On Tuesday, January 13, classes from the Spanish department traveled to the Minnesota Zoo for Spanish Language Day. These classes included AP Spanish Language and Hispanohablantes levels one and two. Students in these classes had been preparing presentations on certain animals from the zoo for weeks before this event. A few of the animals students researched included the Komodo dragon, white-cheeked gibbon, and colobus monkey.
Seeing the creativity in my students is one of my favorite things, and I love seeing how they bring the Spanish together to produce a presentation that’s fun, innovative, and creative
— Mary Murray
The purpose of this trip was for BSM students to share their presentations with students from other schools. BSM students attending the field trip were dismissed from school at 8:15 am, and loaded onto the bus that took them to the zoo. They arrived at approximately 9:15 am, which left plenty of time to set their presentations up at their stations. Presentations ran from 10:00 am to 11:30 am for the first group, and 11:30 am to 1:00 pm for the second group. When students weren’t presenting, they were free to explore the zoo.
Senior Grace Ortizcazarin is an AP Spanish Language student who attended the field trip to the Minnesota Zoo. Her group was assigned the colobus monkey to present on. Ortizcazarin spent lots of time researching information about the colobus monkey and worked on a poster board with her group to present the information. Her presentation included an interactive game for students from other schools to play. “I enjoyed being able to present to so many different students from different schools. And when I wasn’t presenting, seeing all the tropical and aquatic animals was super fun,” Ortizcazarin said.
Mary Murray, the AP Spanish Language teacher at Benilde-St. Margaret’s, was responsible for creating the field trip that allowed BSM Spanish students to participate in Spanish Language Day at the Minnesota Zoo. “It’s a great opportunity for our students to present the Spanish language in an authentic way,” Murray said.
Murray, along with Spanish teacher Matthew McMerty-Brummer, began taking students to the zoo in 2019 for Spanish Language Day. Sadly, because of COVID-19 the trip was canceled for a few years since then. However, when the invitation was extended to the BSM Spanish department this year, Murray was delighted to accept. “Seeing the creativity in my students is one of my favorite things, and I love seeing how they bring the Spanish together to produce a presentation that’s fun, innovative, and creative,” Murray said.