Stategies to teach bilingualism

Different Strategies
I have worked in 4 different school districts, and each of them have their own idea about how to make the most effective way to transferred students whose language is Spanish into English. I found it fascinating!

All the school administrators that I have worked for, and collaborated with, have wonderful, passionate intentions to make the students the most efficient English literate writers and speakers, so they trained you, and tell you that their way is the best way to teach them, but they forget to consider one element in their "agendas": the students.

I am a good teacher, well at least that is my belief, who has done every training and has followed all their suggested ways. What are "these beliefs" and do they work?

Let me give you some examples: 
At one district, I have been told and I have been trained that you need a partner who is a native in English, and a native in Spanish working together switching the students half day, so that the students learn from their "native" accents.  Yes, I agreed, in theory. 
Is it true?  No. Students will develop their own accents regardless of who, "natives", speaks to them, the most important issue is the quality of the vocabulary that each teacher uses with their students.
The comments that I hear from parents is that "my child was telling me that it may precipitate tomorrow, I asked him what is precipitation? and my child said---"oh mom, it means rain!" ------This is very true, the quality of the vocabulary is the focus.

Here is another example: 
At another school district that I worked, they trained me to make sure my Bilingual students never heard me speaking English around the school because it may confuse them. 
Is it true? No.
As a teacher, I want my students to hear me and copy me, I am a bilingual teacher, therefore I want my students to be bilingual as well. I want my students to learn how I choose to translate from Spanish to English and English to Spanish because it is all about Word Choice and what I am trying to communicate. I am a Role Model of how they should construct grammatically well formed sentences when they choose to speak in English or/and Spanish. This is one of the reasons I am a teacher, to be a Role Model of bi-literacy. Translating is one of the benefits of having students in bilingual programs. They hear how to translate to communicate their message.

The main point of bilingualism is to be able to communicate with more people, to keep up your native language and to learn to live in the new country.

There are different ways to do it. One is by setting up a routine by creating a habit of when, where, and to whom you speak your native language and the new language you are learning.

In my family, it is the people who carry the routine. What I mean is that, my own kids talk in Spanish with their grandparents. When they talked to us, parents, we talk in English.

A friend of mine, has her kids speaking English when they are outside the home, when they get home everyone switches to Spanish. Another friend does it with Vietnamese when they are at home.

Does it work? YES! You have to commit to a routine and the kids will follow it.    
At school this is what I do to teach vocabulary in both languages.

Check out my packets to teach students vocabulary, these have worked with my kindergarten and my first grade students. However, I have heard that their parents whose language is primarily Spanish, they are very excited because they are picking up the vocabulary as well, and they are learning along with their kids.

How do you do it? How would you do it?