social studies and teacher allies

No one ever told me teaching would be like a season of Survivor with cutthroat allies that move all the time. Someone once even recommended that I watch my back around two people who are now friends with my “warner”. It’s dizzying. Overall I feel grateful to no longer be isolated in a trailer but part of a smaller school, next to teachers of my grade; I really feel like a teacher now in an actual school. But the alliances and re-alliances are intimidating and I often feel like I wish I was back in my own bubble. Luckily, being in an ESL class, distances me from the others enough that it’s not too bad. I’m sure other work environments can be like this but it’s certainly new to me.

Just last week a teacher who teaches the before-school test prep told students from a different class that their teacher was teaching them a “stupid” way of doing the essay and they would end up failing. Even if it were true, why tell the students things like that? Crazy.

Speaking of test prep, the test today seemed hard to the general ed teachers, so I can only help. Having a Chinese translator today for my 6 students really made me envision all the things I could do if she were always there. *sigh*

online sources for newcomer ELLs?

I use sites like storylineonline.net with its read alouds done by famous people, raz-kids.com with its leveled books and I have Imagine Learning English in my class. But I am trying to find more online resources that offer other similar read alouds or readers theatre, etc. Any recommendations? Preferably free :)

New online network for ESL and bilingual teachers

I just started this network for ESL and bilingual teachers because I have noticed how some of the teachers I know feel really isolated. Some are the only ESL teacher in their school, or are the only self-contained class in their grade, or for whatever other reason they feel totally alone, or feel unsure about how to handle the new and particular obstacles they’re facing this year. Bilingual teachers, too, feel like they’re a dying breed, or feel frustrated because they both feel strongly about kids learning in their first language, but torn about teaching transitional bilingual classes.  Also, I was inspired by this article in education week.

So, please join my Ning and add your thoughts, questions, ideas; share resources and connect with and inspire new teachers, or reignite veterans, or yourself!

I just started it, and would really love for it to take off as a great resource for ESL/bilingual teachers hoping to do the best for their students, grow as teachers, (including ranting and venting as needed), and to help others to do the same.

Personally, this is my third year as an ESL teacher and every year I have done something totally different! My first year, I was a push-in with grades 1, 2 and 4. Last year I had my own self-contained, multi-level third grade class and this year I have my own self-contained fifth grade full of newcomers! It’s constantly a challenge and one of the things that keeps me sane and gives me perspective is being able to commiserate and share with others in the same boat.

this year so far..

Tomorrow is the fifth grade NY social studies test. I will have hopefully three translators in the room, plus myself. There will be a Chinese, Bengali, and hopefully an Indonesian translator. I will be providing the Spanish. I say hopefully because I don’t know if my school has been able to track down an indonesian translator. Practically nothing exists in Indonesian here.

Of course none of this really matters since I really doubt they teach much American history in those countries, but at least they may be better equipped to make guesses and may be able to do the essay question. That is a big maybe since that assumes they were able to learn something from all the English instruction they’ve been getting.

Not sure if I mentioned this earlier but I am teaching a free-standing fifth grade this year and it is the mecca for all beginners and newcomers it seems since out of a total of 28 kids, roughly 19 are beginners and 10 of them are new to the country as of September. The rest are new as of last winter, and small minority have been here two years.
My attitude about this year’s position moves back and forth between sugar and shit quite easily. Some days I am proud at what we’re able to do as a class and I recognize what I am able to provide them and then other days I feel overwhelmed, like my supervisors expect me to do wonders.

Part of the “problem” is that I had a huge success last year, with a class of kids who came in reading level E and left reading level Q. That is like 2 years worth of progress or something. But this year I have more true beginners, so the challenges are very different.

One thing that makes me feel good is that even though I am a new teacher I feel like I have been given a most important class. These are kids who would easily languish in a regular classroom. But sometimes it feels like I was given these kids because no one else knows what to do with them.

For example: there is this other fifth grade teacher who has a student who went back to his country for most of last year and he basically didn’t go to school the whole year. He reads a low level, maybe a J, and he his behavior reflects not having gone to school. So she has told her supervisor she doesn’t know what to do with him. I fear I will be given this kid, but then I had the chance to look at an example of his writing and he is far more advanced linguistically from any of my students! He easily uses past and past perfect tenses, as well as idioms and expresses ambiguity with comments like “she seemed angry with me…” This same teacher teaches my kids math after school, and she asked me, after her first afternoon with them, if they speak English. What?? Out of the 7 she has, only 2 don’t understand English. The rest.are beginners, and one advanced and they never have a hard time in my class. I have clearly come to take for granted the way I and others know how to ask questions in different ways – I guess? I mean, what else could be the reason. In her comments, she insinuated my kids are dumb and can’t even understand their first language.

Why is is that the same things I find thrilling and intriguiging about this job are also the things that drain me?

What are you teaching this year? What are the obstacles that have been weighing on you?

My first observation and meeting with my principal…

Ok, so just recently I was observed by my immediate supervisor (Ms. R) in Writers Workshop. Ms. R is the woman I referred to previously. She came in my class as we were working on Realistic Fiction, where the kids are writing fiction stories with characters they created. We were nearing the end of the genre, so the teaching point for this lesson was about how to add dialog… whether as speech bubbles or dialog in the story itself, depending on where they’re at and capable of doing. Luckily, an ESL teacher who pushes into my class twice a week was there, so after I did a brief mini-lesson on adding speech bubbles, I asked her to take my newcomer-beginners who would get very little from the rest of the lesson. I then dug into “part two” of my mini-lesson where I taught how to add dialog into their stories. So, I do two active engagements (for those of you who use the workshop model). Then they went off. I did two strategy lessons, one for some advanced kids on words that are “better than said” and one on fixing his lead. I also conferenced with kids around the room.

