Hi, everyone! I feel honored that I was invited to be in this group, in
that I'm not currently a B.V. parent, but an alumni parent three times over.
(I guess that does count a bit, doesn't it)

But, seriously, let me introduce myself formally in case you don't know me.
My name is Lisa Gutierrez Guzman, and I currently work as the English
Language Development Specialist at B.V. But, I didn't start that way. I
first met the original B.V. immersion teacher when I was shopping around for
kindergartens for my daughter way back in the spring of 1984. My daughter
ended up being in that woman's classroom that year, and my other two
children were her students later on.

I was a very active parent and joined the SSC (we didn't have a P.T.A.
then). In that capacity I found out that B.V. was looking for bilingual
paraprofessionals. Being that I always wanted to be a teacher and regretted
not being able to afford it when my daughter entered public school, I saw
this as a chance to do something related to education. I only worked a year
as a para, but in that capacity I was accepted into a training program for
paras to become teachers.

I started teaching on an emergency credential back in '88 at another school.
In 1992 with my real credential in hand by then, I started working at B.V.
as a 4/5 teacher. Our youngest child was a fourth grader at the time. I
worked as a 4/5 teacher for five years, and then our community decided that
we wanted to share the leadership of the school and didn't formally have a
principal.

From 1997 to 1999 I was the Maestra Director or Teacher-in-Charge, sharing
the principal's responsibilities with two other part-time teachers. When
that ended (long story), I taught 2nd grade for two years, took a sabbatical
and now have been the ELD lady for the last two years.

B.V. means so much to me and my family. I would love to see many aspects of
the original B.V.'s culture come back full-steam ahead, including having
much more parental involvement. I know that the times have changed, and I
can't live in the past (and wouldn't want to!), but we must have more and
stronger parental involvement and continued strong teacher dedication.
Don't get me wrong! I know that many of the people that are in this group
already are very dedicated to our school and put in a tremendous amount of
hours helping out in one way or another. I thank you all for that. But, we
have to face the fact that our PTA meetings are smaller, Carnaval
participation is struggling, there weren't enough people to run a real SSC
election, etc. That has to change! I refuse to believe that it's just a
"sign of the times." I know that we can improve.

You wanted a short intro, I'm sure. But, with me that's impossible. I have
a long history, plus I have a lot of opinions. Thanks for bearing with me,
and again thanks for inviting me to participate.

Warmly,

Lisa Gutierrez Guzman


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>To: lggwwt@... Subject: Welcome to bvpta Date: 3 Feb 2004 03:15:05
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