Market Day

Before coming to Guatemala there were two things that I wanted to see--a coffee farm and all of the beautiful textiles and crafts. Thursday I went to the market at Chicicastenango which is known for its twice weekly market. Since I got here I have bought so many things just because I was attracted to the color or pattern (and I'm usually not a big souvenir shopper). Luckily at the big market I was able to abstain from buying too much and just took some pictures instead.

Sweet Relief

There´s nothing like the relief of finding a place to stay when traveling. Especially when traveling alone. Just twenty minutes of wandering around alone can make you feel desperate and wonder why you are even in this strange place to being with. You sort of hope that someone would see your lost look and point you in the direction of a place to stay. But then someone does and you are weary and don´t want to seem desperate and take just anything, so you say no and keep walking (all the while wondering if you should have at least taken a look).

And then finally you come across a place and it´s perfect. You set down your heavy pack and emerge from the hotel and suddenly this new town looks much more charming and you can imagine all of the things to do and see and eat and life is good again.

Bike Trip

Today I took a bike trip through the surrounding area of Antigua. We rode through corn fields and even saw some coffee growing in the shade. The tour guide said that it was an intermediate ride which I didn´t think would be too hard because he also said that people had complained that the "easy" ride was way too easy but this was definitely challenging. We rode though a lot of paths that were very muddy since it is the rainy season. Many of the paths were what he called "single track" meaning they were very narrow and the pedals of the bike barely fit in certain areas. By the end of the ride I was covered in mud. We saw several Guatemalans woking the fields and carring the corn on their backs or with the help of donkeys.


At one point the chain on my bike broke and the guides had to fix it.

The landscape was gorgeous--very green and lush. All week I have been looking up at the mountains and volcanos surrounding Antigua and today I finally got to see it up close.

(I would post more photos but the computer is working very slowly!)

Last Day in Antigua

After a week in Antigua I am getting ready to move on tomorrow morning.

This afternoon I had my last Spanish class. Twenty hours in the last week! My Spanish has definitely improved. We did kind of rush through everything but since it was a refresher it was OK. So now I can speak in the present, past, imperfect and future tenses (well, in theory anyway). I will need to review a lot during my trip but this is a great start and much more than I would have been able to do on my own. I think another really beneficial thing about the class was having one on one time with the teacher. Not only because I was able to practice speaking a lot but because I was able to really study the things that I thought were useful to me.

It almost feels weird to be getting on with my travels now. In just a week I´ve grown really comfortable with the school and living in the guest house (it´s really like a family). I could definitely imagine coming back here to study Spanish for several weeks in Antigua. I am kind of excited to get to the real traveling now. I'll be on the move every few days and hopefully meeting lots of new people.

Next stop . . . Lago di Atitlan.

Children

Since I have been in Guatemala I have seen so many children here. I look at their faces and think that any one of them could be a student in my class. It makes me think about what it must be like to suddenly turn up in Brooklyn and start attending a new school in a strange place. Of course I have considered this before but being here makes it so much more real.

Spanish Classes in Antigua

So I sort of decided on a whim to take a week-long Spanish class at the beginning of my trip to Guatemala. At first I wasn´t sure if it would be a waste of my travel time or if it would be beneficial to helping me communicate for the rest of my trip. I figured that Antigua was a place that I would want to spend a little time anyway so it couldn´t hurt to spend some of my time there learning Spanish. And so far it is proving to be very useful.

I´m what you would call a false beginner in Spanish. I´m not completely starting from scratch (I had three years of high school Spanish) but I do need to start learning it again from the beginning. Because of my knowledge of Italian and the Spanish that I have stored deep in the depths of my brain, I am going fairly quickly through the material. Most of the verbs are similar to Italian so I can recognize the immediately. I just need to study them so that I can retrieve them on my own when I need them. Things like phrasing and sentence structure is either similar to Italian or feels natural from having previously stidied Spanish.

For the last two years I have taught kids who speak Spanish as their first language and I have never spoken to either them or their parents in Spanish. I wouldn´t have known how to form a sentence other than Yo soy la maestra de ESL. Now, for the past three days I have been talking with my Spanish teacher (we have one on one classes) at length about my family, life in Arizona, Italy, etc. By no means is any of this grammatically correct but I am starting to be able to speak. Honestly I doubt I ever spoke this much in my high school Spanish class and that was after having learned all of the verb tenses and conjugations (I´m just now starting to refresh on the past tense in Spanish).

