|
A common linguistic thread runs between teachers Roberto Gutiérrez and Jeri Sundquist, who were recognized by their peers this year for their standout work at Willow Glen middle and high schools. These San Jose Unified School District educators spend their days teaching native Spanish-speakers to become proficient in English while retaining their mother tongue. The instructors also help their students acclimate to American society without severing cultural ties to their homeland.
For their dedication Gutiérrez and Sundquist were honored on May 5 as site teachers of the year by the San Jose Unified School District and the San Jose Teachers Association.
Gutiérrez, who teaches sixth-grade Spanish and high school-level Spanish to native speakers at Willow Glen Middle School, has a personal connection to his students struggling with a second language. At age 12, he emigrated from Mexico to Monterey, where his schooling was a mixture of English as a Second Language classes and regular coursework.
"I'm a product of bilingual education," Gutiérrez says. "We either sank or swam. That's my push to Spanish-speaking students: They can do it as well."
While Gutiérrez learned English in school, he didn't learn about the Mexican culture he'd left behind. As the adviser for the middle school's Latino club, he tries to share his culture with non-Latino students and to give students from that culture a sense of their heritage.
Gutiérrez says language and culture go hand in hand.
"They should be taught across the curriculum, especially at a school where 60 percent of the students are of Latino background," the teacher says.
Sundquist says Willow Glen High School administrators are receptive to the needs of her ESL students and concerned about the quality of their education. In addition to her ESL classes, Sundquist also teaches Spanish to native speakers through a program she helped develop at the high school.
"That's why I was so proud of this award," she says. "It says something about the value of our program."
Sundquist's biggest challenge is developing curricula for each grade level in classes where students are at various levels of English proficiency.
"In a monolingual class, students are all on different rungs of the achievement ladder," Sundquist says. "When you add a different language, you add a whole other dimension. A kid could be on a high rung in his native language and a low rung in English."
Sundquist is sensitive to the frustration some students feel when their academic achievement is hampered by their inability to speak and learn in English.
"I tell my ESL students as often as I can that I admire their academic and personal struggle," she says. "I keep reminding them that it's not a reflection of their intelligence."
Sundquist says ESL teachers could use similar support as the notion of what bilingual education entails keeps evolving.
"They need an advocate to help see where their needs are and to propose ideas to the administration," she adds. "I have a lot of ideas."
|
Photograph by Vicki Thompson