Finding el Espanol in Texas (San Antonio, Austin: credit, house, find a job)

[GringoJay]

Hello -

Im about ready to move to Texas, and I am hoping you folks might be able to point me to the right city.

I am coming out to Texas to enroll in an alternative teaching certification program, and with any luck I will be teaching bilingual education next year. After spending the past two years teaching English abroad, Im ready to make a living wage, but still wanting to live in a Spanish immersed environment. At the moment I am trying to decide between Austin, San Antonio, El Paso, and perhaps the Rio Grande Valley. Before I get a whole bunch of replies telling me how horrible the RGV is, first know that I am looking for city where Im going to be able live in Spanish. I want to be immersed in it, and be actively using it everyday. I think this puts Austin out of the question...or does it? Are there any large Hispanic neighborhoods in Austin? Are the majority of the 60 percent of the hispanics in San An bilingual, and will this mean that the majority will speak to me, a bilingual caucasian in English, or Spanish? Which is safer, El Paso or the RGV? What is the majority language in El Paso?

On another note, is it common to see non-Latino bilingual education teachers?

Thanks a bunch...

[teatime]

What grade level certification are you seeking? That makes a difference.

[GringoJay]

EC-4 bilingual.

How does it make a difference?

[teatime]

Elementary bilingual teachers are much more in demand. If you were wanting to teach at the secondary level, then you'd have a much tougher time finding a job (unless you were a math or science teacher). Most of the elementary bilingual teachers are Hispanic, though, so you will face some competition.

I went through the alternative certification program for secondary English Language Arts. There was a teacher shortage at the time and I did find employment at the level I wanted but I was sweating it out, LOL. I am certified for grades 6-12 but really wanted to teach 11th or 12th grade. I got calls for middle school reading and took a big chance by waiting, but it worked out. The thing I didn't like about ACP was you had to find your OWN job and then pay the assigned mentor through the accredited agency/university. It was expensive, grrrrr.

So, keep that in mind when you're choosing where to live. If you move to an area that has declining enrollment, it's going to be difficult to find a job, especially if you're teaching on an emergency or probationary certificate. A school's rating is affected by having non-fully-certified teachers and they must explain to the state why they had to hire you and prove they couldn't find a certified, more-experienced teacher.

[Huckleberry3911948]

Originally Posted by GringoJay

Hello -

Im about ready to move to Texas, and I am hoping you folks might be able to point me to the right city.

I am coming out to Texas to enroll in an alternative teaching certification program, and with any luck I will be teaching bilingual education next year. After spending the past two years teaching English abroad, Im ready to make a living wage, but still wanting to live in a Spanish immersed environment. At the moment I am trying to decide between Austin, San Antonio, El Paso, and perhaps the Rio Grande Valley. Before I get a whole bunch of replies telling me how horrible the RGV is, first know that I am looking for city where Im going to be able live in Spanish. I want to be immersed in it, and be actively using it everyday. I think this puts Austin out of the question...or does it? Are there any large Hispanic neighborhoods in Austin? Are the majority of the 60 percent of the hispanics in San An bilingual, and will this mean that the majority will speak to me, a bilingual caucasian in English, or Spanish? Which is safer, El Paso or the RGV? What is the majority language in El Paso?

On another note, is it common to see non-Latino bilingual education teachers?

Thanks a bunch...

been there done that. get next to the border and the cross over to get your needs met. get a tutor or attend a school you can live in a boarding house but no need you can live here if you are on the border. stop speaking to americans, watching american tv reading american newspapers.
this is painful but it works. a mexican friend taught me to do this.
age is critical i was fortunate i did it young.
to answer your question. yeah if you are here. they are going to speak english. believe me they are motivated wouldn't you be? if your are there. why should they speak english right? i mean its their country. not to get political but we are the ones with the big guilt complex not them.

ps i did the same thing in france works great.
its just painful.

stephen s
san diego ca

[neddy]

San Antonio southward on the map and you can live in Spanish all ya want!

[SAtoDallas]

Sounds like your looking at the Rio Grande Valley.

