Alumni as Bilingual Teachers
Amy Kohn is a bilingual kindergarten teacher at Gates Elementary School in Lake Forest. While an undergraduate, she majored in Spanish. She earned her bachelor’s degree in 2013 and completed her master’s degree with multiple subject credential in 2014; both degrees were completed at the University of California, Irvine. She was immediately hired at Gates while still completing her MAT program. Since being hired, she has mentored many aspiring bilingual teachers.
Advice for aspiring bilingual teachers:
"While working in a classroom focus on everything not just the academic teaching. Pay attention to gestures, tone, behavior management, classroom setup, word choice, etc. Everything that happens in a classroom has a purpose and it will make your life easier as a first year teacher to realize how it all comes together. While student teaching, if you have an opportunity, watch your master teacher interact with the student’s parents and pay attention to the language used. As a first year teacher the toughest part for me was classroom management and parent-teacher interactions. But mainly just jump right into it and get all of the experience you can working with and teaching the students, you will never get another chance to be the secondary person in the classroom so take advantage."
Kallie Flagstad is a fourth grade bilingual teacher at Gates Elementary School in Lake Forest. While an undergraduate, she majored in Spanish. She earned her bachelor’s degree in 2009 and her master’s degree with multiple subject credential in 2010; both degrees were completed at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). She taught Spanish enrichment classes at two different private schools before teaching at Gates. Her children also attend the two-way immersion program at Gates. She is pictured here with a bilingual tutor enrolled in EDUC101. She has mentored many aspiring bilingual teachers in the undergraduate program at UCI.
Advice for aspiring bilingual teachers: "If given the opportunity, I would recommend university students to become bilingual teachers so that they may share not only their language, but also culture and customs. My advice would be to use your language and culture as strengths to help mold students and to give them the gift of bilingual skills and multicultural competencies."