Students learn to teach

Students from around the state that are going into teaching gathered at ACC for the conference, Reading the Future: Preparing Texas Educators Today for the Students of Tomorrow, on Oct. 10. The conference, sponsored by ACC's Center for Public Policy and Political Studies (CPPPS) and the Arts and Humanity Division was at the Highland Business Center.

From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. students from St. Edwards University, University of Texas, Huston Tillotson University and ACC listened to presenters speak about the future of education and what skills they will need to be effective teachers.

Director of the CPPPS, Peck Young and the Dean of Arts and Humanities Division, Lyman Grant put this event on with a focus of teaching Spanish speaking students. The importance of literacy was a center point of the presentations given.

"Texas is going to be a majority-minority state. We already have in Del Valle school district, Manor school district and AISD, that the majority of students are Hispanic," Young said.

The first speaker was former Mayor Gustavo L. "Gus" Garcia. He has served on a number of community and professional organizations such as the Texas Society of CPAs, and the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (who awarded him the Lifetime Achievement Award). In 1972 he was elected President of the Board of Austin Community College, and in 2001-2003 served as Mayor of Austin. Garcia said there was no higher calling than education.

"Whether you're going to teach elementary or high school, you can shape someone else's future, and you need to understand that," Garcia said.

"He really hit home for me; even the story about his life hit me because when I first started college I didn't do so well, but now I've found my way and am getting myself back on track," John Sanchez, education major said.

Other speakers at the event included Council Member Mike Martinez, Dr. Donetta Goodall and Dr. Ramon H. Dovalina. Dovalina, who was named President of Laredo Community College in 1995 and also launched an environmental science center emphasized that students who couldn't speak English well would be hampered in emergency situations or when having to communicate medical needs. "English should be taught through the 12th grade, as of now it is not," Dovalina said.

Part of his reasoning for English being taught all through grade school is that many Spanish speaking students have no reinforcement to learn English at home.

Dovalina said that after taking a class, they (english as second language students) go home and are surrounded by Spanish speaking family members and Spanish speaking television and radio programs. "This doesn't encourage them to retain any fluency in English they might've gained while taking the class."

"What I loved was the receptiveness of the audience to learning about new ideas for educating bilingual students," said Carla Jackson, associate director of CPPPS.

After the speakers finished, there was an open discussion led by a panel of students with up to 20 years of teaching experience. They answered questions among themselves as well as from the audience. "By having them express some of their ideas and issues, we were all able to learn more about what's needed when it comes to bilingual education," Jackson said.

Leading the panel was Dr. Giao Phan, Associate Professor and Chair of the Education Instruction Department at ACC. She maintained the interactive discussion between students and teachers on the panel, centered around the growing number of Hispanic students.

The learning of English was definitely vital to Garcia's career as a CPA and eventually as mayor. Garcia spoke about having a gift with numbers, but not knowing enough English to use that talent.

"I couldn't read tax codes. I couldn't do anything," Garcia said. The event wasn't about simply teaching English, but being able to connect with non-English speaking students and understanding their culture, according to Young. He was not alone in the sentiment of wanting to use the teacher's role to empower future students.

Garcia told the gathered education majors, "you're the link between what they can be and what they want to be."