Ep 128 | Foreign Exchange Teachers?

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Benefit is the right word because it's benefits that I just get to experience and sit back and watch the magic happen when I get sent pictures like that when I know they're having live Zoom calls. Now yours is not live because they're in bed when we're in school. Right. But I know our teachers in Jamaica at the middle school, they had a full Jamaican feast last year at Bellevue Middle School. And I know they're already talking about it at one of the elementary schools where they provided all their food and cooked. And it's it's so culturally enriching, not just for the students, but the fellow faculty and staff at the schools that they've only lived in Pensacola all their life. And for their own exposure to it, it's been an incredible process.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Welcome to the Voices United in Education podcast. Each week we showcase the teachers, administrators, and community members who go the extra mile to contribute to the success of every student in Escambia County. Escambia County Public Schools began to think outside the box when it came to the post-pandemic teacher shortage. This led to thinking outside the country and led to a partnership with TPG Cultural Exchange. The program provides certified English-speaking teachers in high-need subject areas and handles the details of the J1 visa for an exchange of up to five years. My next guests are the employee services coordinator and one of the charter members of the TPG pilot program at OJ Sims. Today they will share how the process works and what the experience is like. So, Monga del Norte, Philippines to Pensacola, the dedicated and determined Caroline Gray and John Dell, thanks for being here, guys. Thank you for having us. Thank you for having us. So, John Dell, you knew in college, like that you specifically wanted to work with kids with disabilities. That is super specific. Did you have family members who had disabilities, or where did that desire come from?

SPEAKER_03 2:28

Yeah, so narratively speaking, well, before college days, when I was still in elementary, because Filipino values, like they're asking me, what are you going to be in the future? So my answer would be, I want to be a teacher, so like I want to be a doctor. So on the process, like finishing elementary, high school, then going up to college, I took a bachelor's degree in special education. Why? Because I have really that passion and that love for these students with exceptionalities. It's like they need more support. We all know that all kids need more support, but what's more special support for them? So I think that's it. And my dad is a teacher, my aunt is a teacher, my grandpa is a teacher, and all of like eight of us in the family are teachers. That's a lot. It's like it's running in our veins and our blood, the professional teachers in our family. So I'm the first special education teacher in my family. So that clicks me in that oh, why don't I take up this specialization in education? Because like, why don't I try then that's it? I learn. I undergone such trainings right back in college, and so I came here.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

You know, not everyone is comfortable around people with disabilities, and that may sound really strange to you. My brother has a disability, so it sounds strange to me also. But it's I find it's uh interesting to meet people who immediately want to be around people with disabilities because it's more unusual to the general population. But you didn't grow up with anyone with a disability or I have a cousin.

SPEAKER_03 4:09

Here's the thing, because in the Philippines, we lack resources, we lack human resources and support. So my cousin, he is not really diagnosed with like coming to professional experts, but I can see it in my eyes. I can just by like observantly like looking at him, he has really something with him. So that gave me a point to that, give me a highlight in my life. Like, I have to take this course, and maybe this is a way for me to help others to teach, because there is really something on them that I can see in them, though, potentials.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

There is, there's this unique perspective that kids with disabilities have, and there's really something that I think society at large can learn from them. And so it's really an important and valuable contribution for people like you to bridge that gap between the scene and the unseen.

SPEAKER_03 5:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

So tell me about the TPG program process. Like, what did you have to do to become eligible to even get in line for that?

SPEAKER_03 5:12

Yeah, sure. Well, us Filipino teachers, I mean, for me, in my point of view, is like before I tried applying the TPG program, I have to make sure that I have the credentials, I have the everything, the papers that I might be, that I'm being getting accepted in the future. Because I'm thinking of what if I don't get accepted? What if I did? So I have to make sure that it's all set, it's all planned. And then my friends are saying me that, hey, I you're saying that you want to teach in the states, all right? Come over here and try to look for this site or for this program. And there he goes, TPG pop up, and I start searching it on Google, and they have their site and on also on Facebook. And then at applied, I fill out the forms, and then after applying, fill outing all the forms, they will send you back an email, and then they will review everything, your experience. There's just like at least three to five of teaching experience before coming here and then the three to five years. Yeah, three to five years, I guess, or two to five to three, something like that.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Wow. So you have to be an experienced, you have to have a degree, have you know, good, they probably check you with your employer to make sure you're good at your job, and you have to have years under your lot.

