Foreign Languages

For the languages, I'm thinking Spanish, French, Chinese, German, Latin, Italian, Japanese, and Russian. Narrowing those down, I have Spanish, French, Chinese, German, and Latin. And narrowing it down to Spanish, French, and Chinese. I know of a language magnet elementary school that teaches those three languages starting in first grade. 

In high school, students must take three years of two different languages. This is standard of most schools, but this will be special because my students will have started learning these languages from elementary school.

In middle school, there will be multiple levels of the languages, so students can experiment around with which languages they want to study. 

In elementary school, I'm thinking that classes should be designed to mix things up so students are exposed to all of the languages that they can take when they're older at a time when they soak up languages like a sponge. However, younger students sometimes mix up languages (interesting story about a young friend of mine whose father could not understand her half the time because she mixed up her English and the Dutch she learned in school) and may not be able to comprehend learning so many languages. This would promote offering just two or three languages from this time until graduation.

Some of my goals:

• In high school, and possibly younger, students should also get pin pals who speak the language they are studying. The language department could try to set up a system with other countries/schools to trade off speaking in English and their language so all students learn. 
• history and issues in countries that speak that language