It is after school and senior Katie Zetzman sits down at her school laptop and opens up Skype. She has an unusual assignment given to her by Spanish 5 honors instructor Maria Olvera. Each week, Zetzman is asked to set up an hour-long video chat with a student from a private English school in Mexico and speak to them in Spanish for 30 minutes and then English for 30 minutes.

“These students go to a private English school where I taught in the past, in my native town,” Olvera said. “So I know who I am working with and who the students are speaking with through Skype.”

Holding a conversation with a native speaker is an advanced skill. Only the Spanish 5 honors classes are asked to Skype with the foreign students.

“I think it helps because you are really put on the spot and you don’t have time to prepare for the speaking part,” Zetzman said. “You just have to refer to your knowledge you know and get it correct.”

The Skyping with these students allows for Westside’s students to further grasp the concepts they are learning in the classroom by applying it to their conversation.

“My students are taking the language outside of the classroom,” Olvera said, “What they are learning in class, it’s supposed to be taking place in the conversation they are having with the student. I am having students use the language in an authentic setting. ”

The concept of Skyping students who are not American extends past solidifying concepts learned in the classroom. Zetzman and her classmates are not tied to talking about things they are currently learning.

“We get to learn about their culture and the way those teenagers live, which you can’t really learn from a textbook,” Zetzman said.

The learning of a different culture was another one of Olvera’s goals when she created this program.

“There is an exchange of culture when there is the ability to see each other,” Olvera said. “Some of these students are viewing their cameras to their surroundings. So they could share with whoever they are speaking with what’s around them. Like the nice weather out in Mexico or just someone’s home here in the US. Whatever it may be, it was also a cultural exchange.”

The Spanish 5 honors classes are able to interact with these foreign students and see what their life is like compared to their own.

“I think it is a great way to get a real world interaction instead of just getting second hand information from a textbook,” Zetzman said. “You get to ask the person questions you are curious about.”

This use of culture can be extended past conversations with a native Spanish speaker from Mexico.

“Teachers in social studies often teach about culture and globalization,” Olvera said. “They can have a Skype conversation with people from other countries and see what their perspective is on globalization. What is their point of view? Exchanging points of view is very important in social studies classes to really get a world view of these concepts.”