North Chicago schools turn to Spain for bilingual teachers

[Geee]

News Sun:


District 187 public schools have gone global for a solution to a shortage of highly qualified bilingual teachers. The district recently recruited and hired eight teachers from Spain, including Meritxell Miret, 30, from Barcelona, who is bracing for her first Midwest winter.

Miret, who is sharing privatized housing at Naval Station Great Lakes with two other teachers from Spain, warmed-up students in her Yeager Elementary pre-kindergarten enrichment class Wednesday morning with a song that the tykes sang first in English, then in Spanish: “Hello! Hello! How are you? I am fine. I hope that you are, too.”

One of Miret’s students, Maria, 4, who shyly said “Yes,” she likes America “mucho,” is the child of Neal Academy math and science teacher Francisco Rodriguez, 41, who arrived from Madrid with his young family in tow. Another daughter is enrolled at Forrestal Elementary and his wife, also a teacher in Madrid, is helping the district as a volunteer.

Rodriguez speaks with a different accent than his students who mostly hail from Mexico, but the goal in his classes is to learn — and teach — in English.

“Most of time I speak with them in English, but sometimes when they’re struggling I use Spanish,” said Rodriguez, who explains concepts in Spanish to two students who speak no English then pushes them to “use English.”

“The most important thing is that they understand what they’re doing,” Rodriguez said, “So if they need Spanish, I’m going to use Spanish.”

[Geee]

OK, bad enough that we are having to recruit Spanish speaking teachers apparently all over the county but why are we putting them up at Navy housing also???