El Inicio del Programa (beginning of the program)

This past week I took my interviews back to the beginning of the bilingual program. In all my past interviews leading up to this week, I met with professionals who taught kids who had been in the bilingual program for a couple years beforehand. This past week, I met with two teachers who taught kids in their first year of the bilingual program, prekindergarteners. This week gave me an insight of what the very first year of the dual language program is like, clarity over my preferred grade level, and important tips to use when choosing where and who to teach.

My first interview was on Wednesday, October 27, with Elsa Gutierrez-Molina. Mrs. Elsa Gutierrez Molina teaches pre kindergarteners at the Early Childhood School. The biggest takeaway from this interview was the ways she showed me how they communicate with families. Seesaw is an app that acts like “Facebook” for the families. The teacher posts pictures, notes, and videos throughout the day showing the parents what their kids are doing in class. Mrs. Elsa Gutierrez-Molina even showed me how to do it and posted a video right there with me. My second interview was with Mrs. Grace Rubio, prekindergarten teacher at the Early Childhood School. The highlight from this interview was that she showed me around the classroom and demonstrated a multitude of the different educational games that the kids play during class to help them learn. This helped me brainstorm different ways that I can incorporate learning into fun activities. Mrs. Grace Rubio was very kind and offered me the option to come back and observe a class one day, even if I do not want her as my mentor.

Although these two wonderful ladies opened up their classrooms for me and were amazing people, I am going to continue to look for a mentor because they teach four and five year olds. Prekindergarten is an adorable age, however, I would prefer either first or second grade. In the upcoming weeks, my goal is to meet with higher grade teachers that can potentially become my mentor for the Independent Study and Mentorship program.