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Hola, yo soy la Profesora Casler
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y soy de Meadow Vista, California.
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I am Professor Casler
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and I'm from Meadow Vista, California.
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And I'm excited to have you join
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me this summer term for learning
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the Spanish language and exploring
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the culture of it.
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My students call me Profe, or Profesora
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or Señora, está bien.
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I have been teaching Spanish for a number
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of years. I grew up here in California
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and was exposed from an early age,
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which I really appreciate, and I just kept
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kind of stumbling along and learning more
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as I went, and the next thing I knew,
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I was majoring in it in college.
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I studied abroad in Ecuador for a semester
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and I studied abroad in Spain
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for a semester, and I've never really
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quit traveling. I've been to Puerto Rico
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and to Mexico, and most recently I've
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spent quite a bit of time in Costa Rica
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living with an exchange family down there.
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And I took my family as well. And I
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just love the language and all the doors
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that it opens, so I hope that you
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will find that it also opens doors
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for you. This is an introductory class,
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this is for true beginners. It's going to
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be fast-paced, because it is a summer
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course. It's already a fast-paced course
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in a normal semester and then we are
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doubling the speed for summer.
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I want to say though, that if you already
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have experience with Spanish, if you've
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take two years of high school or more,
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if you've grown up speaking Spanish,
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then we can get you into a higher level.
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Just let me know; I can help you do
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the paperwork. It's easy.
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And we can get you into the appropriate
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level. If you're someone who wants to
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major in Spanish, doing the Sierra College
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Spanish AA degree, or the AA-T
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degree, which is the Associates for
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Transfer, we can short-cut that
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for you, and have you go directly
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into Spanish 3 or 4, whatever it
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is that you are equipped for.
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For those of you who are
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true beginners, there is no lower
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level than this, this is the
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very beginning, and I don't leave anyone
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behind. I will work just as hard as
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you do. If you are struggling with
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something, I'm happy to do everything
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I can to help you. I will support you,
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I will give extra tutoring, I've met
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people at different locations
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in the region; whatever it is that
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you need. There's also lots of
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support available through Sierra
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College. There's free tutoring, there's
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online tutoring as well,
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which is 24-7.
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And, then there's tutoring on all of
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our campuses. So, whatever you need
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there's support for that.
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This is, as I said, a fast-paced course.
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It's a 5-unit course. And I'm not sure if
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you're aware, but units are ... I'm going
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to say "universal," they are global.
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We measure college units as a
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Carnegie Unit, and that represents
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for every hour that you're in class
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there's two hours of study outside
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of class. So, this is a 5-unit
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course and over a normal semester
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that would be five units:
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five hours in class and the ten hours
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of outside study. So, fifteen hours
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a week for Spanish. Since this is
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a summer course, we are doing at twice
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the speed, so that means that you
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are doing essentially ten units
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of Spanish a week, and therefore
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should be studying another twenty
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hours outside. So that's thirty hours
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a week. And if you think about that,
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that's almost a full-time job.
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So I really just want to put it
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out there, that if you are going
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to be successful in this course,
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you will need to be putting in the time
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studying, asking questions,
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doing activities to practice,
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reinforcing things, all of that.
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What I like to say is that the more
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contact you have, the better you're
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going to be. So, staying in constant
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contact with the language.
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You, in an online class, will be studying
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on your own, but we will come together
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to share things. So we will post
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things for each other, and watch
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or read the posts of other students
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and then respond to those, periodically.
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And, of course I will be looking over
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everything, and I will be offering
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suggestions and feedback. And students
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who reach out to me, as I said before,
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I always help and support.
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I want to make sure I'm not
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forgetting anything here.
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There are two places for homework.
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One is this Canvas course, and you've
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already made it here, so that's
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a good start. The other is
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with our textbook website that's
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called Vista Higher Learning.
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Oh, sorry, VHLCentral.com.
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Vista Higher Learning is the
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larger company, but the homework
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site is VHLCentral.com.
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And you need to go there to check
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the due dates for homework, practice
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in that website, and then I'll
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feed that back into Canvas
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to effect your overall grade.
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And, I think that's it! So,
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if you have any questions
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please feel free to reach out to me.
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I'm just excited to get started,
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and I wish you great success
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in this semester. Chau.