Faculty Report Template

Name
Donna L. Ross

Faculty/Rank
Associate Professor

Department
School of Teacher Education

College
Education

Office phone
594-6129

E mail address
DLRoss@mail.sdsu.edu

Proposal title
Student Teaching in Torreón, México: The Maiden Voyage

Country visited
Mexico, (Torreon)

Institution visited
Colegio Americano de Torreon

Dates of travel
November 7-December 22, 2005

Number of student participants:
7 Teacher Education Students

Previous IP proposals submitted and grants awarded
(list titles, countries and dates):
Ross, Donna L. (2004). International Student Teaching: Connecting with Mexican Culture and Spanish Language. México.
This grant supported the design portion of the international student teaching program in Torreón. During my Spring 2005 trip to Torreón I met with staff at the Colegio Americano de Torreón to formalize guidelines for mentor teacher selection and home-stay criteria. I also traveled to several local sites for possible field excursions. I introduced the idea of fund-raising in México to help make the program sustainable. We discussed the possibility of writing a grant to bring teachers from the school in Torreón to San Diego for a semester, as well.

Ross, Donna L. (2003). Future Teachers’ Immersion into Mexican Culture and the Spanish Language. México.
This was the initial grant to explore options for a student teaching experience in either Torreón or La Paz, México. After meeting with school personnel and investigating the housing options, I decided that Torreón held the most promise.

Oechel, W., Anderson, T., Ross, D. (2000, 2001) Explorations for potential K-6 outreach, undergraduate field research course experiences, and graduate research opportunities in circum-Pacific terrestrial carbon balance and interactions with the Pacific atmosphere-ocean system
This was a biology project and a course was developed in La Paz, México with science students from SDSU, CSUSM, and CIBNOR. I developed a science education outreach component for this project. I worked with science graduate students from CIBNOR and UABC in La Paz in 2001 and 2002. I have continued to do similar work and I am currently preparing a UCMEXUS grant to bring CIBNOR students up to SDSU to participate in our science education outreach programs. This grant prompted me to explore La Paz as a possibility for a student teacher program, but the lack of an international school made it a less appropriate site.

Have all required reports been submitted?
Yes

Other funding for this activity available/applied for:
Student scholarships from OIP and the International Honor Society.

Proposal Abstract (75 word maximum):

Most novice teachers are placed in schools in which the percentage of children who are English Learners is very high. The CSU system has a bilingual teacher preparation program, but the number of Spanish-speaking students qualified to enter the program from SDSU is small. This project provides an international, bilingual experience for our monolingual Teacher Education (TE) students, while also allowing them to complete student teaching requirements.

Travel report:

I. Opening/overview of intentions/activity
A full student teaching experience in an international school in Mexico. In this model, the elementary school in Mexico where the SDSU students are placed for student teaching must provide instruction in English in order to meet California credentialing requirements. International schools in Mexico meet this requirement. Seven students completed one full student teaching placement at the Colegio American de Torreón. Students lived in home-stays to increase the connection with the local Mexican culture. This school is accredited and may provide future possible employment opportunities for SDSU graduates.

II. In preparation for the trip abroad
To explore schools in Mexico with English instruction, I consulted the internet and identified the accredited American and International schools in Mexico. Then I attended the international teaching sessions at the annual conference of the Association of Teacher Educators in Dallas, Texas. Through contacts made at that conference, I learned more about the school systems in Mexico and received the names of several school superintendents who had worked with student teachers in the past. I exchanged emails with several superintendents and deduced that the Colegio Americano de Torreon had the best potential for success. I made arrangements to visit the schools, both the elementary and secondary schools, and talk with teachers and principals.
I developed a budget, identified appropriate mentor teachers for the student teachers, developed criteria for homestays, and made travel arrangements. I designed a brochure and recruited students. I interviewed each student individually and accepted seven students for the first year of the program.

III. Upon arrival/specific activity
While at the Colegio Americano de Torreon, I met with the superintendent, both principals, the community relations directors, teachers and students. I attended staff meetings, sporting events, school concerts, and administrative meetings at both schools to demonstrate our commitment to participating fully in the school community.
On a daily basis, I supervised the student teachers in their placements. I wrote evaluations and observation notes for each student teacher observation. I met regularly with the mentor teachers to guide them through the process. I held a weekly seminar after school for the student teachers. I developed and implemented weekend trips for the student teachers, including a “treasure hunt” in the city to become familiar with the central area, trips to museums and concerts, overnight excursions to CuatroCienegas and Zacatecas, and a joint field trip with the high school Investigation club to a mine.
I also maintained a website for the program. http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/CRMSE/dross_ist.html
Near the end of the program, I did final observations and evaluations for each student. I helped the mentor teachers write final evaluations and letters of recommendations for the student teachers, and I organized a final “thank-you” dinner for the teachers.

IV. Conclusion, recommendation, and next step?
This site works well for this program because:

• The Colegio Americano de Torreon is accredited, so the students receive student teaching credits and their program is not delayed by a semester.
• Homestays were an excellent way to connect with the community, but somewhat more difficult to arrange than I had anticipated.
• The cultural excursions were a huge hit.
• Torreon has a small percentage of English speakers in the city, so it is an authentic experience in that sense.
• Torreon is a large city with over 1 million inhabitants, so there are plenty of things for the students to do in the community. There are several nice cultural theaters, 14 movie theaters, a baseball, basketball, and soccer team, a bowling alley, a mall, and a traditional town center with a mercado and center plaza.
• There are good medical facilities if an emergency were to arise.
• It is a safe, somewhat “sleepy” city despite its size.

The students who participated this year are supportive of the program and have told me that it was a very valuable experience. I saw amazing growth in the students, both in terms of teaching and cultural sensitivity. I have already started receiving inquiries about the possibility of another program in 2006. I think it will be a good recruiting tool if we can develop a sustainable program.

If we do it again next year, I’d like to make it a full eight weeks instead of seven. I’d like the student teachers to spend more time in the public schools, perhaps on Saturday mornings. I’ll need to figure out another option for local transportation, the car rental was much more expensive than they had originally quoted. I’ll need to have a back-up plan in case we cannot get home-stays for all of the student teachers. In addition, we need to brainstorm ways for this to “count” in the teaching load, in order to make it appealing to faculty participants. Beyond that, I don’t think I would change a thing! It was a marvelous, albeit exhausting, experience. Colegio Americano de Torreon welcomes our return.

All information should be sent to The Office of International Programs via e mail:

oip@mail.sdsu.edu