High School English teacher Brings Journalism to Hispanic students

San Antonio high school journalism teacher Michael Guevara will be attending the Intensive Journalistic Writing Institute (IJWI) in Washington, D.C. this July, thanks to the support of The National Association of Hispanic Journalists. As the chair of the National Council of Teachers of English’s Committee Against Racism and Bias, Guevara sees firsthand that Latino males are under represented in the English classroom

The IJWI program will help Guevara, a high school English teacher at Alamos Heights High School in San Antonio, expand his skill set to bring journalism to his school, which has a 30 percent Hispanic enrollment. “Sometimes people tend to not want to award us money because the district is made up of many affluent families,” Guevara says. “It is probably the smallest of the 16 districts in San Antonio, but has the highest per pupil spending rate. They sometimes forget that it is the families, not the teachers, in the district, who are affluent.”

Since 1988, the Intensive Journalistic Writing Institute (IJWI) has trained hundreds of English and journalism teachers around the country in new approaches to teaching writing, using real examples of contemporary and classic journalistic models. To register for the July 5-11 workshop, contact Carol Lange, IJWI Director. The sessions will be held primarily at the Washington Post.