SPEAKER_03 6:31

There's actually a lot of process. They're asking for our references and they're contacting them like my professors and my friends.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

Wait, your professors? Yeah. That's way more thorough. Wait, it in the US when we interview teachers, we don't contact their professors, right?

SPEAKER_02 6:46

No, not unless they, you know, leave them as a reference, but it's not standard.

SPEAKER_03 6:51

They can like they send email like asking, do you know John Larray? Oh my goodness. I mean, and thorough. That's thorough, I mean, background check.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

No kidding. Because I, you know, when a typical college student doesn't see their professor as a potential reference for a job. They're just an obstacle to get their degree. Do you know what I mean? So like I I think they're just tolerating each other until the student graduates. But in your case, it was really important that you walked the straight and narrow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:24

I mean, I mean, like our my previous principal too, because I put her name on my one of the references and my co-workers and my professors. And yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

Wow. Okay. So, Caroline, tell us how does the visa program work? What can you tell us about the program on the state side that you observe through being at the school?

SPEAKER_02 7:45

So, visa-wise, TPG serves as the visa sponsor. So they have all the rules with the Department of the State that they follow. A good way to kind of compare them is they are almost like the social worker that connects us and they make sure all of the visa paperwork being taken care of. So all we have to do from the school district side is get in touch with them, interview them, and connect them with schools in need. And that's where my role comes in.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

So I love how you make that seem so simple because I know you have such a large number of things that you do in your role. Let's say a school needs teachers and they're having a hard time filling that position within our area. Then walk me through the process. So then they contact TBG and they say, here's the position. Step by step, how does that look?

SPEAKER_02 8:37

So I've kind of been serving as the liaison to TPG. We haven't had the principals directly talking to them. They've kind of been using me for that because when we first did it, we wanted to pilot it in schools that were in a closed location in proximity to housing and where transportation wouldn't be too difficult because we do have some rural schools where we don't want anyone to have a 30, 45-minute commute to work. And so we chose our schools that were in the most need at that time, and that was Sims Elementary and Bellevue Middle School. Um, and so we were like, okay, let's test it here. Let's see what we're doing. We got the principals on board, and um, we all kind of did the interviewing together that first year. And so you may remember it's been two years now. So Miss Sanders logged in on a Zoom conference that TPG scheduled. It was probably 10:30 or 11 o'clock at night in the Philippines. Do you remember?

SPEAKER_03 9:43

It's like almost midnight.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

Yeah, cup of coffee for that. Exactly, right? Because, you know, we have to kind of factor all that in. And so there was just a list of eligible candidates. You tell TPG what are your vacancies, what areas are of the most concern. And that's how we met John Dale. And now we have two teachers from the Philippines there at Sims. And so it's just been an incredible process for me. Again, I'm just doing the legwork in the background to make sure these people get where they need to be and the principals need, but the true work that's happening every day is in those classrooms.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

So TPG will say, here are our list of candidates for the positions that you've communicated to us a need for. Correct. And then who does the interview for those candidates? Like who looks them over and go, okay, we have four candidates. I want to interview these two.

SPEAKER_02 10:37

Well, so the first year it was team effort and Miss Sanders was involved. And what's Miss Sanders' role? I know, sorry, I don't know. She's the principal of Sims Elementary. Oh, gosh, I gotcha. And the principal at Bellevue Middle School, Mr. Paul Lovely, he was involved that very first year. The second year, we started earlier. We started in the month of February. When you're thinking, the month of February, I don't even know what my vacancies are going to be in August, right? So we weren't sure what schools we were going to need. We knew we wanted to expand. So me and the level directors, that's the elementary school directors and the middle and high school directors, and one of my HR teammates, we did group hiring and we told them we were transparent, we don't know where specifically yet. We don't know what the needs are, but we know we need math, science, and special education. And we were going to expand to elementary and we expanded to high school too. So for this current school year, I actually sat on every single interview. And that way the principals, you know, the very first year, John Dell, when you interview with someone, you build that relationship right away. And so he met Miss Sanders, the principal that he was going to be working for. But we didn't want to put people in a situation with our new cohort of teachers where they met their principal, they went online. Okay, I'm going to be working here at this school. And then something to change last minute. So we thought it was good to just kind of leave it a floating cohort, see what happens in the spring. And then we had all of our decisions and placements made by about the month of May. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

You were kind of on standby, John Dell. That must have felt really weird. You have said to me that it was your dream to work in the United States. And now that you've painted the picture of everything that you had to do on your side, Caroline, you've described everything on the Scambie County Public Schools side. And then now I know that you were kind of like in limbo, like, well, family, I might be leaving you. I might not be leaving you. Like this is a lot with all the hoops that you had to jump through. Not to mention, I have to imagine that the high cost of living in Pensacola must have come as a shock. Why was this the dream as opposed to teaching in the Philippines?

