Teachers take a lesson, in Mexico

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Monday, May 28, 2007 | 6:07 a.m.

Sara Ritner, one of two counselors for about 1,200 students at Gibson Middle School, got "the look" when she asked the girl to talk about her stepfather's too-heavy hands.

"It's the look that says, 'I wish I knew what you were saying,' " Ritner recalled.

The counselor had asked the student to describe where her stepfather was hitting her, but the girl, whose first language is Spanish, didn't understand.

Ritner, whose school is 63 percent Hispanic, is one of 23 Clark County School District employees who will head to Cuernavaca, Mexico, for two weeks in June to take part in a Spanish language and cultural immersion program.

Most of them are teachers and not counselors, and don't often face such crises as the one Ritner did that day. (She wound up pulling in a nurse's assistant to translate.)

But they all agree on one thing: With Hispanics making up 39 percent of the district's enrollment, learning Spanish and understanding Hispanic culture are useful tools, at the very least to help build better relationships with students and parents.

The program is not without controversy, however, because of resistance to the idea of bringing more Spanish into the classroom and the debate about who should pay for such programs.

Maria Chairez, principal of Quannah McCall Elementary School and the trip's organizer, has been unsuccessful in her bids for federal money and other public and private dollars.

She has seen the program grow from fewer than 10 teachers to the present group in the five years she has taken teachers to Cuernavaca.

She said the program is different from any local course because it immerses teachers in Mexican culture and puts them in the same position as many of their students, who have to learn a new language in the country where it's spoken.

She and some of the participants were frustrated by what they saw as a lack of understanding about the need for the program and its benefits.

"People say, 'Well you know, the child should be learning English,' " Chairez said. "But the question is, how?"

Chairez said teachers learning a foreign language where it's spoken then can apply some of their own experience in the classroom when they're teaching English.

"The teachers are getting a simulation of what the kids are going through," she said.

Estella Trotter, who has taught at the 82 percent-Hispanic Lincoln-Edison Elementary School for four years, said learning some Spanish and understanding the culture are key to doing her job. The third grade teacher faces a classroom every morning in which the first language for all but one of her 18 students is Spanish.

Just last week, she said, a student arrived from Mexico.

How do students like him get on?

"They'll watch other students and see if everybody is sitting down, are they opening their books, and so on," she said.

She wishes she could say even a few words to them.

"You need to build a bond with your students," she added. "And if he sees me trying (to speak Spanish), he can feel comfortable with his own process of learning."

There also are occasions where she can't speak with parents, sometimes finding herself in the uncomfortable situation of talking about a student's behavior with that same student translating.

She already has taken district-approved and federal Title I-funded courses in teaching English as a second language, as well as Spanish courses locally.

But hearing the language spoken nonstop for two weeks, and learning about the culture of so many of her students, has a different value, she said.

That's why she can't understand how Chairez was turned down in her quest for Title I money.

"I was floored when I learned they didn't support this," she said.

Patsi Saas, one of the directors of the district's Title I program, said the course was not mentioned in any Title I plans of the participating schools, so it wasn't eligible. In addition, "district mandates do not support teachers leaving the country for professional development," she said. The district has $63.3 million in Title I funds for fiscal 2007.

Lucia Ribeiro, international welcome coordinator for the Cobb County, Ga., school district, has been able to build a patchwork of private and public grants to pay the way for nearly 80 teachers in the Cuernavaca program the past two years - although none of that money is Title I.

The district, which includes Atlanta and is 14 percent Hispanic, is behind the concept, she said.

"First you need to have a supportive administration and one that believes in training teachers for them to be prepared to face diversity in the classroom," Ribeiro said.

Ritner wants to face diversity in her school and is convinced the course will help.

"I feel like the district is scared about us speaking Spanish , but they're wrong," she said.

"If I could speak a little bit ... they (students) would feel like I respect them ... (and) don't discount their knowledge and learning."