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The Proyecto Maestria Master’s program is a grant-based program that sends up to twelve
teachers per year, experienced Master bilingual teachers from local Austin school districts
to UT to get a Master’s degree in Bilingual/Bicultural. We also have a summer institute that’s part
of the grant that brings teachers to the University of Texas for a summer to become bilingual
or ESL teachers. Over the last few years AISD has seen an enormous
growth in our English-language learner demographics. We’ve seen a huge shift. And so our district
has grown in the number of ELL’s substantially over the past several years. And so out of
the 83,000 thousand or so general education kids that we have we now have 26,000 thousand
students who are learning English as a second language, and so that’s about 29% of the
total population and we think that’s a wonderful thing for us to have so many kids who are
bilingual and bicultural. (kids speaking…teacher says “la a..”)
Proyecto Maestria is a federally-funded project , and it is a partnership between the University
and the Austin Independent School District and some of the surrounding school districts.
The overall goal is to improve the quality of bilingual education by providing leadership
personnel who can work with their own schools to enhance programs and services but also
to work with new teachers entering the field so that they have better experiences and we
increase the likelihood that they’ll stay in teaching because they have successful experiences
and then they’re helping us through our summer institutes increase the number of teachers
who enter the bilingual education/ESL fields. (teacher/kids: “papalote”)
Well there are many bilingual kids especially in the Southwest. We have many students whose
first language is Spanish in this case, and eh, they deserve to have opportunities to
demonstrate their learning in their own language when they are acquiring a second language.
So really it is bilingual education, a quality bilingual education program, the one that
it can offer them access to two languages, to content-learning, to express their learning
also in two languages. So if we can support the development of two languages or more,
why are we going to settle in just one and make of them monolinguals in English instead
of bilingual and biliterate. You know at this point there are different places in the United
States where bilingual education has been almost banned and bilingual kids are not receiving
the quality education that they deserve, and so to be able to work here in Austin with
a group of committed bilingual teachers, it feels really good.
(kids, teacher singing) My name is Monica Tellez-de Arsced, I’m
a preK bilingual teacher at Ridgetop Elementary within the Austin Independent School District,
and I found out about Proyecto Maestria through the District. Going through the program I
was armed with all kinds of tools, resources, people, books, knowledge, just all kinds of
things that help me when I’m in my classroom. (teacher speaks)
Sometimes a a program like this we feel that anybody can work really hard to present themselves
as they are and be successful in this program, so I would encourage anybody to to apply because
the language and the culture background that we bring really add and enrich the program.
For the Proyecto Maestria my goals to start out with obviously were to get my Master’s
and the things that really drew me into the program was the fact that other AISD bilingual
teachers were gonna also be in the program so that we could network.
I have been teaching for five years at AISD. Being part of this program is gonna help me
understand how I can consolidate that information and I can create a different environment,
a better environment for my students. (“Como se oyen los perritos? Woof woof!”)
You know it’s always better to know more than to know less and so I think that it’s
a fabulous program where bilingual-ed teachers can really receive an in-depth look, in-depth
understanding of bilingual education and ESL, uh and how their work fits into the overall
District plan. And so I think it is absolutely a priviledge and an honor to be part of that,
so I certainly encourage our teachers to participate in that.