All of this makes me realize that I am not that far off from being conversational in Spanish. And it kind of makes me excited to learn. Spanish was never something that I wanted to study. In high school I had expected to take Italian only to find out that it wasn´t offered. So I spent three years in learning it but never really caring about being able to speak it. Once I started learning Italian it was even further on the back burner because all I cared about was speaking Italian and not ´messing it up.´ Even since then I have taken French and Arabic, wanting to learn those before coming back to Spanish. Now it seems that with a summer living in Latin America and focusing on learning Spanish I could be fairly decent in Spanish. Definitely something to consider although I am still pretty set on the idea of teaching in an international school in Egypt so that I can learn Arabic sometime in the near future.

Count Down to Guatemala

Only nine days until I leave for Guatemala! I've just about got everything I need for my trip now (still lacking the rain gear, but I'll get to that). So in my last week and a half here I want to do all of the fun NYC summer stuff that I'll be missing out on when I'm on my trip. Movies under the Brooklyn Bridge, concerts at the Bandshell in Prospect Park, River to River festival, the floating pool by Brooklyn Bridge Park, and Coney Island (I haven't been yet and it's my last chance). So much to do and only ten days.

I Hate Losing Comments!

I started adding labels to my posts a few weeks ago but they weren't showing up on the actual blog, just on the part where I type. Today I figured out how to get them on the blog but it means losing all of the previous comments from the last two years. That makes me a little sad. Why can't the halo scan comments transfer over? But I guess if I'm going to make the change it's better to do it sooner rather than later.

*updated

Mi Piace Le Lingue

My last Language Week post a little late. I've wanted to write this week but have been so busy.

Mi piace molto le lingue. Mi piace imparare lingue e ascoltare diverse lingue. Mi piace vedere film in lingue straniere e mi piace viaggiare in paese dove parlono lingue altre che l'Inglese. Sono molto interessata in bilinguismo e i diversi metodi per crescere i bambini a parlare due lingue.

Non direi que imparo le lingue facilmente me mi piace imparare le lingue. Voglio imparare tanto lingue quanto possibile. Ho gia detto che ho studiato un po' di Spagnolo e ovviamente l'Italiano. Ho anche studiato un po' di Francese e un po di Arabo.

Ho studiato il Francese quando ho abitato a Firenze. (Strano, lo so.) Ho frequentato l'Universita' degli Studi di Firenze e hanno un centro linguistico. Corsi di lingue non costava molto e potevo prendere crediti per "related fields" di che avevo bisogno per prendere la laurea a Arizona State. Era molto interesate imparare Francese in Italiano. La maestra ha traducco in Italiano da il Francese e spiegazione grammaticale era sempre in Italiano. Sembrava che era molto piu facile per gli Italiani imparare il Francese (una lingua romanza) che io. Pero era interessante che c'erano certe cose che io ho capito piu facilmente che loro perche era piu simile a Inglese che Italiano. Poi quando ho abitato in Sardegna ho lavorato a una scuola di lingue, Inlingua, e ho frequentato un altro corso di Francese (gratuito). Non parlo bene il Francese ancora. Devo abitare in un paese dove parlono il Francese se voglio impararlo per bene.

L'Arabo, ho studiato per diversi raggione. Quando ho abitato a Firenze ho conosciuto tanti Arabi. Ho sentito l'Arabo parlato spesso e ho piaciuto come sentire. Un giorno, scerzando con un amico Arabo, ho detto "Io posso imparare l'Arabo. E' un corso che offrono a l'Universita che frequento in Arizona." Mi ha risposta, "No, non puoi imparare l'Arabo. E' troppo difficile!" Lui stava scherzando ma non ho mai dimenticato cosa ha detto. Due anni dopo, stavo per registrare per l'ultima semestra a l'Universita. Ho visto un annuncio per un nuovo corso di Arabo. La mia programma era gia piena ma ho deciso di inscrivermi nel corso. Era molto divertente. Era interesante imparare come funzione una lingua che sembra impossibile imparare. Si e' un po' difficile ma non impossibile. Sentivo rimorso che non ho deciso di studiare la lingue prima (adesso era l'ultima semestra a l'universita' e non avro' l'opportunita' di studiare di piu.) Pero, non era completamente vero. Ho frequentato in altro corso di Arabo a (community college) e poi quando ho abitato in Sardegna ho assisisto ad un corso di Arabo. Come Francese non parlo molto Arabo ma adesso capisco come funzione la lingua. La prossima lingua che voglio imparare per bene e l'Arabo. Per fare questo voglio abitare in Egitto o Libano. Ho projetti di insegnare a una scuola internazione l'anno prossimo o l'anno dopo. Ma questo e per un altro posto.


