UMass Amherst Alumni Association

Lessons from the Mass. Teacher of the Year

Floris Wilma Ortiz-Marrero ’97MEd, ’09EdD, was named Massachusetts Teacher of the Year for 2011 by Governor Patrick in June. She has taught English as a Second Language (ESL) at Amherst Regional Middle School since 1993 and also teaches a graduate course in language literacy and culture at UMass Amherst. She was a co-founder of the English Language Learners initiative of the Western Massachusetts Writing Project. In this interview, Dr. Ortiz shares her perspectives on teaching and the future of the education field.

 

What advances have been made in education in the last 50 years?

In a way we have made progress and in another way we haven’t. When I began as an ESL teacher, I taught in a very segregated program in the basement. My students did not take social studies or science, or even go upstairs where all the other students were taking tech ed and other integrated courses. Today, all the students benefit from the same curriculum.

But there is still a big difference in resources between poor and wealthy communities. So you have students who are under-performing as a result of socio-economic segregation that is still happening, based on resources and effectiveness of programs.

If you had the Massachusetts Legislature here in your classroom, what would you tell them?

If I had the opportunity to talk to the Legislature about one thing it would be to change the requirement that English language learners take the MCAS in math and science during the first year they are in this country. Research shows that it takes five to seven years to acquire academic proficiency in a new language and to be able to perform at the same level as native speakers. After three years students for the most part will be able to take part in the MCAS; I’m not saying that they will score at their proficiency level, but they will feel confident enough in the language to participate positively in the exam.

The kids feel very frustrated, and it really impacts their sense of self. They get frustrated, and that’s the reason some ESL students drop out of school. They can’t find the way to cross these barriers because the demands are so great, they give up. There are many social factors that affect the students’ language acquisition; it’s not just about having a great English program in the schools.

What do you tell parents they ought to know about their child in school?

The first thing I tell parents is that they have the right to come to school and ask for information about their child’s education. Even if their language is one that I don’t speak, I tell them to call me and leave a brief message; I’ll have it translated and get them the information they need.

I encourage parents to be part of their student’s educational life: from attending meetings and open houses, to having a space at home where the student can sit quietly and do their homework. I really stress that parents don’t need to know the academic content to help their child. All they need to do is ask about the school day and to see some of their work assignments.

There are also parents portals−online systems−where parents with internet access can login for homework updates, progress reports, and a profile of their student’s academic record.  I had a parent who had never used a computer and never graduated from high school, but I made the student promise me that she was going to go home and teach her dad how to log on and access the information. She did, and now they’re checking online and it’s wonderful.

Did UMass prepare you well for your career as a teacher?

I have to say yes. When I earned my master’s degree in 1997, the program had a focus on multi-cultural education and English language acquisition. It was very cutting edge; we were taught all of these new theories and practices that looked critically at the way we were trained in the early 1980s. I left UMass feeling empowered and more assertive with my students, and in the wider educational community.

My doctorate degree gave me the ability to communicate my ideas on education and to have people listen to what I had to say. It was a time when I was frustrated with educational reforms; I couldn’t understand many of the changes that were always given to us from the top down. We had to do new things, throwing away successful practices, in order to meet new demands and accountability requirements, like the No Child Left Behind Act and the MCAS tests.  A lot of this was in contradiction with my beliefs and pedagogy. I needed to understand how policy gets into the schools and how school committee members can make decisions about schools when many of them have not been teachers in a K-12 classroom. So that’s one of the reasons I went back to UMass to do my doctorate degree.

What advice do you give students who are training to become teachers?

The question I always ask is, “Are you sure you want to be a teacher?” In teaching you have to connect your mind and your intellect with your heart. You have to have a passion, not only for the educational field but also for the students that you work with. This means that you have to really get to know the kids, their world, their lives, their stories, their abilities and their literacy level. I often tell UMass students to do observation in classrooms and around the school because it’s another way to check their own desire to be teachers.

And again, I think you have to understand that it’s a very sacrificing career. It requires more than just the eight hours of work on a daily basis. You have to be willing to take work home, to make mistakes, and to reflect on your work daily in order to understand what works and what doesn’t work.