Years ago, Cheryl Schleiss learned that her Spanish teacher at Emmett High School was trilingual.
“That is what I want to be,” she thought.
Schleiss wouldn’t realize for decades that speaking Spanish wasn’t her final goal. She wanted to help others learn it.
Schleiss, 63, now teaches fourth grade in Jerome’s dual-language program, where she continues pursuing her passion for helping students learn through language and culture.
Catching the bilingual bug
Schleiss fell in love with Spanish in high school. After graduation, she enrolled at Brigham Young University-Idaho to study Spanish literature.
“They excel at foreign language,” Schleiss said of the program.
She then lived in Mexico for a few months, got a master’s degree, and traveled as much as she could. Life took over. Schleiss met her husband, a geologist, while living in Oregon with her parents.
The couple moved frequently for her husband’s job. Schleiss stayed home with her daughter for a time then worked at a surgeon’s office while living in Illinois. But the job, largely filing paperwork, bored her.
She heard the local school district was required to have a Spanish speaker on staff after an increase in the number of Spanish-speaking students.
“I was working with English language learners, and I felt like I had so much to offer them,” Schleiss said. “Given the right kind of support, they can do anything.”
Schleiss fell in love with teaching and enrolled in a master’s program to get her credentials.
She moved to Jerome nine years ago and began teaching English as a second language to middle schoolers. Then, four years ago, the district offered her a fourth-grade teaching position in its dual-language program.
“I jumped on it,” Schleiss said.
She loved facilitating the transition to English for her students, but the paperwork was overwhelming.
“I felt like I was being one-quarter teacher and three-quarters secretary,” Schleiss said.
Still, the move to the dual-language program proved to be a better fit. With four years under her belt in the dual-language program, Schleiss is hooked.
Opening hearts and minds
Schleiss teaches the full day in Spanish, with morning and afternoon cohorts. During the other half of their day, students are taught in English by Schleiss’s co-teacher, Shannon O’Brien.
During O’Brien’s first year as a teacher, she described working with Schleiss as “phenomenal.”
“It was just overwhelming so many times, and I just would feel like I can’t do this,” O’Brien said. “She was so encouraging and supportive.”
The pair connected over their curiosity about the world and students around them.
“She is one of those people that just values and loves learning,” O’Brien said.
The dual program has a mix of native English- and Spanish-speaking students, which creates camaraderie among the kids, Schleiss said.
Schleiss loves seeing students use their language skills to help classmates and others in their community.
“And they feel amazing about that,” she said.
The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that about 50% of Jerome’s population is Hispanic.
The dual language program creates understanding and connection for all students, Schleiss said. For her, it means learning about other cultures as she meets families from places like Honduras and Peru.
“It’s not just one culture, it’s multiple cultures, and it does open your mind,” Schleiss said. “And I think it opens your heart as well.”
Schleiss’ students are together from kindergarten through middle school, which she said creates almost a sibling-like bond.
“They can bicker among themselves, but if an outsider tries to say anything or do anything, they’re very protective of each other,” Schleiss said.
‘Bilingualism is my passion’
This year, Schleiss received a grant from the Jerome School District Foundation to buy non-fiction books for her students.
“I was really tired of watching kids look at the pictures instead of reading the books,” Schleiss said.
Students chose either a history book or a biography, then created posters to share what they learned with classmates.
“Every kid was able to share. Some of the posters are very text-heavy,” Schleiss said. “Some of them are more illustrative, but every single student could and did complete that assignment.”
O’Brien said out-of-the-box projects are part of what makes students gravitate to Schleiss.
“Her real strength is in those creative projects,” O’Brien said. “The kids really learn, but they’re fun.”
The dual language program isn’t easy, Schleiss said. She not only teaches all the typical fourth-grade lessons but also another language. It can be hard for struggling students to figure out if they’re having a hard time with the content or with their second language.
For Schleiss, the goal of sending well-educated students into the world is worth it.
“Bilingualism is my passion,” she said.
Cheryl Schleiss
Years teaching: 20
Grades taught: Pre-K-12, a mix of English as a second language, Spanish and substitute teaching
What’s one thing you wish parents knew about teaching?
I wish parents knew that we have their students’ best interests always at the forefront of our thinking, our planning and our execution.
