Lindleigh Whetstone wears headphones as she shoves clothes into the washing machine. Her classmate, Stepheno Zollos, wears them as he shops for groceries. An onlooker might assume the teens are listening to the latest top-40 hit, but they’re really learning Spanish.
Whetstone, 18, and Zollos, 17, are in Kathy O’Connor’s class at Tidewater Community College in southeastern Virginia. O’Connor got a grant for $11,000 to lend her students iPods so they can practice their Spanish conversations anywhere – not just in front of a computer.