CHAMPAIGN — For some who signed contracts with the Unit 4 School District on Wednesday, 2024 will be their first year teaching. For others, it will be their first year in the United States.
Miguel Alvarez is one of nine people who came to Champaign through the Illinois State Board of Education’s Visiting International Teacher Program.
“When you change your mind, for example, traveling or looking at other education systems, that’s going to be very good for you and your students,” Alvarez said. “I think every teacher should be open to this type of experience.”
The group of international teachers only landed in the States about a week before they officially signed on to teach at International Prep Academy, where Alvarez said the bilingual program will be helpful to them as well as their students.
Those teaching contracts were just one more piece of paperwork to complete after piles involved with entering the country for a long-term stay.
Even though none of the nine teachers knew each other beforehand, Alvarez said they have bonded through dealing with all of the paperwork and settling into a new country.
“If you have company, you can try to help and everything is better, when you have those bad thoughts about how everything is very difficult,” he said. “My life was comfortable in Spain; now I have to do a lot of new things and everything’s really difficult, I’m thinking why I did it.”
Alvarez is already aware of some of the differences he’ll have to get used to with the American school system.
In Spain, he said, tests and grades aren’t really a priority until high school, when students need something to show universities.
For younger students, teachers are expected to cover some important information, but the main idea is to help kids learn the methodology of absorbing information.
“When the kids are little, for us the most important thing is they have to feel comfortable. They have to feel successful even if they don’t have a
lot
of success,” Alvarez said. “They have to come happy to school, that’s the most important thing, because if they go happy, they learn better. If they don’t want to go, that’s very difficult for the teacher.”
Teachers also have more flexibility in how they learn lessons and don’t need to seek approval to try new things in the classroom.
There will be a lot for Alvarez to learn about the U.S. and about his new school as well as about his students.
He said he’s nervous to meet them, but excited to get to know all of them and settle into the classroom.
“I always say the same in Spain: when I start class in September, I need to compare it when I finish at the end of the year in June,” Alvarez said. “That’s really nice for a teacher.”
The nine international teachers were part of a group of around 100 new teachers who completed training and joined Unit 4 together.
A few of them will be at each school in the district, so administration from all of those schools came to celebrate alongside friends and family.
This represents a large step in filling vacancies in the district, but Unit 4 is still seeking around 98 more teachers, 18 substitute teachers and 26 teacher aides.
There are also many other open positions, from administrative to custodial roles.
Nancy Whitehouse, assistant director of human resources and employee engagement, mentioned those roles yet to be filled as she closed out the sign-on event with congratulations to all of the new teachers.
“Let me take a moment to say, if any of you have friends who are looking for jobs ...” Whitehouse said.