I love languages. I like learning languages and listening to different languages. I like watching foreign language films and I like traveling to countries where they speak languages other than English. I’m very interested in bilingualism and the different methods for raising children to speak two languages.

I wouldn’t say that I learn languages easily but I like learning them. I want to learn as many languages as possible. I already said that I studied some Spanish and obviously Italian. I’ve also studied some French and some Arabic.

I studied French when I lived in Florence. (Strange, I know.) I attended the University of Florence and they had a language center. Language courses didn’t cost much and I could earn credits in “related fields” that I needed for my degree at Arizona State. It was very interesting leaning French in Italian. The teacher translated in Italian form French and grammatical explanations were always in Italian. Then, when I lived in Sardegna I worked in a language school, Inlingua, and I attended another French course (for free). I still don’t speak French well. I have to live in a country where they speak French if I want to learn it well.

Arabic, I learned for different reasons. When I lived in Florence I knew a lot of Arabs. I heard Arabic spoken often and I loved the way it sounded. One day, joking with an Arab friend, I said “I could learn Arabic. It is offered as a course at my university in Arizona.” He replied, “No, you can’t learn Arabic. It’s too difficult.” He was just joking but I never forgot what he said. Fast forward two years later. I was registering for my last semester at ASU and I saw a flyer for a new Arabic course. My schedule was already full but I decided to enroll in the course. It was so much fun. It was interesting to learn how a language works that seems so impossible to learn. Yes, it is a little difficult, but not impossible. I regretted that I hadn’t decided to study Arabic sooner as that was my last semester at University and I wouldn’t have the chance to study the language again. But that wasn’t entirely true. I took another course at the community college after graduating and when I lived in Sardegna I audited another course. Like French, I still don’t speak Arabic very well but now I understand how the language works. The next language that I want to lean well is Arabic. To accomplish this I want to live in Egypt or Lebanon. I have plans to teach in an international school next year or the year after. But that is for a different post.

Guided Reading Lending Library

In the last two days I've spent ten hours working to get my idea for a guided reading lending library off the ground. I am actually amazed at the amount of work that I got done (with the help of some other teachers) in just two days. I wanted to take a picture of the work in progress but I forgot to bring my camera.

Thursday I started by laying out all of the books that I had sets of (5-8 books). There was another teacher who had quite a few sets too so I added those to the piles. I then went around to every teacher's room (there were quite a few working) and asked them for what ever they had and added them to the stacks around my room. By the end of the day every desk and table surface was covered in sets of books.

Today when I came into my room I was overwhelmed at all the work there was left to do. Luckily I had three great teachers there to help me. Leveling the books was the biggest and most important part of the whole project. Two teachers worked on leveling the K-3 books (by using the Fountas and Pinnell book as well as by comparing them to anchor books and descriptions). I used the F&P 3-6 book to look up the other titles. Anything I couldn't find in the book was given to a third teacher who used a binder with level descriptions to figure out each book. By 1:00 we had leveled ALL of the books! I had had serious doubts about completing the job but we did it. Next came the task of organizing the books in groups by level A, B, C, etc. and the recording on a list to see what we had. As it turned out we had a pretty good assortment of books for each level. For levels P-Z, however, we were really lacking in books, just one or two titles per level. We'll have to order those books for next year. Finally we worked on coming up with a system for loaning out the books. Each set will be stored in a magazine file with a library card on the front. When a teacher wants to take books they just take the books and the book info card (with teaching points, vocab, etc.) out of the file, sign the card, and go.

Now we just need to organize them into the room/closet that will be their home (TBD at the moment). We want them to be in a place where all teachers can get to them any time they want without having to ask permission or hunt someone down for the key. If it's not accessible and easy to use, teachers won't use it. We'll probably get another day or two to work on the project next week (for some reason our school has lots of extra money to spend before we loose it). This is great news because I'd love to have the room ready to go by the start of the school year and September is just such a busy time for something like this.

When everything gets set up I will definitely share pictures.

