'I love my work'

Native-speaking Hispanic teaches Spanish at Glen Rose

By Carol Rolf

LITTLE ROCK — Nohora Carson came to the United States from Columbia, South America, in 1966.

"I could speak English, but people could not understand me because of my accent," she told her Spanish II students at Glen Rose High School as they reviewed the Spanish alphabet. "I had to spell the words. That's why it is so important to know the alphabet when you are learning another language.

"Do not forget the alphabet," she said.

This is Carson's first year to teach in the Glen Rose school district. "I love my work," she said. "I feel like I'm not really working at all. I love the students, too."

Carson married a man from the United States and they moved to Dumas. "I had two children, one in junior high and one in the fourth grade," she said. "So I went to school for English as a Second Language for my children.

"The ESL coordinator there liked my English and said, 'Why don't you work with the schools ?'

She discussed it with her husband the Dumas School District hired her as an interpreter.

"I also helped with an enrichment program for kindergarten and first grade, and helped the ESL teacher, too," she said.

"So it was by mere accident that I got into teaching," she explained. "In Columbia, I worked in the loan office in a bank in Bogotá."

Carson said when she found out she liked being in a school setting, she went back to college. She holds both a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in education from the University of Arkansas at Monticello.

"I taught in Dumas, and then I moved to Hot Springs last year," Carson said.

"I worked for one year in Arkadelphia and now have moved here to Glen Rose. It's closer to my home, and it's smaller. I like a small school."

Carson teaches three classes each of Spanish I and II.

She is married to Kevin Carson. They share a blended family: Son Nestor Munoz, 24; Constanza Munoz, 22; Hannah Morgan, 10; CalieCarson, 22; and Katie Carson, 16.

Carson belongs to the Arkansas Foreign Language Association, and attends some of their workshops. "I've made friends with several Spanish teachers through that organization," she said.

To keep her Spanish classes interesting, she plans several field trips for the year. "I want to make the classes fun," she said. "I want them to hear Spanish so I hope to take them to cultural and hands-on activities."

She meets each student at the doorway to her classroom. "They have to have a password to come in," she said. "They have to greet me (in Spanish) and give the password. I teach them the password for the next day; it's different every day."

"Why learn Spanish?" she asks. "It's everywhere. Everybody already knows more than 500 words in Spanish.

"And it's fun," she said laughing. "It helps you better understand English, too, and if you know Spanish, it may give you more job opportunities."

Tri-Lakes, Pages 67 on 10/02/2008