Bilingual teacher in San Jose Unified wins county recognition

A teacher whose 30-year career has spanned three continents was named Santa Clara County Teacher of the Year for the San Jose Unified School District.

Claudia Monsalvo-Montanez, a two-way bilingual immersion  teacher at Bachrodt Elementary School, was honored by the Santa Clara County Office of Education on Oct. 23 as part of the annual Teacher Recognition Celebration. A total of 30 teachers representing the county’s school districts received honors this year.

Monsalvo-Montanez has been teaching at Bachrodt for seven years in her second stint with San José Unified. From 2001 to 2003, she worked as a teacher at Anne Darling Elementary School before moving to Madrid, Spain for 13 years, where she continued to teach.

She has also taught in Bogota, the capital of Colombia, the country where she grew up.

“My aunt ran a nursery school in my hometown of Barranquilla,” said Monsalvo-Montanez in a statement. “And every summer when I was on vacation, I would go there and try to support the English teacher. It was just a thrill for me to do that and help out. There I started realizing I wanted to become a teacher.”

At Bachrodt, Monsalvo-Montanez delivers dual language instruction in both English and Spanish in classrooms that are usually composed of half native Spanish speakers and half native English speakers. She said she continues to be inspired and encouraged by the enthusiasm of her students.

“The very first week of school, we had our first read aloud session and I could see students starting to learn new words in Spanish. After that reading session, I noticed that several of our students were using those words in their writing exercises. I could see how it stayed with them, and that’s a wonderful feeling.”