Non Parlo Spagnolo, Ma Sarebbe Utile

Dico sepmpre, per ogni parola che ho imparato in Italiano, ho perso quella parola in Spagnolo. E credo che sia la verita'. E siccome ho studiato l'Italiano per cinque anni e ho abitato in Italia per tre anni ma ho studiato Spagnolo per solo tre anni nella scula superiore, si puo' capire perche ho detto, "Non posso dire neanche una frase in Spagnolo." Pero, penso che tutte le parole Spagnole che ho imparato sono sotto chiave e posso farle riuscire.

Il 18 Luglio, vado in Guatemala per un mese. Frequentero' un corso di Spagnolo per i primi cinque giorni (solo) ma spero di fare uscire tutte le parole e frasi che ho gia imparato. Sembra necessario parlare un po' di Spagnolo perche l'Inglese non e' molto parlato in Guatemala. Pero, sono un po' apprensivo di imparare (di nuovo) perche non voglio perdere l'Italiano che ho lavorato molto di imparare. Sarebbe molto utile parlare Spagnolo pero. Quasi tutti i genitori dei miei studenti parlono Spagnolo. Adesso no parlo con loro perche non posso.

E' strano che ho deciso di studiare Spagnolo nella scuola superiore perche sarebbe praticale ma adesso, cuando mi serve, no posso dire niente.



I always say that for every word I learned in Italian, I forgot that word in Spanish. I believe that that's true. And since I studied Italian for five years and lived in Italy for three years, but only studied Spanish for three years in high school, you can see why I say, "I can't even say a phrase in Spanish." But I also think that those words are just locked up and that I can unlock them.

June 18th I'm going to Guatemala for a month. The first five days I'm taking a course in Spanish. I hope to be able to unlock all of the words and phrases that I've learned during those five days. It seems necessary to speak a little bit of Spanish because English isn't widely spoken in Guatemala. But I'm also a little apprehensive about learning Spanish (again) and "messing up" the Italian that I've worked so hard on. It would be very useful for me to learn Spanish, however. Almost all of the parents of my students speak Spanish. Now I don't speak with them because I can't.

It's strange that I decided to learn Spanish because it would be useful but now that I need it I can't say anything.

Last Day of School Wednesday (Sort Of)

So the last day of school is Wednesday and I couldn't be more excited. Soon I'll be off to Guatemala for a month and just before that a good friend of mine from high school is coming to visit for a week. But even though the kids' last day is Wednesday, I'll be at school on Thursday and Friday too.

Ages ago I had this idea to start a "guided reading lending library" (I just made up that name) at my school. I saw it at a school that I went to visit and thought it was fabulous because I never have enough books on every level to use for guided reading and my AP doesn't like it when I use the paper books printed online from readinga-z (because "we have PLENTY of books at this school"). Basically the "lending library" is a book room that has guided reading sets of about eight books each, and several titles for each Fountas and Pinnell level A-Z. When teachers want to plan guided reading all they have to do is go and grab their class sets for the levels that are needed. Everything is organized and waiting to be checked out.

After seeing this storage room at the school I visited I thought We have to have this at my school! I tried to get around to telling the AP of my idea but you know how they are always running around and it's hard to get them to stop and listen for a minute. Well, I finally told her about this idea on Friday and she LOVED it. And it makes sense that she would because we'll be making good use of the books already in our school and it solves my problem of needing to use the paper books (which are a pain to get copies of at school). I just didn't expect her to love it so much as to say "I want to start this right now! Can you work Thursday and Friday?" I did a quick mental calculation in my mind and came to the realization that that was the start of my summer break. She added that there would be per session pay and I agreed. Not only for the money (though I would NOT spend my first two vacation days working for free) but I am really excited about this project. Teachers can't do guided reading without sets of books and it is impossible to run around trying to round up the books you need each week. And contrary to what some at my school think, you can't do guided reading from a basal reader. I hope that I can get a lot accomplished in the two days. I also hope that teachers are appreciative of everything once it is done. If they're not, they probably aren't doing guided reading like they should be.

Imparare a Parlare L'Italiano

Since I'm going to be writing in Italian I thought I'd write about how I started learning it and other things related to speaking Italian. It could be kind of like a theme for the week, although I'll admit I don't know exactly where I'm going with this. It's good practice for me in any case. It's been two years now since I lived in Italy so I'm sure my Italian's a little rusty. Apologies in advance for any major errors.

