By Nora Guillén, Coordinator of DLI & Teacher Residency Programs

PHASE I OF III for the first cohort of the Madera Teacher Residency Program is in full swing! Madera Unified School District and California State University, Fresno have entered into a partnership to provide university students, entering the Multiple Subjects Teacher Credential Program, an intensive Teacher Residency Program designed to prepare students for their future teaching career in Madera Unified. This partnership is funded by a grant from the state of California that was awarded to the collaborative partners in January of 2019. “Residents” in the program take their multiple subject and bilingual authorization coursework toward becoming Dual Language teachers at James Madison Elementary School located in Madera Unified, where the current Dual Language Program is taking place. For the duration of their 18-month residency in Madera Unified, each resident is assigned to a “Master Teacher” who is already teaching in the Dual Language Immersion Program. During their residency, participants complete their clinical, hands-on classroom experiences in the classrooms at Madison Elementary.

Fresno State sends professors to the school, three days a week, to provide the coursework on-site, allowing students to only have to travel to the university one night a week for one on-campus class. In addition to being able to take most of their courses at the elementary school site and participate in the school environment four days a week, residents also receive a $12,000 stipend distributed throughout the 18-month program. Residents will also take a two-week trip to Mexico for authentic Spanish language development and culturally relevant experiences in the Summer of 2021. Master Teachers also receive compensation for the work they do for the program. Both the school district and university understand the additional responsibilities of being a Master Teacher.

During Phase I, for the first cohort of the Madera Teacher Residency Program, Teacher Residents are currently completing the first five courses toward their Multiple Subjects Teaching Credentials. In this phase, they are required to put in approximately ten clinical hours of in-class observation time a week. This is accomplished as follows:

• Mondays — In a class all day with their Master Teacher (7:45 pm-2:45 pm)
• Tuesday and Thursdays — In class and participation in Professional Learning Communities with their Master Teachers from 12:30-3:15 pm
• In between these times, residents are also participating in their Fresno State coursework Monday – Thursday. For this first phase / semester, residents are not required to report to the school on Fridays.

Here are the current aspiring Dual Language teacher residents:

• Alejandra Chavez
• Roberto Ival
• Edgar Mascorro
• Margarita Mujica
• Karina Ortega
• David Ramos
• Liliana Rodriguez
• Natalia Sanchez
• Veronica Solorio

These nine individuals are hard-working, dedicated, and are MUSD’s up-and-coming future bilingual teacher candidates. Another experience Teacher Residents were trained in, outside of their coursework, was Dual Language Immersion (DLI) 101, a two-day foundational professional learning event with Executive Director of the Association of Two-Way Dual Language Education, Rosa Molina. During these sessions, residents learned about Dual Language program research, instructional and implementation components, Spanish Academic Language needs for Teachers in the DLI program, as well as marketing and how it affects the success of the program. This experience provided residents with an amazing and solid foundation into what has already proven to be an exciting new era of how teachers are being prepared to teach in Madera Unified.

If you or someone you know are interested in participating in the next Teacher Residency cohort, slated to begin in the Spring of 2021, please contact either Nora Guillén, Madera Unified Coordinator of the Dual Immersion and Teacher Residency programs at noraguillen@maderausd.org or Dr. Luz Herrera, Fresno State Faculty in Residence partner at lherrera@csufresno.edu. Do not miss out on this unprecedented teacher preparation opportunity!