Summer Institutes

Ruta Quetzal

Visiting Teachers

Student Exchange

This currnet Texas-Spain Initiative is located at: http://www.tea.state.tx.us/curriculum/texas_spain/.

Texas-Spain Initiative (2003)

In June 1993, the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture, the Texas Education Agency (TEA), and the State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to promote educational, cultural, and economic exchanges between Texas and Spain. TEA is currently facilitating the activities of the Texas-Spain Initiative in collaboration with the Spanish Resource Center in Houston. For further information on any of the programs, contact Mary Roche, consultant from Spain to the Texas Education Agency, at (512) 936-2444 or e-mail mroche@tea.state.tx.us.

Summer Institutes

The Summer Institutes in Spain offer a unique professional development opportunity for both teachers of Spanish as a second language and teachers of bilingual education to participate in courses at universities in Spain. The institutes are typically in July and last 3 to 4 weeks. Cost of the program includes tuition, lodging, meals, materials, excursions, and cultural activities that vary from university to university. Partial scholarships are provided by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture and the individual universities. Participants are responsible for travel arrangements and the cost of travel.

Ruta Quetzal Scholarship

Spain's Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC) offers a summer scholarship for one Texas high school student to travel and study in Spain, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. The Ruta Quetzal scholarship offers an annual opportunity to a student with native, or near-native proficiency in Spanish (Advanced or Superior according to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) and who is 16 or 17 years of age. The scholarship is offered to schools in different Education Service Center regions on a rotating basis. For further information, you may contact Carmen Gil at the MEC office in Houston by phone, (713) 974-1689, or e-mail, oespain@oespain.com.

The Visiting Teachers Program

The Visiting Teachers Program brings teachers from Spain to Texas for the purpose of promoting multicultural education and filling teaching positions in areas such as Spanish (PreK-Grade 12), bilingual education, other foreign languages, or in other areas where Texas teachers are often in short supply. By temporarily employing teachers from another country and culture, this program offers school districts a unique means of supplementing and enriching their overall instructional program. School districts take an active role in interviewing, selecting and contracting with the teachers from Spain.

The Student Exchange Program

The Student Exchange Program promotes exchange programs for Spanish students who study English as a second language and Texas students studying Spanish. The exchange program provides opportunities for students to spend from two to four weeks in the exchange location in both school and home settings. Applications must be received at least 90 school days before the planned exchange would occur.