Aug 26, 2004

So...what to teach?

There's this program called Project Teaching that Wisconsin has that allows students who have bachelor degrees in areas of high school teaching to get their certificate in one semester. There are a total of 100 hours, a combination of weekend classes, online classes, and 20 hours teaching/assisting in a local classroom, if you have 5 years of professional experience behind you. Then you are "monitored" for 2 years as you teach, and are then given your license.

I'm not sure that is what I want to do, though. While it's only a semester, it costs about $3000, and then I'm stuck to an additional 2 years of being in WI for monitoring. Ok, that's not that long of a time, but still. I have to have the application in November 15th to start in January, so I have to pray about this.

My other qualm over it is that it would license me to teach Spanish. I love Spanish, and I think it is one of the most useful languages to learn. Anyone who has studied socio-economic trends knows that Spanish is already the 2nd most spoken language in the U.S., and in the next 20 years it might surpass even English. Does that it mean it would become our official language? No. But it could become our second official language. Then, not to mention that After Chinese and English, Spanish is the most spoken language in the world. I know that being able to speak it has enabled my friends, my sister, and I to have that extra "edge" in the job market. That alone has gotten us a job where the other candidates were similarily qualified, but just couldn't speak Spanish.

So yes, I love the language. But...can I teach it? No matter how hard I try, I still sound like an American when I speak it. I cannot roll my R's. While I pronounce almost everything correctly, it still isn't quite right. While I have been told that my abilities with Spanish are excellent by my college professors, and that my speech barriers shouldn't prevent me from teaching it, I still worry. I personally would want a teacher who could pronounce the language well. Sure, I could teach first and second year Spanish with probably no problem, but after that?? My students wouldn't take my abilities seriously.

And it sucks, because of my speech impediment. I just can't do anything about it. I have practiced this language ever since I was 13 years old, but I will always sound like I do. So can I teach it?

That is the question.

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