If Lisa Bakken does her job right, the kids entering her kindergarten class on the first day of school today won’t know she speaks English. And they won’t be able to tell she’s a rookie.

Today Bakken, 23, begins her first full year as a classroom teacher. So does Mark Siegel, 24, who’ll meet his nearly two-dozen sixth graders this morning for the first time.

Both are among the 133 new members of the Madison school district’s "teaching unit" — not only teachers, but also school social workers, psychologists, bilingual resource specialists, librarians and guidance counselors. Most come to Madison with prior experience in other districts but some, like Bakken and Siegel, must rely on their own education and instincts, district-assigned mentors, and advice from veteran colleagues for the year that lies ahead.

"There’s a lot of challenges that come with teaching," said district spokesman Ken Syke. "It’s very fast-paced. So first-year teachers certainly have some approaches in mind but they’re confronted with a lot of new things."

Bakken is one of three kindergarten teachers helping to launch the district’s new dual-language immersion program at Leopold Elementary School. It’s a high-stakes program: The district hopes that dual-language immersion, designed to help children become fluent in both English and Spanish, will help raise test scores and anchor families in the district.

"I’m so lucky. So lucky," Bakken said last week, minutes before parents and their 5-year-olds began showing up in her classroom for a kindergarten open house. "They are putting everything into a program that needs to be there — the support, the funding, the training."

And the secret: Although English is her first language, Bakken will speak only Spanish to her 15 students, including the seven who come from English-speaking homes, to make sure everyone becomes well-grounded in the language.

As school starts today for elementary school students, new middle schoolers and high school freshmen across Madison, Bakken’s class will learn two songs, how to use the bathroom and how to navigate the school.

Since she was a kindergartner herself, Bakken wanted to be a kindergarten teacher, she said. Her interest in bilingual education came along in college. A Madison native, she began learning Spanish in first grade at Blessed Sacrament Elementary School, then kept up her studies at West High and later UW-Madison, where she graduated last December.

Still, academic Spanish didn’t prepare her for the colloquial vocabulary she’d need on the job. She only mastered Spanish, she said, while a long-term substitute for a second-grade bilingual class last spring in the Verona School District. By February, Bakken was hired by the Madison district for the coming school year, and in July learned she’d won the Leopold spot.

"That was relatively early," she said last week. "I was just at new-staff orientation, and some people there had just been hired the night before."

It was early August when Mark Siegel heard that he, too, had been hired by the Madison district. Four weeks later, he was hanging laminated science posters in his new sixth-grade classroom at Toki Middle School.

Originally from Whitefish Bay, Siegel attended UW-Eau Claire before transferring to UW-Madison to earn a teaching degree in 2008. He both student-taught and was a long-term substitute at Hamilton Middle School.

At Toki, Siegel will teach science, language arts and reading to his homeroom class of 20. Then he and team-teacher Vicky Grice, who concentrates on social studies and math, will swap students.

Siegel is used to getting funny looks when he says he likes teaching middle school — and loves middle schoolers, he said. "The faces you see when you say that," he said. "I really enjoy the middle-school-aged kids. It’s a fun time (in life) to experience with them. They’re not quite set in their ways, as you may find sometimes in high school. They’re not grown up, but they’re not little kids. They know they are growing up."

Siegel knows how many kids lack "a positive male influence in their life," and the responsibility that gives him, he said. He also knows he’s starting his career at a school that’s had its share of troubles.

"I think the staff is really looking to turn that around," he said. "There’s a great energy and excitement at Toki, really focusing on the positive — because a lot of that gets overlooked."

For Siegel, the key to discipline is to build strong relationships with students and make school fun for everyone, he said.

After all, "We’re in the same boat together. They’re coming in to a new school, a new environment, a new role, the same way I am," he said of his new students. "That’s a big thing — learning with the kids, experiencing it with them, rather than only teaching to  them. We’re both stepping into new roles together." 

SCHOOL STARTS IN MADISON

Who: Students in kindergarten through grade six and in grade nine start their school year today. All middle and high school students attend Wednesday.

New teachers: Madison will have 133 new faces this year in its “teaching unit,” which also includes school social workers, psychologists, bilingual resource specialists, librarians and guidance counselors. Most new hires have prior experience in other districts, which is reflected in their salaries. Average starting salary this year: $38,293

Madison school Web site: www.mmsd.org

Source: Madison School District