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BPS
School
Teacher Receives
Fulbright
Award to Mexico
Picture
and article courtesy of the CT
Post
Central
High
School students
won't find teacher Les Thornbury in
their upper-level Spanish courses this fall.
He'll be in the small Mexican town of Reforma,
teaching English to Ramon Vidal's students,
while Vidal is here, teaching Spanish to
inner-city classes.
It's
part of a Fulbright Classroom Teacher Exchange
program, sponsored by the U.S. State Department,
which annually sends teachers abroad in exchange
for the same number of international teachers.
It's the first time anyone can remember a
Bridgeport
teacher participating in
the program.
"I've
been to Mexico
a bunch of times, but you never really get a
sense of a country unless you spend a few months
there," said Thornbury, 34. "I can't wait to
really get to know Mexico."
He
hopes to return with a broader knowledge of the
people and prepared to tell his students, "the
textbook may tell them to say `hola,' but these
are the five most popular ways to say `hi'
in Mexico."
Out
of 185 applicants for a Fulbright exchange,
Thornbury was one of 48 American teachers
nationwide and four from Connecticut
that were selected. The other Connecticut teachers come
from West Hartford, Storrs and New Haven's Common Ground Charter High School.
Part
of the application process involved
demonstrating an ability to be an ambassador for
the United
States. No
problem there. Thornbury received a ton of
experience representing the U.S.
when he was a pilot and officer in
the Navy.
Thornbury
spent six years traveling to Spanish-speaking
countries while in the Navy after graduating
from St. Joseph
High
School in
Trumbull and then Virginia Military
Institute. After the Navy, he turned to
teaching, spending three years in
the Hartford
Public
School system and
the last two at Central.
His
interest in Spanish began when he started taking
language classes in high school and discovered
he was good at it. The talent was strengthened
during a study abroad program to
Spain.
He was placed in a small town near
Valencia
where few spoke English. "I learned it playing
chess with the old guys,"
he said.
He
teaches Spanish much the same way, focusing more
on speaking than how many verbs students
can conjugate.
That
is also how he plans to teach English while
in Mexico.
While
Thornbury is there, Ramon Vidal will be in
charge of Thornbury's magnet and upper-level
Spanish classes.
Unlike
Thornbury, Vidal. 35, has never been outside
Mexico.
"Going to Bridgeport is
very important to me because it is a great
opportunity to improve my teaching practice and
my English skills," Vidal said in an e-mail. "I
have no doubts that Bridgeport is a
great place and it will be an amazing experience
to teach and live there. Probably the hardest
part will be getting used to the food or maybe
the weather, but I'm sure everything is part of
the adventure."
Thornbury
and Vidal have corresponded frequently via
e-mail but will meet for the first time on
August 1 during orientation in Washington D.C.
"He's
really, really good," said Thornbury, who has
arranged for a place for Vidal to stay within
walking distance of Central. Thornbury will stay
in Vidal's house in Mexico.
Both will continue to be paid by their
respective school districts, something Thornbury
said local school districts had a hard time
accepting at first. "I had to convince them they
were getting another teacher. A good one,"
said Thornbury.
Carole
Pannozzo, executive director of human resources
for Bridgeport Public Schools, said Vidal
went through a screening and interview process
similar to any
new teacher.
They
wanted to make sure he was fluent in English,
able to teach Spanish, and was aware that
discipline and teaching styles in the U.S. vary
from what he was
used to.
Vidal
will teach under a temporary teacher
certification similar to that of a cadre of
Indian teachers who just completed a three-year
stint in Bridgeport.
Both
Thornbury and Vidal get supplemental grants from
Fulbright to cover
living expenses. | 
