun High School Poster Winners

First Place: Angelina Arceo - Dr. Chen

Second Place: Zayda Williams - Ms. Maldonado

Third Place: Gabriel Weredyk - Dr. Chen

District-Wide Poster Winner

First Place: Angelina Arceo - Dr. Chen

Mandarin

Essays

Level 4H

Second Place: Matthew Sferratore - Dr. Chen

Poetry

Advanced Placement

First Place: Vicky Liang - Dr. Chen

Third Place: Leanna Cheeseman - Dr. Chen

Spanish

Essays

Level 2R

First Place: Isabelle Latham - Ms. Maldonado

Third Place: Jack Gunn - Ms. Maldonado

Poetry

Level 3R

First Place: Samantha Sanchioli – Ms. Zdrodowski

Level 3H

Second Place: Hailey Sofia – Mr. Ritaccio

Third Place: Amanda Nevins – Mr. Ritaccio

College Level 5R

Third Place: Marian Escobar-Lopez – Ms. Thienachariya

WORLD LANGUAGES WEEK 

POSTER CONTEST WINNERS ANNOUNCED

It is time to announce the winners of this year’s WL poster contest. Our third place winner is Gabriel Weredyk (Mandarin, Dr. Chen), second place goes to Zayda Williams (Spanish, Ms. Maldonado), and our first place winner is Angelina Arceo (Mandarin, Dr. Chen). These winning posters will now compete in the district vote at Brookside. 

Congratulations to all of our winners and thank you to everyone who participated!

See the winners and their posters below.

FIRST PLACE - ANGELINA ARCEO

SECOND PLACE - ZAYDA WILLIAMS

THIRD PLACE - GABRIEL WEREDYK

World Languages Week 

March 6-10

The World Languages Department is once again holding its annual poster contest in honor of World Languages Week. This year's theme, "Language Is a Path To...", allowed students to develop their own creative perspective about the importance of being multilingual. Posters are on display and voting will take place through Friday, March 10th. Contest winners will be announced on Monday, March 13th. The winners will advance to the district-level contest. Thank you to our World Languages teachers for encouraging students to participate in the contest! 

Scroll down for photos of this year's entries.

Mandarin Students Host After-School Event for Chinese New Year

Dr. Chen's Mandarin students hosted an after-school event to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Students who attended made their own homemade dumplings that they were able to take home, cook, and enjoy. They were also given the opportunity to do some traditional paper cuttings and learn the proper technique for using chop sticks - they even go to practice picking up large and small items with them. Thank you to Dr. Chen for organizing this wonderful opportunity for Calhoun students, and special thanks to her students for teaching others about Chinese New Year traditions! 

Scroll down for pictures.

Mandarin Students Celebrate Chinese New Year!

Dr. Chen’s Mandarin classes have been celebrating the Chinese New Year. This celebration is also known as Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, and it is the most important festival in China. Each year the New Year is associated with an animal sign according to the zodiac cycle, and this year is the year of the Rabbit. 

To celebrate, Dr. Chen's students wrote their well-wishes for a good year and shared them with one another in traditional red envelopes. The students tried some Chinese snacks and had the experience of writing Chinese calligraphy using traditional brushes and ink. The classes will also be hosting an after-school event during which students will learn to make their own dumplings. 

Scroll down to see pictures of the students working on their red envelopes and calligraphy!

World Languages Recognizes Black History Month

Sra. DeLuca's upper-level Spanish classes are learning about some of the many notable contributions of Afro-Latino activists, writers, actors, politicians, athletes and more. Students will research a person of their choice and write a biography in Spanish highlighting their life achievements. 

Thank you to Sra. DeLuca for creating a beautiful showcase recognizing Afro-Latinos in honor of Black History Month (image below).

Humans at Calhoun Interviews for World Languages Week

In honor of World Languages Week, ENL students took some time to get to know some of our World Languages teachers. During the interviews, the teachers discussed their love of other languages and cultures, and how they were inspired to become language teachers. Check out the interviews and photos below! You can also see them on the International Buddy Club's Instagram @humansofcalhoun 

“[I wanted to become a language teacher] primarily because I wanted to be able to communicate in more than one language because we live in a multilingual world. When I started in college, I was a pre-med major and I knew Spanish would be my minor no matter what because I wanted to be able to speak with my patients. And then I wound up changing my major to education, and as a result I chose Spanish to be my major concentration simply because I wanted to be able to teach kids to be able to communicate in other languages. But I also really enjoyed the culture and learning about the different cultures that are involved in the Spanish-speaking world. I wound up living in Spain and experiencing that lifestyle there, and from that point on, I knew that’s what I wanted to do: I wanted to teach Spanish.” ~ Señora DeLuca

“I was always enthralled by Italian. I love speaking another language. I studied French as well and I thought for a long time that I would have been a French teacher, but I was a little bit more connected to the Italian culture because of a family friend, actually my best friend growing up. Her parents would only speak to us in Italian….I went to Italy when I was 16 and I fell in love with the country and the people and the art, which brings me to college. I was an art history major and I specialized in Italian Renaissance art. So I lived in Italy and I really learned the language and the culture and had a different appreciation on a completely different level for the people and their cultural heritage that they have lent to the world….I was always enamored not only with the art but the literature and the way they lived with the art and literature….I love teaching. I love working with this age kid, and I love that they keep me young and that I am young because of the kids….and I’m still passionate about the language and the culture and I get to actually help people be critical readers and help the students to find the connection between all of their subject matter, and I think that that is unique to language teaching. We are where every subject meets, including math and science, because we get to have all of those units within our year and we have flexibility. That’s why I love teaching, and I love the kids and the input that they give.” ~ Ms. Sycoff

“At a very young age I was fascinated by languages.  Growing up in a bilingual home (Italian and English) and I was accustomed to hearing different languages.  In elementary school, I would always leave my classroom, without permission, to join the ESL classes because I was drawn by the different languages used.  That’s where my drive to learn other languages started. Later I traveled to different countries. I had realized at a young age how important it was to be able to communicate with people from different countries and cultures and how appreciative they were when I made an effort to communicate in their language.  I thought that I would be able to help others learn a second language given that I would be able to help them understand the difficulties and confusions that might hold them back since I learned a second and third language the way they were learning it.” ~ Mr. Ritaccio

“I started studying languages from a very young age. I started from elementary school. In Greece, it was a requirement to take two foreign languages - so usually it’s either English and French or English and German. Everyone in my family was taking English and French, so we did the same thing - my sister and I...I really enjoyed it. I thought it was really cool learning about languages and other cultures. And then in college, I majored in French literature, and I was like wow this is really cool. So as I’m doing my undergrad, my good friend said why don’t you also pick up Spanish? So I said, Spanish? I never even thought about Spanish….So I picked up Spanish, and then I did three months study abroad in France and three months study abroad in Spain. And it was awesome because you can see the similarities with the Greek language - not so much with the English language because I find the English language to be more simple - less complicated. In French, Spanish, Greek there’s more variety of ways to say one thing, so it becomes a little more complex. So I really liked that. After that, I thought let me just see if I can go into education, and so I did, and I did my student teaching and I loved it! It was amazing. For me, it’s the best profession ever. I love it.” ~ Ms. Kefaliakos

“I knew since I was a little kid that I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. I used to make all the kids in the neighborhood play school when I was younger, but specifically I decided to become a foreign language teacher because I had two amazing teachers in high school who showed all the wonderful things that you could do with a language, the opportunities it opens up, and the joys of learning about other cultures and different groups of people. I just knew that this what what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.” ~ Señora Thienachariya