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Spanish orientation
Before they hit Iowa classrooms this fall, a group of Spanish teachers
went through an orientation program at Iowa State.
Iowa is facing a shortage of Spanish teachers. The shortage is so great
that eight Iowa school districts decided to extend their search beyond the
state's boundaries.
The search actually has stretched across the Atlantic Ocean to Spain. This
fall seven teachers from the European country will teach at various schools
in Iowa for the upcoming academic year. One teacher will teach in two separate
districts.
Even though the teachers are proficient in Spanish and English, the districts
didn't just want to place them into the classroom without any preparation.
That's where Linda Quinn Allen and Iowa State come in.
The first week of August, Allen, an assistant professor of foreign languages
and literatures, along with colleagues Iowa State's Department of Curriculum
and Instruction (Marcia Rosenbusch) and the state's Department of Education
(Carmen Sosa), planned a five-day orientation for the seven Spanish teachers.
Allen, who coordinates the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature's
secondary foreign language education efforts, led the on-campus institute.
"These are experienced teachers," Allen said. "But it was
felt that they needed some sort of program to get them acclimated to classrooms
in Iowa."
The intensive five-day program helped the teachers with some "housekeeping"
items including applying for an Iowa teacher's license and other paperwork
issues. The teachers learned methods and strategies for implementing standards-based
foreign language instruction, discussed multicultural issues, learned about
the Iowa World Language Association and became familiar with technology
and video conferencing.
"We looked over their textbooks to get them acquainted with the materials
and worked with them on planning out their units," Allen said. "Each
teacher has a mentor teacher in their home district and we brought them
to campus the last day of the orientation and had them interact with each
other."
The seven teachers will be employed this academic year by school districts
including Galva-Holstein, Clarke (Osceola), Rockwell City-Lytton, Farragut,
Hamburg, Malvern, Atlantic, and Northwood-Kensett. The Iowa Department of
Education interviewed them in Spain on behalf of the school districts.
Allen says the Iowa program is based on a similar program in Nebraska.
"There are not enough people going into teaching," Allen said.
"There is a teacher shortage in every area, but particularly in Spanish."
The teacher shortage comes on the heels of additional secondary students
enrolling in Spanish.
"More students are interested in taking Spanish," Allen said.
And those students taking Spanish in the eight school districts employing
the new Spanish teachers will have a great advantage on learning the language
according to Allen.
"This is an unprecedented opportunity for these students to get to
know people from another culture," she said. "These teachers will
bring a first hand knowledge of not only their language, but their culture
to the classroom and they will be able to incorporate that culture into
language instruction."
Around LAS
September 10-16, 2001
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