Nov. 9, 2017 – Hartford, WI – Congratulations to Hartford Union High School Spanish Teacher, Sara Ruiz who has been named Wisconsin’s Spanish Teacher of the Year by the AATSP (American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese)-WI.
Senora Ruiz lives in West Bend with her husband Gabriel and three children Abi (5), Adrian (3), and Amelia (1). Senora Ruiz is in her second year of teaching at HUHS prior to that, spending nine years in West Bend.
She has taught every level of Spanish from 6th grade through high school.
In the classroom she focuses on language production and getting students involved in speaking, listening, writing and reading on a daily basis while making it fun and relevant to their lives. 
“My passion to teach comes from the students. I love seeing them get excited about different topics we are discussing and watching them get excited about communicating in another language. Watching a student go from being able to say hello or goodbye to being able to have a whole conversation in Spanish is an amazing journey to witness, “ said Senora Ruiz.
HUHS Senior Kaitlyn Kerrigan said, “Senora Ruiz is truly a great teacher. Spanish is a hard skill to teach students, and I think she does it very well. She incorporates a lot of fun learning into the language that help to retain the information.”
Outside of the classroom, Senora Ruiz involves her students and herself in the Latino community. Senora Ruiz was on the founding committee for Casa Guadalupe’s Dream to Succeed program which supports high school students as they graduate from high school and look at their future college and career options. Additionally, she has volunteered annually with Centro Hispano in Milwaukee alongside students for their Annual Thanksgiving Food Drive and assisted packing boxes of food to provide Thanksgiving meals for hundreds of families in the community.
She has coordinated various trips for her students including to Peru and Panama and is very excited to be taking 31 HUHS students to Costa Rica this summer. Professionally, Senora Ruiz is the Co-coordinator for the AATSP-WI State Spanish Pronunciation Contest. She organizes and coordinates a day-long event in which students memorize poems, short narrations or participate in short theater performances in Spanish. She also has acted as the AATSP Webmaster/Communications Coordinator for the last six year. HUHS is very proud to have Senora Ruiz as a part of our World Languages department.
Our students are lucky to experience such a passionate and driven teacher each day. Congratulations to Senora Sara Ruiz.
