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Martha Patricia Bachmann
Barbour Language Academy, Rockford, IL
First Grade/General Curriculum (Dual Language)
Masters in Education | Rockford College
ESL/Bilingual | National-Louis University
Bachelors | Augustana College
Martha Patricia Bachmann knows her students in Barbour’s Spanish immersion program represent a diverse mix of cultural, economic and language backgrounds, but when they are together in her classroom, she sees “a micro-community of what I hope the world could be.”
In her classroom, she works to bring students together-- even when they speak different languages. “These languages do not separate or segregate my students, but link them and unite them in order to learn,” says Bachmann, who designs classroom activities, such as learning stations, to help her children interact.
Bachmann also works hard to involve families. She organizes field trips for students and families to places such as the fire station. Every other month, she and her students act out the plot of a multicultural book in a “Readers’ Theater” presentation, to which families are invited. She celebrates each student’s heritage by having children take turns being “Our Classroom Superhero” for a week; on Fridays, the student’s family visits and brings photos, souvenirs and a favorite dish.
Bachmann has been teaching for 14 years and began a mentoring program at Barbour. Peter and Sule Bertram, whose children were taught by Bachmann, describe her as “that one teacher students remember even years later.” |
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