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91��Ƭ�� is celebrating Hispanic Heritage this month, and today we highlight and welcome five visiting teachers from Spain.

Everything is new for visiting teachers from Spain

In 2004, Ruth Martin was a young teacher from Spain who thought a year teaching in Texas would be a neat cultural experience.

But 20 years later, she’s still here. In fact, Martin – now Dr. Ruth Martin – is a lead specialist in 91��Ƭ��’s world languages department.

And on the exact day this summer that she arrived in Texas 20 years ago, Martin welcomed five new teachers from Spain to 91��Ƭ��.

They are part of the same program that brought Martin to Texas two decades ago.

The , promoted by the Embassy of Spain in the United States in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Education, has brought more than 10,000 Spanish teachers to more than 30 states in the past 35 years to teach for one to three years.

Of course, Martin taught for more than three years and eventually dropped the “visiting” part of her title. Toward the end of her first year in Texas – she was teaching in Fort Worth ISD – she met someone and decided to stay one more year. That someone eventually became her husband, and Martin has never left Texas.

New adventures

Though Martin is personally familiar with the Visiting Teacher program, 91��Ƭ�� is not. This is the first year the district has participated in the program. Finding enough bilingual teachers is a challenge for all districts, so 91��Ƭ�� took this opportunity for the first time to hire five highly qualified and experienced bilingual teachers from Spain.

“They’re the top candidates from Spain,” Martin said. “One of our teachers has four master’s degrees.”

They are also adventurous.

“I think that’s the European mentality – they just want to go explore the world, learn about other cultures and other instructional methods,” Martin said.

That is definitely true of Rosario Pastor, a teacher from the region of  with more than 20 years of experience. She is a pre-K teacher at Crow Leadership Academy this year.

“I am always interested in trying new things in order to improve my teaching practice,” Pastor said. “I have worked in cooperation with other schools from Spain and Europe, and I needed something different for a while. I have many friends that had worked in Texas and told me about the experience. So, I decided to give it a try.” 

Mireia Vila Huguet decided to give it a try, too. She is originally from a small city called Manresa in but had experienced living abroad before – in London – and was eager to do it again. Now she is teaching kindergarten at Goodman Elementary.

“Since I was at university, I have always been interested in traveling, knowing different cultures and keep learning and growing personally and professionally by seeing different educative systems and by living experiences abroad.”

Those are exactly the kinds of experiences these five teachers are getting. But as exciting as the adventure is, there is also a huge transition and culture shock.

Starting from scratch

“They come with just two pieces of luggage,” Martin said. “They start from scratch.”

The teachers arrived only weeks before their new teaching jobs were set to begin, and there was so much to deal with, like apartments, cars, insurance, social security cards, bank accounts, where to get groceries and on and on.

“We arrived the 15th of July, and in less than a month we had to adapt to a new country, a different culture and system, to find accommodation, a car and to complete a very long list of paperwork and procedures that anyone moving to another country to live and work must do,” said Vila Huguet.

Fortunately, Vila Huguet and her fellow Spaniards got a lot of help from Martin and her 91��Ƭ�� team.

“I know the difference between living here and there,” Martin said. “I tell them, ‘This is going to be shocking for you, but this is completely different here.’”

Martin and her team helped the new arrivals move into their apartments and even collected furniture and dishes for them. In fact, someone donated a whole house of furniture, which Martin then stored in her garage all summer until the teachers arrived.

“My biggest challenge is being far from home, but I consider myself very lucky because I have received lots of help from Ruth since the first beginning,” said Maider Novillo, a native of in northern Spain. Novillo is teaching kindergarten at Speer Elementary.

Even with the help, there’s still a lot to get used to.

“Everything!” Pastor said when asked about what is different here. “But I am loving it. Although it becomes very stressful from time to time, it is definitely worth it. The thing is that the lifestyle is quite different. Also the distribution of places – you need to use your car to go anywhere, while I am used to go walking. But then, you have the Globe and AT&T stadiums for sport and music. That is great!”

It’s not just the culture that is a big change. Even though all five teachers are very experienced, school systems are different here than they are in Spain.

“The schedule, the methodologies used, the subjects, the procedures, the planning, the rules and even the organization at school are handled very differently in both countries,” Vila Huguet said. “Although I have had tough moments, I think that I am definitely learning and growing as a person and as a teacher.”

Even the Spanish is different here. There are lots of Spanish-speaking students, but their Spanish is often very different than the Spanish the five teachers know.

“I am dealing with my Spanish and the Spanish that I am learning here, which is quite different from mine and interesting,” said Maria Herran, a first grade teacher at Thornton Elementary originally from , Spain. 

Rave reviews

Even with all of the adjustments, the new teachers are doing well. And their principals have rave reviews.

“It has been wonderful,” Burgin Elementary principal Carin Tuffs said about her school’s Spanish teacher, Pablo Noguero, who is teaching fifth grade. “Mr. Noguero is doing a fabulous job and adds to our already diverse staff. I love his positivity with all the uncertainty upon their arrival. He has navigated through so much and with our recent student assessment, his students performed so well.”

Thornton Elementary’s principal Alicia Rodriguez feels the same way about their Spanish teacher.

“Ms. Herran is doing really well!” Rodriguez said. “She brings in a lot of enthusiasm and positivity to an already awesome first-grade team. She has acclimated very well to our campus and is off to a great start. It has been great working with Ms. Herran.”

And it has been great having all five here in Arlington. Hopefully, the culture shock will wear off soon and they will come to think of Arlington as their home away from home.