Me standing near the Pacific Ocean at Jaco Beach, Costa Rica in summer, 2011

My name is Heather Sandy.  This is my eighth year teaching Spanish at Washington High School and my sixteenth year teaching overall.  I am originally from the Toledo, Ohio area.  After attending Anthony Wayne High School in Whitehouse, Ohio, I went to the University of Cincinnati where I received a Bachelor's of Science in Spanish Education, as well as a Bachelor's of Arts in Spanish Studies.  During my time at UC, I studied at the University of Salamanca for three months in Salamanca, Spain.  After graduation, I moved to Illinois and taught for five years at Illini Bluffs High School.  I then taught at Illinois Central College and Bradley University for four years.  During my time at ICC and Bradley, I did graduate study for three consecutive summers at the University of Santiago in Santiago, Spain through the University of Northern Iowa. 

HEATHER SANDY

hsandy@wacohi.net

JV Boys Tennis Coach

FOREIGN LANGUAGES

I love to travel around the world and throughout the United States.  I have been to Spain seven times, Portugal many times, Mexico three times, Costa Rica, Gibraltar, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Poland, and Norway.  I have also traveled to almost half of the states in the United States. 

I also am a member of the Peoria Pops Orchestra, where I play flute.  We perform many times throughout the year at many community events. 

I love to speak Spanish, and I use Spanish daily in the classroom.  I provide a lot of comprehensible input to my students so that they can begin to internalize the language.  I encourage my students to use Spanish both inside and outside of the classroom.  In order to become proficient in a language, one needs to force himself/herself to use the language as much as possible.