Written by Abagale Elliott
The Foreign language department at SHS has an environment that is hard to replicate. The circumstances in which they teach are unique. They have a friendship that has been fostered at SHS since before Heather Nale, Spanish teacher, graduated high school. Joanna Schmidt was her teacher for her first year of Spanish and taught Nale the fundamentals of her livelihood.
Teacher Appreciation Week is May 4-8, with Teacher Appreciation Day being May 5. With schools moving away from teaching foreign languages in person, students at SHS have the choice to take either French with Madame Schmidt or Spanish with Profe Nale. These classes are in person and hands-on.
Graduation requirements for Indiana say that a student must take three years of a foreign language or two years of two foreign languages to earn the Academic Honors Diploma, so lots of students have passed through the doors of Nale or Schmidt, or both. Students have Nale and Schmidt to thank for spreading foreign culture and language in the halls of SHS.
While a student will get a different learning environment in each of these classes, there will be some similarities, because Schmidt and Nale team up.
“I love to collaborate with Madame Schmidt,” said Nale. “She is absolutely amazing to work with and has fantastic ideas.”
They collaborate in the French and Spanish clubs, on Spirit week dress up days and in daily school activity. They have known each other since Nale was in high school.
“We have known each other for a really long time, approximately 17 years,” Nale said. “In 2009, I was a freshman at Salem High School and Madame Schmidt was my Spanish 1 teacher. We were friends on Facebook after I went to college and started teaching at Clarksville High School. Then, in the fall of 2019, I came to Salem High School and joined her department!”
Since then, Nale and Schmidt have been working closely together to enhance the experience of students.
The clubs at SHS include a Spanish and a French club. These clubs work as closely, if not closer, than the Spanish and French classes. Some trips the clubs take are alone, like to restaurants which cater to the specific cultures they study, but most are collaborative. They try new foods together, cooking in the FACS room at SHS. They also participate in Dodge ball games.
“Most recently, we've been to Top Golf the past two years,” said Schmidt. “We've also done outings where we've gone bowling, mini-golf, laser tag.”
The fun doesn’t stop at school work and club trips. Schmidt explained the process leading up to their show-stopping spirit week outfits. Anyone can go on the school's social media during a spirit week to see their very creative and very specific outfits. The planning process includes structured teamwork.
“We eat lunch together every single day!” said Nale. “We usually discuss our plans during lunch or after the kids leave the building for the day. On regular school days, there have been quite a few occasions where we have matched by accident!”
The planning starts early and ends late.
“As soon as we see the dress up days, we start planning,” said Schmidt. “We usually make our decisions at lunch or while we're in the hallway during the passing period.”
Last minute Amazon orders are usually part of the process.
The two of them have been to many foreign countries. Schmidt has been to Canada (Québec), Mexico, France and England. Nale has been to Mexico, the Bahamas, Costa Rica, Scotland, England, France, Peru and the Dominican Republic. They’ve both used their language skills in the languages and dialects they speak in real-world situations.
Their combined efforts make for a great partnership.
“I just like being able to share ideas on everything with each other, whether it be on ideas for class, how to handle difficult classroom situations, and what to do for our French and Spanish club activities,” said Schmidt.