Excitement in two languages

Two girls sitting at a table writing

Fifth graders in Djemila Stevens’ Dual Language class had a busy afternoon Thursday. They studied concentrated solutions and worked together to determine which was more concentrated. They did a refresher on parts of speech. Then they had a multiplication test and converted the answers into a code that contained a special message from their fourth grade teacher, Christina Zontini.

Zontini, who created the test, stopped by to visit her former students. The message revealed in her test? She’s having a baby! Stevens and Zontini polled the students about the gender of the baby; the majority correctly guessed that it’s a boy and several offered to be babysitters. Students also learned, in the ensuing conversation, that Stevens is getting a puppy.

And most of it happened in two languages – English and Spanish. Everyone finished out the day in buoyant mood.

You can see some Facebook photos from the day here. (You don’t need a Facebook account to see the photos linked in the highlighted text above. A window may appear that says, "To see more from Albany City Schools on Facebook, log on or create an account,” but you can dismiss it by clicking “not now.”)