[teatime]

Thinking about your post, I was wondering why you want Spanish immersion? Are you not yet fluent in Spanish? If not, I think it would be best for you to take Spanish classes and become fluent before starting ACP. The education courses plus working will keep you very busy and it might be too much to have to learn Spanish, too. I was really stressed my first year, teaching on an emergency permit, grading papers and doing after-hours school stuff, and taking three-hour education courses two nights per week and doing that coursework, too.

If you are already fluent in Spanish, you'll pick up the colloquialisms pretty fast. And at the fourth-grade level, the students should be focusing on English, not Spanish, unless you're teaching a "newcomers" class. The hard-line Spanish-speaking students may resist learning English but you HAVE to be firm and force them. The state is no longer letting them languish in bilingual ed. nor allowing them to take the TAKS in Spanish for very long. And thank God for that!

I had a group of Seniors a few years ago who had been in the school district for 7-8 years and still could not speak, write, or read English. They flat-out refused and called me a racist for not allowing them to turn in their work in Spanish. I tried to help them, they were required to come after school and on Saturdays for tutoring, their parents were super-upset with them and tried everything to make them study English harder, but nothing worked. They couldn't pass the exit-level TAKS and, at graduation, they received certificates of attendance, not diplomas.

As their last English teacher, I felt like a failure at first. But the administration made me realize that this was a problem in the making when the kids were in elementary and middle school; the bilingual teachers allowed them to do most of their work in Spanish. The old TAAS test didn't come with severe penalties for not passing and was a multiple choice test; they only had to guess a bit more than half right to pass.

Sorry I'm on a soapbox about this but upper-level English teachers have high-stakes messes to try to clean up when the bilingual teachers in the lower grades focus on Spanish and not English proficiency. Kids in elementary school soak up new languages like sponges, and when they get to high school, they're expected to have progressed to "academic proficiency," which means they can read difficult and classical texts in English with full comprehension.

More important than you immersing yourself in Spanish is your commitment to the teaching strategies and techniques that will make your students proficient in English. Some of the students will balk and fight you; a few of the parents may, too. But allowing them to function in Spanish not only puts them behind academically, it can also mask learning differences. I found kids in 11th grade who were dyslexic! It was never previously diagnosed because everyone attributed their difficulties to the ESL issues! That is so not fair to these kids!

I wish you all of the best of luck and hope you enjoy teaching in Texas. It's a lot of work and stress but, if you care about the kids, it's also very rewarding.

[GringoJay]

Teatime -

Thanks for the info

I consider myself fluent, I wouldnt be trying to get a bilingual teaching job if I didnt think my Spanish abilities were going to affect my students in a negetive way. With that being said, Spanish is my second language, thus I need to continually be immersed in it in order to mantain it, and grow in it. Im thinking I saw that you stated that you taught in Brownsville for a time on another post. What was that experience like? Where would recommend I go?

Jay

[teatime]

Jay, I didn't teach in the Brownsville public schools. I did teach at a Catholic high school there while I was working on my certification, but I left for another public school district (and a lot more money!). I didn't want to teach in a secondary school in Brownsville.

My son did great in the Brownsville elementary schools and I was quite pleased with the teachers and staff. It wasn't until middle school that all hell broke loose. So I think I can probably recommend the district if you can find a job. BISD does pay well.

Since you call yourself a "gringo," and thus probably don't mind being labeled according to your appearance and ethnic makeup, you might like Brownsville. I, frankly, resented being called a "gringa" and "la huera" by even professional people. (Goodness, if I was insensitive enough to call the majority there by equally pejorative terms, I would have been fired or severely disciplined, at the least. And for good reason!)

If you're used to (and like) diversity, don't move to Brownsville/RGV. I found it weird how, in 21st Century America, a place could operate so completely on ethnic terms. My students at the beginning of each year would invariably ask me how it felt to be the only white person in the school. As I told them, I don't see people according to their appearance and ethnicity; I saw them as my students, co-workers, and superiors. Period. I tried to get them past the ethnic nonsense, too, and had some degree of success. Still, they always referred to the outstanding students as being "too white," grrrrrrrr. They just couldn't understand how that term was hugely insulting to their own culture!

Anyhoo, it's an interesting place. I really cared about and loved my students, and I know I made a difference. LOL, they'd never tell me to my face, but sometimes they'd slip me little hand-written notes. Be prepared to encounter huge social problems among your students, though. It can be heart-breaking.