Need some good news? Algunas noticias buenas? Kristin Ginty’s Grade 6 Spanish class decided we could all use some. Based on the YouTube series Some Good News by Jon Krasinski, the students created Algunas Noticias Buenas. They found good news far and wide including an impending “cumpleaños” for one, clapping for healthcare workers at 7 PM each evening, and the world tournament of a favorite video game.

This was the students’ first full year of Spanish in the Middle School. Grade 5 is a sampler year—kids take Spanish, French, and Mandarin before choosing a language to study in Grade 6. If students attended Poly’s Lower School, they had Spanish with teacher Sarah Ely.

“We built up to the video over the course of six classes over three weeks,” said Ginty, “First, we spoke about personal good news and general things like music, family, food, etc. that make us happy. We then expanded our lens and set out to find some good news about the U.S. and the world. Students were tasked with writing a piece of personal good news, a piece of good news from the U.S., and one from outside the U.S.”  She added, “We had been studying the difference between the verbs ‘ser’ and ‘estar,’ and how you have to use estar to speak about emotions, so it was a wonderful fit with this project.”

The students discussed the importance of reliable resources, and searched Newsela‘s collection of good news. The class discussed their choices and each student chose one bit of good news to share in the video. But that wasn’t all. The students also had to create their own logo. “Regarding the logo design,” Ginty said, “students broke into groups of three in Zoom breakout rooms and had to design one of the logo letters (ANB) collaboratively in Google Drawings. I was so impressed with how they worked together. Each student also had to try their hand at writing the title for the logo ‘La clase de Sra. Ginty presenta…’ as a homework assignment.” Peytin M.’s ’26 logo was chosen for the video. Mitchell F. ’26 was chosen for the Jon Krasinski role of host. “When I was chosen as the host,” Mitchell said, “At first, I felt excited, but then I realized that I had to memorize my lines which were very long. I spoke to my amazing teacher, Sra. Ginty, and she said I could look at my lines. After she said that, I felt very relieved and that’s the reason i performed as well as I did.”

The class discussed how to present themselves professionally on camera and practiced in breakout rooms and as a class. “My favorite part of the project was filming in class,” said Anna B. ‘26. Then, they finally recorded! Enjoy Algunas Noticias Buenas.