Hello Families,

Welcome to the 2022-2023 school year at San Tan Charter School.

My name is Ms. Hirepan and I am the Spanish and American Sign Language Teacher here at San Tan. This is my third year teaching and San Tan and I am so excited to return! There are so many wonderful activities ahead of us including working in conjunction with other electives to have a gala in the fall! I can’t wait to meet you all next week if I did not see you at today’s open house or at the meet and greet at Main Event last night.

This year Spanish 1 and 2 students will be learning to read, write, speak and listen for comprehension in Spanish. They will also be learning about Hispanic Cultures and Spanish speaking countries. We will be using a curriculum called En Español and will also be using some grammar components from McGraw Hill Education. The textbook pages and additional materials and resources will be posted to their Google Classroom each week. Duolingo, Quizlet, Quizizz and Kahoot are also used in the classroom regularly. All Spanish students will need to bring a package of mechanical pencils, a spiral notebook and a folder for their Spanish papers only. They will also need to bring their charged Chromebook to class each day along with their charger.

This year in class ASL 1 and 2 students will be using ASL University/ Lifeprint which is a free curriculum online. Students will be learning between 15-20 new signs each week together with me and will subsequently learn to use the new signs to form sentences. At the end of each week students will be expected to sign twenty sentences for me in person, in order to earn a grade. They will also continue to practice fingerspelling, complete receptive fingerspelling practice, numbers practice and forming new sentences. Assignments will be posted in the google classroom each week. Students will also learn about deaf culture and watch stories signed in ASL and have receptive word and or sentence quizzes on occasion. Assignments will be posted in the Google Classroom. Students will need to bring their charged Chromebook to class each day along with their charger.

Next week a syllabus will be sent home with each student and it will need to be read and signed by parents and the student. I recommend that each parent logs into their child’s Infinite Campus on the Parent Portal in order to support their student in their classes. The Parent Portal allows you to receive low grade notifications, missing work notifications and to keep track of grades, attendance and tardies. It is a pleasure to have your child in class with me and I look forward to working with you and them and watching them grow in their educational endeavors. San Tan Charter school sets high expectations for its students so they can excel both in and out of the classroom and teachers rely on parents support in order to meet those goals. Thank you for trusting me with your most precious asset. Should you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email me at dhirepan@santancharterschool.com.

Have a great weekend,

Ms. Hirepan