ESL teaching? ESL educator in public high school? (Madison: public school, universities)

[hijabiluvschopstix]

I do not have a teaching certificate in any US state. I have a BA in Linguistics and an MA in Teaching English as a Second/Other Language, both degrees from US universities. I have been teaching uni level academic English in the Middle East for 8 years. I am interested in becoming a high school ESL teacher in Wisconsin and will be relocating to the Madison area. I have researched on the WI Dept of Public Instruction website and there is no information about ESL teacher certification. It works differently from state to state. How does one become certified for high school ESL through some alternative teacher certificate program? How does ESL education work in WI according to state educational philosophy and policy? Do public high school ESL teachers have their own classrooms and low English proficiency students take ESL classes during their day at school? Or are ESL teachers "farmed out" and sent to several schools each day to work with students? How does all this work in WI? What is the ESL teaching scene like in Madison?

(it seems like just as in much of the country, uni and college level ESL programs in Madison hire temporary part-timers on a contract to contract basis, with no job security...this is why I am highly interested in getting certified to teach in a public school ESL program)

Thanks!

[Chelito23]

In Madison, most schools have an ESL Department with full time, permanent staff. I suppose they hire more staff (part time basis maybe) depending on the need on any given year. Many of these classes target native Spanish speakers, some core classes are given in a transitional bilingual setting under the ESL Department as well, or they offer ESL Math, Science, etc. with basic language. There is work out there, but I do not know any details about the certification process. I would check out the MMSD web page and contact their Human Resource Dept. to find more...or an individual school and email one of the ESL Departments too. Good luck, it is not easy getting a job in the MMSD!

[hijabiluvschopstix]

I do speak pretty fluent Spanish so that is good to know. However, I am an ESL teacher, not a bilingual ed teacher. And also good that there are proper ESL departments. I was searching through the threads here on teaching in WI, and it seems that it is very hard for new teachers and especially people with alternative certification, who seem to end up spending years as sub teachers. I was hoping that it might be different in the ESL field since that is a critical needs area (at least considered so by the state of WI, don't know specifically about Madison). Thanks for your input.