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The selfless, exhaustive work of teachers has always been well-known, but Jacob Denning and Stefanie Kelly have taken it a step further.

Denning, a teacher at Madrona Elementary, and Kelly, a teacher at Hazel Valley Elementary, recently sacrificed one of education's best perks-ummers off-to participate in a local cultural exchange program, "Discovering Our Culture."

The program, which ran throughout July, provided funding for six Mexican teachers to travel to Burien to teach the course on Mexican heritage to 120 Latino elementary school students in the Highline School District.

Denning and Kelly, along with Kim Jones, Katie Yore and Holli Harper, made up the group of Highline educators who were chosen to assist the Mexican teachers in the classrooms at Hazel Valley.

Suzanne Hibbert, Esther Brodin, and Dave Cotlove also took part in the program.

The American teachers braved a type of language immersion: the summer program was taught entirely in Spanish.

Both Denning and Kelly, who teach at schools with strong Latino demographics, had some prior knowledge of Mexican culture and the Spanish language.

Denning had taken three brief mission trips to Tijuana, while Kelly lived with a family in Morelia, Michoacan, for three months during a study abroad program in college.

They became interested in this program to expand their understanding of the diversity of Latino culture.

"There are many different cultures in Mexico," Denning pointed out.

Denning cited "communication purposes" as another motivating factor for participating.

The effect of this cultural plunge for Kelly was better communication with the parents of students in the program. "Before, I was comfortable with the kids," she said. "Now I'm even more comfortable with the adults."

Because instruction in Mexico tends to be more participatory, enlisting students and families as helpers, parent volunteers were often to be found at the school.

As a result of the increased amount of parent interaction, Kelly said her favorite part of the program was "getting to know the families on a different level."

Denning, too, said he took away ideas on "how to have parents more involved with projects" in his first grade classroom.

He praised "Family Nights," in which the students and parents returned to school in the evening to work on scrapbooking activities together.

The American teachers felt the firsthand exposure to traditional teaching methods used in Mexico enriched their approach to teaching.

In her combined third and fourth grade ELL (English Language Learners) classroom in the fall, Kelly plans to implement "more storytelling, using that format to give out information."

Kelly and Denning also agreed on the value of having more "project-oriented end of units."