August 18, 2016: 6pm-8:30pm
International Institute of the Bay Area
Sam Bianco
sbianco@iibayarea.org
By my 6th visit to the International Institute, I began to feel more comfortable teaching my class. I had not completely earned their respect yet, but I was getting better with my Spanish and teaching techniques. By this time, I had a consistent co-teacher, who is incredibly good at Spanish. She had taken over the lead role in the class, while I was mainly an assistant. This was nice for me, as I wasn't ready to teach the class on my own yet, and I could always ask my co-teacher to help explain complex subject material I didn't have the words for. Slowly though, I am starting to take on more responsibility. I can confidently explain governmental concepts such as the line of succession should the President die completely in Spanish
As of now, two of my students have passed their citizenship test yet. My students are much smarter than I initially thought. They learn incredibly fast, and it is a very collaborative environment. When I teach history, half of them already know what we are talking about. The ones that can understand my broken Spanish translate for the ones that don't, and they all learn together. It's so important to them to become citizens, so they are among the most motivated students I've ever seen.
Part of the reason I chose the International Institute was to have a direct impact on the issue of immigration. I think I'm accomplishing this. My teaching is having a direct impact on the lives of my students, because I've seen that they are learning and getting prepared for their citizenship tests. The only thing that I want to improve is the reach of the program. At the moment, we are lucky to have a Stanford class who volunteers to teach, but when they leave, we will be short on teachers. The program works, but not enough people are taking advantage of it. We need more teachers to be able to expand our impact.
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