Manuel Cota doesn't get upset when emergency permit teachers are blamed for all of the ills in the public school system. He's much too busy trying to be a good teacher - and a good student.
"I don't pay too much attention to what the politicians say. Everyone in the district says I'm doing a good job. I've gotten good feedback and I'm pretty happy with the way things are going," says Cota, who is a resource specialist at Stacey Middle School in the Westminster School District.
He's also a student at California State University - Long Beach.
Consulting teacher Laurie Schneider offers some suggestions to help Manuel Cota.
The Westminster Teachers Association member expects to be working on an emergency permit for another few years while earning credits toward his credential.
Cota says his stint as a classroom aide was great preparation for teaching special education. "As an aide, I worked with kids who had severe learning disabilities. It helped me develop my patience. Working with kids is the easiest part for me. The paperwork is the hardest. But I'm still learning, and going to school."
"I've heard a lot of people blame emergency permit teachers," says Sandy Gerber at Hollydale Elementary School in Paramount. She has been teaching on an emergency permit for three years. "I know that being trained in a credential program is definitely more helpful. But if you have a certain level of maturity and respect for children, as well as respect for your colleagues, you can survive your first year - whether you have an emergency permit or a credential."
Before teaching, Gerber was a nanny and worked at a child care center. "I have always worked with kids and always wanted to be a teacher," she says. But it hasn't been an easy adjustment for Gerber, a member of the Teachers Association of Paramount, to teach fifth-graders in a low socioeconomic area.
"The hardest things for me were getting materials and support," she relates. "They gave me a few teacher's guides. They said, 'Here's your fifth-grade class. Here are the books. Teach 'em.' We did have a one-day seminar. Fortunately I had a teacher whom I could go to and ask questions."
As a student intern at CSU-Fullerton, Gerber has her hands full working full-time and going to school. "I take classes in the evening and on Saturday. It's pretty crazy. But I love what I'm doing. It's very rewarding."
After substitute teaching for a year, Jose Ochoa accepted a teaching position at Richgrove Elementary School, 30 miles north of Bakersfield. Now in his second year of teaching ESL classes on an emergency permit, he finds it ironic that he is considered a "veteran" teacher by some of the new hires this year.
"We are a rural area, and it's hard to get qualified teachers," says Ochoa. He estimates that 15 out of 42 teachers in the district are working on emergency permits. Many of these teachers, like himself, grew up in Richgrove and have come home to teach in the mostly Hispanic community dominated by farm workers.
Consulting teacher Laurie Schneider offers some suggestions to help Manuel Cota.
"A lot of things need to be changed, and we are influencing the outcome of the schools here," he says. Emergency permit teachers "have pretty much been the ones doing most everything in my school district. Even though we work and take classes, we are doing most of the coaching and extracurricular stuff here. I coach varsity soccer. It's the young emergency permit teachers who have the energy for all this."
Ochoa notes that even though he isn't credentialed, he was willing to assume the presidency of the Richgrove Teachers Association.
"At first I didn't want the responsibility, since I'm under an emergency permit," he says. "But no one else wanted to do it. I have enjoyed recruiting new members. Before we had 15 members. Now we have 38. I recruited new teachers to join the association, as well as some older teachers who belonged to the union 15 years ago and dropped out."
Between teaching, coaching, taking classes at California State University at Bakersfield, serving as chapter president and raising two children, Ochoa is pushed to the limit. And he is distressed when he hears teachers who have emergency permits getting blamed for low student achievement.
"I take the responsibility of having an emergency permit very seriously. I know that some people don't, but I do. I'm in this for the kids. It's very rewarding to see the growth in these kids. I tell them, 'If I can make it, you can make it.'"
Substitute teaching was also the gateway into full-time teaching for Kezban Mansilla, a seventh-grade life science teacher at La Mesa Middle School in Canyon Country (Los Angeles County).
"I haven't got a credential and all the training, but I've worked really hard to get where I am," says the Hart District Teachers Association member. "I am giving up all my personal time between teaching and taking seven units at Cal State-Northridge. At first I was overwhelmed to be teaching and going to school. It was hard for me to manage my time. But I'm starting to use my time a little better. I come to school earlier, use my prep period and use parent volunteers to do things like stapling and xeroxing. Things are much better now."
She is enrolled in Northridge's credential program and has a mentor from the university observe her in the classroom once a week. Afterward, they discuss her strengths, weaknesses and teaching strategies. It may not be as beneficial as traditional student teaching under the direct supervision of a veteran teacher, but it is better than nothing.
"Sure, some emergency permit teachers are not prepared to be in the classroom," Mansilla admits. "At the same time, some credentialed teachers are not prepared to be in the classroom either. It's hard and kind of discouraging, especially when you hear your own instructors say that emergency permit teachers should not be in the classroom. But we really want to be teachers. And we are working twice as hard to get it done."
Consulting teacher Laurie Schneider offers some suggestions to help Manuel Cota.
Consulting teacher Laurie Schneider offers some suggestions to help Manuel Cota.
