My Corner of the Classroom

I received information a few weeks ago about taking classes to get add-on certification for teaching students who are speakers of other languages otherwise known as ESL ( English as a Second Language), ELL (English Language Learners), or TESOL (Teaching English as Second or Other Language) in the alphabet soup of education. 

In addition to currently teaching students who speak other languages, I spent time living in another country where I was a language learner and my children were language learners.  So teaching being certified as ELL is an interest of mine. 

I’m also a lover of learning and find myself wanting to be a student.  I completed my masters degree nearly 5 years ago and have taken several post-graduate classes since then.  A bout a year ago I was accepted in a doctoral program and began my studies.  I took a leave of absence from the program after the first semester due to personal reasons that made it difficult to continue studying at that time.  I decided to forego the program after 6 months mostly in part to the economic downturn in my investments which were the funds for my tuition.  Yet, a month later during the summer  I found myself taking another class through the local state university to get a taste for an Ed.Specialist degree.  

The ELL classes are 21 hours and will take 3 semesters (including a summer semester) to complete, so basically one school year.  One draw that makes it especially attractive is that it is tution paid through a grant.  So I would only have to pay for books and incidentals.  Sounds pretty good considering the going rate is about $1000 for a three credit hour class. 

Should I apply ?   Should I pass?   Learning and studying will be good, but it will also be stressful as I willl have to continue with my more than full-time job teaching.  
What are your thoughts?

I had a sub last Thursday and sometime between the time he left at the end of the day and the time the custodian came in, I had a mischief-maker visit.  I came to school the next morning with the mess above to greet me.  Nothing horrible–it could’ve been so much worse, but still it was a violation.  Papers were scattered with coin manipulatives from math strewn around. The worse was probably the content of a bottle of hand sanitizer that was poured on my chair followed by a layering of the navy beans that I keep in a cup to hold my pencils up.    The sanitizer left a stain when dried.   Viewing the camera tapes of the hallway revealed that it was one of my students who stays in an afterschool program until her mom can pick her up.  She also visited another classroom according to the tapes.  That teacher reports that some candy was taken.  Consequences for her actions were given and I hope they were strong enough.  When asked why she did it, she replied she was mad at me for being gone that day.

School was beginning and my class size jumped to an extra 7 students more than I had the year before.  My grade-level colleagues and I are at the state department of educations maximum size for our grade.  This is one fallout from budget cuts.  Frustrating, but a part of the job.

What is the most frustrating is trying to get the right furniture for the students that wll be here in just a few days.  It was two days before school starts and I still needed 4 desks and 5 chairs.  I was in constant contact with the assistant proncipal about my dilemma.

Then I find out that one of our brand new teachers,  just out of school, was getting a whole class set of brand new desks and brand new chairs.  Must be nice!  When I was a brand new teacher I got all the cast-off furniture that nobody wanted.    But I really didn’t want to begrudge her.  In my mind though I was thinking “This will be the only time in your teaching career that you will have such nice stuff!” 

Back to my problem of finding desks– the time was drawing near to the first bell ringing and students filling our halls.  I went personally to visit the assistant principal and state my plea for desks.  In the hall outside the office, the brand new teacher remarked that she had 4 extra desks in her room.  I informed the principal that I was going to go get those desks for my room.  Then I would only need one more. 

What came out of his mouth left me in near shock.  “Well, I don’t think we should break up the set.”   WHAT?!?!?  He wants me to leave 4 unused desks in the brand new teachers room because we shouldn’t break up the brand new set–all the while I will have five students sitting on the floor using a clipboard.  I could hardly believe it.

I did what any veteran teacher would do.  I told him I was getting the desks and then I did it.  

When does keeping furniture in a set become more important than kids? 

P.S.  I found another desk by the first day, so I was set—until a new student showed on that morning.  Back to the drawing board!

I took a graduate level class this summer on web development.  It was an online  skills-based class where we learned to write HTML code to design websites and as an eight week course we had a project due nearly every week to demonstrate new skills learned.  It was a difficult class to learn in such a short time frame– almost like learning a new language.  And yet, I learned a whole lot and felt good about accomplishing what I did. 

How does this relate?   I will share two things that stuck with me during this course.  

First of all, this class was a struggle for me.  I read the required readings and played around with code, but it was still difficult to understand the why and how of what I was doing.  I plodded along, asking questions, reading the text over and over until I figured it out enought to be able to attempt the project that was due.   More than once after reading the book again for the 10th time, it would *click* for me.  Ah Ha!  Now I get it! 

This must be how the strugglers in my class feel.  They try and they try and it just gives them a headache.  As a teacher, I must give them several opportunities to work with the information and I must be sure and have different ways to present the information.  I will have more empathy this year for my strugglers, and yet I will also know that if they keep trying they, too, will get the Ah Ha! moment. 

The second thing that stuck out to me during my class was the benefits of a truly collaborative class.  Our professor encouraged the members of the class to reach out to one another and share insights, tips,  and learnings.  She told us not to be shy because there wasnt time to be shy in such a short class.  Students heeded her advice and posted often to a discussion board with questions and help for ane another.  We would share the work we were doing on our project and others would critique it or give advice on how to fix it.   

