BRADENTON, Fla. — A handful of teachers from Spain are helping students learn in Manatee County classrooms.
“I really wanted to have the opportunity to come here and teach in the United States,” said Lucia Nogales, a first-grade teacher at Prine Elementary in Bradenton.
“This was a great opportunity to discover a new education system, to get to know a new culture, and to live an adventure,” said Martin Rodriguez, a Prine Elementary second-grade teacher.
WATCH: Manatee County Schools hosts teachers from Spain for dual language program
That adventure led Nogales and Rodriguez nearly 4,500 miles from their homes in Spain.
This is the first year Manatee County Schools is taking part in this visiting teacher program.
“We teach in a different way. The curriculum is different, the content,” said Nogales, who is from Madrid.
The district is hosting five teachers from Spain as part of their dual language program.
“Even the way we do greetings or say hello to people, that’s different,” said Nogales.
Nogales and Rodriguez are in Florida for the first time.
It’s been an adjustment in and out of the classroom.
“Every day routines are completely different, starting like the students don’t have lunch in Spain. They are in school from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.,” said Rodriguez, who is from Málaga.
“The kids, they start in kindergarten, spending half a day in English, half a day in Spanish, so they have a full-on English-speaking teacher, a full-on Spanish-speaking teacher, and they get to go through school learning both in English and in Spanish,” said Debra Estes, the Director of ESOL, Migrant, and Dual Language programs at Manatee County Schools. “By the time they graduate high school, they are fully bi-literate and can read and write and communicate in both English and in Spanish.”
Estes shared how that skill gives students a leg up on life.
“It makes them very marketable in the world,” said Estes. “It makes them very marketable if they choose to go to college. It makes them very marketable if they join the military. It makes them very marketable if they go into a trade. Being bilingual is really a superpower for kids, and it opens up more of the world for them.”
Yet these teachers are ready to leave students with so much more than just language skills as they get into the swing of the new school year.
“Not only to be able to communicate, but also to be able to discover a new culture and be able to meet new people,” said Rodriguez.
“You know, it might just be time we take a look if HOAs are really even necessary.
Maybe we should just do away with homeowner associations as a whole.”
South Florida lawmaker Rep. Juan Carlos Porras (R-Miami) says it may be time to do away with homeowners associations altogether, as more Floridians speak out about rising fees, costly lawsuits, and even arrests tied to HOA disputes. He said this week that he is considering filing legislation in the next session that would abolish HOAs statewide.
