'Excited': Minnesota transplant, rookie teacher eager to start school year

Ryane Hibbs noticed when she volunteered in schools in her native Minnesota that recent immigrant students, mostly Hispanic, were not getting their fair share in education.

"All the teachers in Minnesota did was throw worksheets at them," said Hibbs, who recently graduated from the University of Minnesota with a bachelor's degree in Spanish.

So she decided to do something about it and became a teacher.

Hibbs, 21, begins her career at Liberty Middle School in Pharr as a seventh-grade history teacher today, the first day of classes for students throughout the Rio Grande Valley.

She is one of 269 new teachers hired by the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo school district and one of 94 new members of Teach for America, which recruits recent college graduates to teach in public schools in rural and urban areas with large numbers of low-income and minority families.

Teachers are in high demand throughout the Valley as veteran educators retire and new schools open.

Many schools still have vacancies, especially for math and science teacher positions, because certification tests to teach those subjects require teachers to have a broad range of skills, said Annabel Peña, administrator for human resources support for the Region One Educational Service Center.

Region One is part of a statewide system of 20 centers that help school districts improve student performance, operate efficiently and effectively, and carry out the mandates of the Texas Education Agency and the Texas Legislature. It serves 37 school districts and 24 charter school campuses in a seven-county area that includes Cameron and Hidalgo counties.

Area school districts have been able to fill quite a few positions by hiring people who have received alternative teaching certification, Peña said.

Diane Narvaez, program manager of South Texas College's alternative teacher certification program, said she's seeing more people seek alternative certification because they either want a career change or want to make more money.

In an area where many people earn less than $30,000 a year, switching to teaching, which can pay between $37,000 and $40,000 a year, is a desirable option for some.

"Teachers make a pretty good living," Narvaez said.

But people should not go into the profession just for the money, said Narvaez, who worked as a teacher and administrator for the PJSA district for more than 40 years.

"Education has to be in your heart. You don't do it for a selfish reason," she said.

Hibbs, who received an alternative teaching certificate, said she wanted to teach in the Valley because she wanted to use her Spanish skills and was curious to learn more about the culture along the U.S.-Mexico border. She also heard from others in Teach for America that the Valley was a great place to teach.

Her first encounter with the region was in June.

"I was really surprised. (People) made it out to seem more rural than it really is," Hibbs said. "It's the land of 10,000 strip malls."

Hibbs said she's a little nervous about teaching two of her six classes in Spanish. She's participating in the school's dual language program, which has students attend some classes taught completely in Spanish and others in English so that they will become bilingual and bi-literate.

"If you set high the expectations for kids, they'll meet them," she said.

Hibbs said she's getting acquainted with the area and was looking forward to meeting her new students.

"I'm excited to stand up on that side and look out and see a bunch of pencils scratching, hands raised (and) questions asked," she said.

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Jennifer L. Berghom covers education and general assignments for The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4462.