This worked for a couple of reasons.  First it was academically safe for us to reach out.  Everyone felt comfortable enough to be vulnerable.  Plus the professor encouraged it.    We also had projects to be worrking on.  Each of us were working on something different, and yet demonstrating the same skills.  This allowed us to help each other and not worry about someone copying another’s work.    I sincerely believe that I learned more because of the collaboration than I would have learned on my own.

As a teacher , I need to create a safe environment so that my students feel vulnerable enough to share and risk their thoughts.  I need to encourage them to help each other.   As a teacher, I need to have more project based assignments to use higherlevel thinking and provide opportunities for collaboration. 

I hope to remember these things as I plan for my next school year.

If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.

-Ignacio Estrada

I was in a restaurant the other day when one of my students from last year walked in with his dad.  They both saw me as they walked by.  The dad nodded a hello and I could have sworn the 10 year old boy had a twinkle in his eyes.

After spending a year with students, I find that I become very close to them.  I truly love them and think of them as my kids.  Every late spring I wonder how I will make it without seeing my kids on a daily basis. Two things generally happen then. 

First, I remind myself that I will have a new crop of kids to love and I will still get to see my “old” kids in the halls for at least one more year.  There are always a couple of kids that I become especially attached to –usually because of hte extra amount of time I invest in them for academincs, for social reasons, or for behaviors.  As an opposite and equal reaction, there are always a couple of kids that I am so glad to have gone from my daily presence!  This past school year, I had three students that stayed in close contact with me.  They would come to my classroom either before or after school to say hi and to give/receive a hug.  These are the kids that I will never ever forget.

The second thing that happens in the spring is my current students begin to act up and pull away. It might be spring fever or it might be a subconscious effort on their parts to break the ties or relationship.  Whatver the reason, by the time the last week of school arrives I am totally ready to not see them again for a couple of months!  

Back to my buddy in the restaurant. He is the one who spent at least 5 -10 minutes alone with me at the end of each school day as he waited for his school bus. We had more conversations about outside-of-school topics that other students do not get with me.  As I got up to leave the restaurant, I walked over to Dad and son who were finishing up their burgers.  We had small-talk conversation for a couple minutes.  How is your summer going?  Have you been anywhere?  Are you ready for school to begin? 

Then it struck me.  I’ve already lost him.  He is off to the new adventure of being a grade older.  He has abandoned the grade left behind.  I feel like the mother who watches her young adult children fly the coop.  She is glad they are independent, yet at the same time there is a sadness that remains. 

*sigh* I have the twinge of sadness mixed with the joy of anticipation for the next round of 10 year olds just waiting to be loved. 

There are a lot of changes going on! 

This year we have a great turnover in our building.  Every grade level either has someone new coming in or a change with current teachers switching grade levels.  The librarian is transferring to another school and every special ed teacher has left–only speech teachers and the school psychologist remain. And the most unusual change is that our principal is taking a teaching position–just for this year she says. 

Every grade level team will be attempting to synergize as a new team and there are many new teachers with no experience.  Add the budget crisis and a new math curriculum to the mix and it promises to be a strange year.    Oh yeah— one more thing– a new superintendent to boot!   It will be interesting to see how this will all turn out.  I hope that everyone just remembers to do what’s best for kids. 

Throughout the summer I help staff our district’s Welcome Center.  For a few hours each week, the center is open for new teachers to our district to come and acomplish many things. 

1. They set up their email and student information system accounts
2. We show them the ropes on using the email and information system
3. We show them how to access the curriculum
4. They are given two books, some cooperative learning ideas, and they get their pick of a freebie table with various teacher tools

I have helped out in the Welcome Center for a few years now.  It always gets me excited to see and welcome the new teachers.  Some are right out of college and others have moved from other districts.

I wonder what other school districts do to welcome and support  their new teachers.

I have 4 English Language Learners in my class.  One is pretty fluent.  One Arabic girl has been in the US for a little over a year.  Last school year she attended the local Islamic school and her studies were in Arabic.  She started public school in September and could speak very little English.  She is now speaking volumes and her gained langauge has made he opinionated and assertive.  How wonderful is that!   She still lacks in reading and writing, but it will come. 

A young Korean came to my class about 6 weeks ago.  He had had one year of English in his country, and tests out as having neglible English.  Right away he got in the groove of the class.  Of course, his strength this far is in math, the international language.  At this point, I speak to him as I do other students and add gestures when I can.  I am sure he doesn’t understand all, but he catches most of it.  It is so exciting to see him flourish this way.

About a month ago, another young Korean began attending my class.  It was clear that besides having a language barrier, she also has other needs.  Not only can I not reach her on the Language level, but also I cannot reach her on the math level.  This makes it very hard to communicate.  It was extremely stressful the first few weeks, but now she is beginning to follow our classroom procedures.  She likes to watch the other children and copy them .  This is probably the best way to learn.

My Korean young one now says “hi” when she arrives in the morning and ”bye” when she leaves in the afternoon.  Sometimes she will come up to me and smile with that adorable smile.  “Sit down?” she’ll say.  I nod and she goes back to her desk.  She insists on having every paper that I pass out and she makes marks on them.  One day, I was calling a few students to my desk because they had not turned in homework.  She watched, then got in her desk to pull out a wrinkled paper.  She brought it to me.  She wants to fit in. 

It is delightful to know and say her classmates names. 

Kids are the same all over the world.  Although I am on a steep learning curve of how to teach ELL, I am enjoying the opportunity.