SPEAKER_03 12:58

Um, way back in the Philippines, I have been ditching for three years. And so I tried to open my vocabulary, my horizon, and like what's next, Gendal? Because I don't want to feel like I'm obsolete on one thing. I have to move forward. And so, since my passion is to really teach students with exceptionalities, and so what really motivated me a lot to come here is that I look for like because in the Philippines, that's what I've tell told you a while ago. We lack resources, we lack support, like especially professionals and medical practitioners at school. Because it's different from here. Oh my god. It's here, it's like we have everything. We it's I'm so shocked before right hand. As like, for example, at school, I need this help, and there it goes. I can easily access accessible, that is.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

Like what kind of help?

SPEAKER_03 13:51

Like support, behavior support, materials, classroom materials, school supplies, and that it that yeah, that's it. And going back, I look for for the faces of the children, look for the beauty in it. And so I can see like silver lining, upon a line, stars are aligned, and it's just like so, so fulfilling that I am reaching my goal, my dream in life, and I'm here. I'm not saying that I don't like Philippines, like I just want to experience more. What is in the education system in the states compared to the Philippines, so that I could be able to weigh and to at least know and find out. Like, we're really having different educational standards or backgrounds from different countries.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

Oh, that's so interesting. I don't think I ever considered the developmental edge that coming to the US would give you. Because, like, you know, you made it, you graduated university, you're a teacher, you're official, you're doing your thing, but you're talking about, no, I'm ambitious. Like, I want to go to the next level for these kids. Yeah, that's it. That's incredible. So there's a lot of comparisons that you've already made from the Philippines to the US. Can you talk more about the cultural contrast between what you thought the US would be like compared to what it has been like for you so far? Oh, well, how about it? Like education or everything? Sure. It could be everything, but it could also be through the lens of education. I mean, yeah. Oh, like fun fact.

SPEAKER_03 15:27

Philippines love rice a lot. Okay. Every meal we have we always have that rice on our side with a meal and something like that. But here I can see like I can eat fries with meat, like fries for rice, like American food and Filipino food. It's like a diverse, different culture food. And so I'm starting to embrace what you guys have here, and it's fun, and I love it. I love the food.

SPEAKER_01 15:55

What about the differences between the education for kids with exceptionalities, maybe even like social attitudes towards kids with disabilities there versus here?

SPEAKER_03 16:07

Um, well, uh particularly or specifically in our school, way back, the the school where I taught before, I have eight students with different kinds of disabilities. That means I have students with autistic ASD, autism spectrum disorder, I have visually impaired, I have very impaired, I have physically handicapped, I have ADHD or attention deficit hyperactive disorder. And those exceptionalities, I handle them all. So I have I'm teaching them all in one class. It's for remedial, because I'm I'm an inclusion teacher way back in the Philippines. And comparing back here, it's kind of like because we have those different kinds of exceptionalities at in specific classroom. And here I have like all behavioral problems. So it's different, and the behavior itself, it's more unlike, it's not too complex. It's just really not too aggressive. The level of behavior of the child is different from the Philippines. I have read a research about pandemic babies or after COVID. It's like for home quarantine or whatever, there's really a strange composition about behavior challenges towards the child because social awareness is important. These kids who lack social responsibility being social with other people, this might create problems within the child. Like that's why talking is important. And that's it.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

How have you helped your students benefit from the cultural exchange opportunity?

SPEAKER_03 17:47

Yeah, so last year, under the TPG program, we have to submit to a cultural activity. We have first would be the culture about community. So we have to share to the community about what Philippine culture that we have. And so for my class from last year, we made the Philippine flag. So we draw, I explained the symbol of the flag and how it connects to the Philippines. I have a friend, which is Derry Mahal from last year. I contacted her. Hey, can you help me with my cultural exchange activity? Can you help me with your kids make also then activity about American flag? Let your kid draw the American flag and explain the culture and whatever. And so we exchanged the cultural background and we connected. And she sent me the video, I sent the picture, and then that's it.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

That is amazing. And Caroline, I'm curious from your perspective, right? Because you are kind of serving as a liaison between TPG and the students in the school and the TPG teachers. What's been your cultural benefit so far from this exchange happening?