Well, apparently she was floored because she came up to me and said, “they can write! they write a lot!” and then told the whole class, as she was leaving, how speechless she was at the good work they were doing.

She was floored? *I* was floored at her reaction. She even emailed me to say that I am a wonderful teacher and my kids are lucky to have me. Seriously? I think her expectations were that I was watering everything down. And when I met later with my principal she also told me that what I am doing is great (apparently Ms. R had met with her earlier that day), because people come to think of self-contained ESL classes as “dumbed down”. So, I guess despite all my concerns and fears and feelings of unending inadequacy, I am doing well. Not that that means I’m sitting pretty. Just because they feel like I am doing a great job, it’s still not quite meeting my expectations. But at least I feel I am growing in the right direction!

New year… trying out a new theme

Comments?

ah the life of an ESL teacher under a new supervisor

I thought I was going to teach fourth grade but I was moved to fifth, which I have never done before and kind of scared me. I didn’t know what to expect about the kids I’d get and if they’d be big and cynical or “too cool for school” or what. Fifth is the final grade at my school. All I knew was I had 20 students, mostly Spanish speakers and three Mandarin speakers. Well, on day one, yesterday, I got 5 new students who spoke Spanish, Bengali, Indonesian, and another Mandarin speaker. I would say that about 5% of my class speaks English well enough in that they can attempt a response to questions, can read, and write sentences. One of the Chinese students translates for the others, but so far even miming has only gone so far with the other students. I need to reformulate my “attack plan” for the year that let’s me do some basic ESL strategies and content so they aren’t stuck in another world,mentally, in my room. New challenges and I’m excited.

The thing that seems to be the real problem is now, for some reason, I’m not under the ESL supervisor, and my new one knows nothing about ELLs. When she came in to speak to the class, she said loudly,”watch my face. Watch my mouth”. Um… What the? Yeah. But I am hoping this may work to my advantage and she will think ANYTHING I do is amazing simply because I have the “patience for kids like that” (as I have been told). Craziness

Time off?

So, this is my first summer experiencing a true summer vacation – ie., not teaching summer school – although I am taking a class required for my MA. I am enjoying it, but whoever thinks that teachers are, like, totally “off” for the summer are wrong. My brain thinks all the time about what my class will be like next year, what it will be like now that I know I’ll be teaching fourth grade, and what kind of teacher do I want to be. It’s like I’m constantly on watch.

My professor in my current class (on bilingualism which, frankly, is depressing – more on that later) suggested we sign up for NYCORE (NYC’s radical educator’s group), which I did. I have no interest in being an on-the-streets activist again, and had avoided NYCORE b/c of folks who I’d rather avoid and I imagine are members, but I do want to keep abreast of what progressive teachers are up to… you just never know… There’s sort of this expectation in certain circles that the best teachers are the progressive ones and the progressive ones are the most forward-thinking an innovative (and always seem to be in high school….).. Anyway, it makes me long for teaching in a school where students are all being trained in bilingual/biliterate/multicultural classrooms. Do such public schools even exist?

We’re Here Already?

I can’t believe it – the last week of school. I honestly did not think this year would go as fast as it did. I have been assigned to teach fourth grade next year, which means I am looping with two of my students, and the rest are beginner ELLs from three other classes, including two holdovers. About half of my students, many of whom began the year as beginner ELLs themselves, are now reading at grade level and (all but the aforementioned two) will move on to general ed classes. Of course, Teachers College’s assessment of them is LACKING. Even though only 12 out of 22 are reading at grade level, 21 of them met and then greatly exceeded their AYP (a year’s progress) goal in reading that had been set out for them but TC has no way to credit them or recognize them for this feat.

One of the things I looked forward to in becoming a classroom teacher (instead of a push-in) was the prospect of getting to know my students and really witness the progress they’d make, the struggles they’d meet, etc., but in looking back it’s really hard to see how we accomplished what we did and, especially, what I did “right”…. so it leaves me feeling amazed and what we achieved but unsure I could ever replicate :)

I do feel good, though, that I can know have more far-sightedness when coming in in September; a better sense of how things progress and how to plan out each month, supplement the crappy lesson plans and teaching points we get, etc. And hopefully that will translate into more confidence in myself.

I had two great compliments lately. One, my supervisor had told me that if I had said to her back in September where my students would be (in terms of their reading level and vocabulary), she would have told me I was crazy. Two, today a cluster teacher who works with my students and comes to my class for 37.5 told me, “you really have a lot of patience. You really have a lot more than you may realize.” This made me feel good because I hate when other teachers just write me off as “laid back” when I don’t see my style that way. I am strict, but there are certain behaviors I allow because I understand where they come from (like kids who can’t sit still or raise their hands before they have an answer ready b/c they suffer from language delay, etc)… My husband would certainly tell you it’s not because I am inherently a patient person! By far!

I really feel like a totally different teacher and I hope I keep learning and feeling optimistic about what I’m doing!

Please feel free to share your own reflections…

school closed

As a precaution, our school is closed until Tuesday because an unusually high number of students went home with fevers, sore throats and other flu symptoms.