Spanish
Ms. Marianela Belloso-Pinto
Marianela Belloso-Pinto was born in Caracas, Venezuela, and earned her Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education from Universidad Católica Andrés Bello. Upon graduating, she taught first and second grade for two years at the Unidad Educativa Colegio Insight. She moved to the United States in 1999, and soon thereafter began teaching Spanish in the City Schools of Decatur school system to grades K-5. While teaching in the City Schools of Decatur system, Ms. Belloso-Pinto earned her Master’s degree in the history and culture of Spain at the University of Salamanca in Salamanca, Spain, where she graduated with high honors. In 2006, Ms. Belloso-Pinto was selected as one of only two Spanish teachers in the entire state of Georgia to represent the state for purposes of the NOELLA national foreign language pilot project in Washington, D.C. This federally-funded project aimed to establish the first affordable, national, and universally accessible norm-based assessment tool for proficiency in early language learning.
Ms. Belloso-Pinto has developed a teaching system that combines music, dance, interactive role playing, and other creative as well as traditional teaching techniques to push students to learn how to effectively communicate in a foreign languge. She firmly believes that memorizing vocabulary is simply not enough. The students must learn how to use the vocabulary in complete and complex sentences in order to become effective communicators. By teaching Spanish in an energetic, fun, and interactive way, Ms. Belloso-Pinto is able to give the students the tools that they need to become effective Spanish speakers and writers.
Besides being an accomplished teacher, Ms. Belloso-Pinto is also an accomplished flamenco dancer and salsa dancer, having performed with the professional dance company Salsatlanta, and currently serving as the director and owner of her own professional flamenco dance company, Caló Gitano.
Useful Links
Click HERE for upcoming events and assignments from Ms. Belloso-Pinto!
Monica Wolff-Waldman
Monica Wolff-Waldman grew up in Mexico City. She grew up speaking Spanish and also speaks 6 other languages. She got her Ph.D. 11 years ago in clinical Neuropsychology and a post-doctoral fellowship at Yale University in psychiatric genetics but has to say that teaching is where her heart is now. She got married almost 7 years ago and she recently had twins, Ethan and Gabriela. She has been working as a teacher for 12 years now, 10 at the elementary level and 2 years here at ACMS.
Mrs. Waldman continues to combine psychology theories with education, which makes her classroom experience a very unique and special one. She feels confident in her knowledge of the curriculum for students and brings to the classroom an understanding of child development and effective methodologies to engage students in learning. With these skills she has been able to promote student inquiry, exploration and knowledge construction. It is her belief that it is important to give students many opportunities to pose questions, and utilize logic and reason to discover solutions with the goal of becoming confident problem solvers and learners. As a classroom teacher she has engaged students in hands-on experiences and empowered them to come to their own conclusions. This has helped her students to make connections between disciplines and to the world outside of the classroom. She believes this is how successful learning takes place.
She believes in the power of children and the awesome influence a teacher holds. She knows that she has created a child-centered learning environment enriched with a community-centered core and exploration of self.
Through songs, games, drama, art, and movement exercises our students learn to understand and communicate in Spanish. Science, math, and social studies are also included in our Spanish lessons.
She continues to improve each year, and values your input and suggestions to help build a strong Spanish program.
Mrs. Waldman hopes that she has an opportunity to meet you in the near future. Thank you for all your support! ¡Hasta luego!
Useful Links
Click HERE for upcoming events and assignments from Ms. Waldman!