SPEAKER_02 19:03

Benefit is the right word because it's benefits that I just get to experience and sit back and watch the magic happen when I get sent pictures like that when I know they're having live Zoom calls. Now, yours is not live because they're in bed when we're in school. Right. But I know our teachers in Jamaica at the middle school, they had a full Jamaican feast last year at Bellevue Middle School. And I know they're already talking about it at one of the elementary schools where they provided all their food and cooked. And it's it's so culturally enriching, not just for the students, but the fellow faculty and staff at the schools that they've only lived in Pensacola all their life. And for their own exposure to it, it's been an incredible process. And again, I'm lucky with the front row seat to just hear about it. I can pop in and visit, and it's just beneficial to all. So it's been wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

I want to ask you some logistical questions. I know we've kind of explored the more emotional and social benefit size, but how does the money part of it work? How does who pays for the program? Is it any different than when Escambia County Public Schools hires someone who grew up in the county?

SPEAKER_02 20:22

Oh, sure. That's a great question. And that's one of those things. It's like, hey, how does this work? You know, just does he make more or less? So with as far as our teachers being our employee, they get hired on as a teacher on our teacher's salary. There's a placement schedule. If they come in with experience, they can go a little higher than the entry level, just like we have for anybody here. The part where the cost of TPG is incurred is we do have a dollar amount that we owe them per teacher that we hire. What we save when we have these teachers is we do not have to contribute to the Florida retirement system for these teachers. So right now, that's close to 4% of a salary. So that is cost that the district saves. Also, our TPG teachers have their own health insurance policy. Now they can opt into our health insurance plans, but we have found most of them do not. Those district contributions for health insurance, we do not pay. And so those savings, they figure TPG, they know what they're doing. They know about what that savings is. And so the savings amount then goes to TPG. The more teachers you hire, the more cost effective it becomes. And to that point, they really are just the same exact cost as hiring someone from the United States. So the TPG fee is absorbed, absorbed by the savings with the Florida retirement system and the health insurance benefits.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

That's really interesting. What have you found that people tend to misunderstand the most about the collaboration?

SPEAKER_02 22:08

Uh, I get asked, you know, just some blatantly honest questions like, are they here to stay here? And is this an immigration process program? And it's a visa exchange program. I mean, that's what it is. And I know in my high school growing up, we had foreign exchange students. And so that's always the way I explain it. It's instead of foreign exchange students, it's foreign exchange. It's not exchange teachers. Right. And to my, I mean, we're not sending anyone out, you know, but it's the same process. Now, whether or not personally, I was, I was just asking John Dale, do you think you're gonna stay, you know, for the third year or the fourth year? And he's so ambitious. He said, No, I'm not done yet. I'm not done yet. But there are some teachers, and we haven't done it quite long enough, they might be to go back home after two or three years, and that's okay too. But the basis of the program is that it's an exchange visa that again, I think some people, you know, they don't want to ask about that part of it. But I know all of our teachers, they're so open to the questions because the questions are part of the culture. And so if you don't know, just ask.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

I love that. John Dell, you wanted to speak to why you feel education is important to this generation. Can you share your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_03 23:29

Yeah, I mean, in this new generation, I would say that we are so fast-paced and education. Yeah, education is there, but it seems like the new generation, like the importance of having education is very important. It's essential now. And it it can solve like pro I mean, not really problems, like practically problems, but education might the the source of solving in the future. Because I I know because in the Philippines, there are remote areas that students can afford to go to school. Even though school is free, public school is free, but how how about like giving money go to school? How about giving snacks, what to eat, what to bring at school? And so I look for my vision again. That why do we think that education is important? Because this is for the future generation, because we believe that they can be the savior for the next few years. So we should not let education leave behind than everybody. I'm not saying that education comes first from everything, like education comes first before family. I mean saying that education is important because it's really what it means to be educated to people. And that's it.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

That's wonderful. I can't think of a better way to wrap this up. Thank you so much for sharing. You've done a great job on your first podcast. And thank you, Caroline, for helping us understand kind of the gears of it also. You guys were great. Well, thank you, Meredith, for having us.

SPEAKER_02 25:06

Happy to educate everyone about this great program.

SPEAKER_01 25:10

Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and share. Voices United in Education is a production of Scandi County Public Schools.