Would you believe we’ve been around since September 2009?! And yet, after all these years, I still find myself pondering the same question: Does Señor Wooly still have a place in the Spanish classroom? And if so, what is it?
Obviously, learning Spanish is part of the answer. But eventually, we hope that language leads somewhere bigger. We want students to step outside their own bubbles and connect with people and cultures beyond their own.
But that goal can feel awfully far away.
Many of our students have barely left their hometowns or states. Some struggle to connect with the students sitting right next to them!
The idea of someday using Spanish out in the world can feel incredibly abstract. And if we’re not careful, “abstract” can pretty quickly become “I don’t care.”
Which is precisely why we do things the way we do at Wooly.
Our stories often feature young people learning Spanish in classrooms much like theirs. A kid desperately asking to go to the bathroom. A student arriving late and having to explain his tardiness.
We want Spanish to feel like it belongs in our students’ lives. And we believe joy is one of the best ways to get there (even if the characters in our stories rarely get to experience that joy themselves 😂).
If a student laughs, gets invested in a story, or gets excited because they understood some Spanish, we’ve started building a bridge.
Eventually, we want that bridge to lead to new people, new places.
That’s the goal. To step outside our bubbles and realize there’s a whole world beyond our own.
And maybe that’s the role Wooly has been playing for the past 17 years: helping students take those first steps. We’ve helped them see that Spanish isn’t just something to be studied or viewed through museum glass.
We’re excited to spend another year doing just that. We hope you’ll join us.
Wooly Week is back!
We have a LOT to share about what’s coming to Wooly this school year, and Wooly Week is a big part of it.
More details are coming soon. For now, mark those dates on your calendar. It’s happening.
