Yesterday, Fri. 10/29/10, I interviewed Jimena at 2:30 and Guy Slack at 4:30. Both interviews went really well.
I met with Jimena after rescheduling once due to a bad rainstorm and the fact that Jimena told me that she and her students have been on a month and a half hiatus. They mutually decided that it was best to take this break since several of them, including Jimena, had sick family members or other life obligations that were taking their attention. It has worked out, and Jimena told me that she is ready to return in two weeks to teaching on Tues. nights at the Northwest Regional Library.
Jimena is a Basic English volunteer teacher whom I met her in Sept. 2007 when I was Literacy Coordinator. She is Chilean and has lived in the U.S. for years. She has been a U.S. citizen since . She was raised in Chili until the age of 22. She attended a bilingual British-Spanish school and got her high school diploma there. Since it was a British school, her accent was British. She was also fluent in English and Spanish when she graduated. She has an associate's degree from Broward College and a Bachelor's in Science from Nova. She then tried to be an addictions counselor but found the work too depressing.
She attended the North American Chilean Institute for two years in order to convert her British accent to an American one. She says it was hard to do this...Find out at what age she did this and what her specific reason for doing was...
Jimena, Ambar Colon, and Becky Thomas started together teaching Basic English at almost the same time. They became good friends through the library's ESOL class. It was the first time we had had a Basic English class at NOR. Jimena tells me that they started initially with 22 students. It was the right timing because both Jimena and Ambar are bilingual (Spanish-English) and they both felt strongly about teaching the basic level, i.e., they could see the need. I felt that having bilingual teachers in the Basic English class was an obvious advantage. After about six months the three teachers split the class into three different groups led by each one of them. Becky went on to teach her own small group of students using the Lauback Literacy Series. Jimena had her own plans fand began teaching her small group as well, and Ambar began tutoring students privately for pay. When I left the litearcy coordinator position at NOR in Sept. 2008, I stayed in touch with Ambar and Jimena, and let them know that one day, I would call on them to be participants in my dissertation study. Jimena is the one who has agreed to be a teacher participant!
Jimena is a self-described lifelong learner. She has had the fortune of living in not only Chili as a child, but later on, she lived in Brazil and Venezuela (5 years). She was the wife of a VP at the helm of a large company and so she spent her time not only raising her children but also entertaining her husband's business associates for many years. She correctly adds that these cross-cultural living experiences have enabled her to help her students in many ways. Not only is she their English teacher but she is also their cultural interloper and interpreter. She does much more than tutor them in English; she also acts as a firm but caring advisor to them as well as a personal mentor to them. She has been with these same students for three years now as they strive to integrate into American culture. In fact, Jimena tells me that Rosa is now in nursing school.
Now divorced, Jimena is not employed but she dedicates two days a week to her students for an hour and a half per class. She spends about hours a week in preparation. In addition, she tutors one man one-on-one for one day a week.
SEE FIELDNOTE FOLDER RE: JIMENA'S INTERVIEW RQ RESPONSES.
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