An adventure in Oaxaca

For The Madera Tribune

View of colonial buildings in old town of Oaxaca city in Mexico.

---

This story begins in Madera Unified School District with the creation of its “resident teacher program,” which grew out of the needs of the dual language project the district implemented in 2017. The adventure travels to Oaxaca, Mexico and then back home; for some, however, that was a problem. It wasn’t really clear where home was after that trip.

In 2017, the dual language instruction strategy began in kindergarten at Madison Elementary in Madera under the watchful eye of principal Mercedes Ochoa. There were enough qualified teachers in the district to meet the needs of the dual language program during that first year. Likewise, in the second year, when the program expanded to include Madison’s kindergarten and first grade classes, Madera Unified still had enough qualified teachers.

In the third year, however, when Madera expanded the dual language program to two other schools and added second grade to the program, Madera had to go outside the district to find enough teachers to meet the needs of the dual language plan. So MUSD developed a partnership with Fresno State, and that’s how they embraced the resident teacher program, which unknowingly set the stage for the Oaxaca adventure.