Non mi ricordo quando ho pensato per la prima volta di imparare l'Italiano. Mi ricordo pero, che quando ho cominciato la scuola superiore volevo inscrivermi nel primo corso di Italiano. Io pensavo che la scuola superiore avesse tutto. Ma non era il caso. Ha offerto solo Francese, Tedesco, e Spagnolo. Mia amica, che voleva studiare Italiano anche, ha scelto Francese invece ed id ho scelto Spagnolo (perche sembrava piu praticale). Ho studiato Spagnolo per tre anni.

Cuatro anni dopo, quando e stato tempo per scegliere un'universita', ne ho scelto una con una facolta' di Italiano abastanza grande, cosi potevo frequentare tutti i corsi di Italiano che volevo. Ho studiato Italiano per cinque anni e adesso non posso dire neache una frase in Spagnolo. Ma parlero' piu' di questo la prossima volta.

Translation (not word for word, but slightly more eloquent being that English is my native language and all):
I don't know exactly when I first knew that I wanted to learn to speak Italian. I do remember starting high school and being so excited to start taking Italian. High school was this big amazing place that had everything. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. The school only offered Spanish,French,and German. My friend who had also really wanted to take Italian decided to take French and I chose Spanish (thinking it was more practical). I studied Spanish for three years in high school.

Four years later, when it was time to choose a university, I made sure to choose one that had a big Italian department so that I could take as much Italian as I wanted. After studying Italian for five years, I can't even speak a sentence in Spanish. I'll write more about that the next time.

According to Srah Blah Blah tomorrow starts "Language Week." In observation I'll try to blog a little in Italian. Hopefully with the last week of school I'll be able to keep up with the postings. Here are the "rules."

Anyone else? Kelly some posts in Turkish? Julie, a little French?

The Start of Something Big?

I think a lot of us will be watching D.C. to see what happens next.

Taking a Trip is not Cheap!

I got my plane ticket to Guatemala City for just $306. I couldn't believe I could go somewhere so cool for so cheap. But when I got to thinking about what I would pack I realized that I needed so much. I went shopping today and got a lot of what I needed. I'm trying not to have buyers remorse because I know that I need all of this stuff.

Shoes:



I seriously didn't have any shoes suitable for hiking around lakes and ruins and cobblestone streets. These sandals are unbelievable comfortable and I think they'll go with a lot of different types of clothing. On the other hand the light colors might not be the best for traveling but I'll just have to wash them when I get home. There was a buy one get one half off sale so I got both pairs for $120.

Day pack:


I don't own a backpack so I had to get this for carrying around daily stuff. Only $20 at some random store near Union Square.

Guide Book:

Rough Guides are my favorite. I also picked up a Spanish phrase book. I'm thinking about taking a five day Spanish class when I first get there but I figured this book will come in handy as my Spanish is beyond rusty. This was the best buy of the day because somehow the guide book rang up as $6.99 instead of $18.99. The cashier didn't seem to mind. Both books for just $13.99. Score!

Digital Camera:


My biggest purchase of the day. I desperately needed a new camera. My old one was about four years old. It only had 3.2 megapixels, was extremely slow, had a small display, and was completely unreliable as the AA batteries it took never stayed charged no matter what kind I bought. This Cannon Power Shot is beautiful and I can't wait to start using it. Of course I also had to buy a 2Gig card, a case, and an extra battery just to be safe. (I don't want to be at the top of a Mayan ruin and have my battery die on me). Camera with all accessories: $420.

And I'm not done! I still need some rain gear, a few items of clothing, and backpacking essentials like chamois, travel lock, etc. It's a good thing I found a cheap ticket.

Summer Travels Ahead

I just bought a plane ticket. I'm off to Guatemala on July 18th! I'm still in shock that I actually bought the ticket.

2007-2008

Well, the organization sheet is in and it looks like I'll be teaching ESL again next year. There really wasn't much movement in the teachers of the lower grades so no spot for me.

There are a few things that am looking forward to about sticking with ESL.
1) Hopefully in my third year teaching it I'll sort of know what I'm doing and be able to improve upon the last two years. In fact, I just had my "End of the Year Conversation" with my program director for TFA and I outlined a few things I want to work on next year including phonics instruction and making connections between quality children's literature and writing, grammar, vocabulary, and listening/speaking.
2) I've spent about 15 hours of June Planning working to prepare for doing just what I described so it will be nice to actually get to use it.
3) This will be my first time teaching the same kids for a second year. Apart from a few kids who test out of ESL and a few kids who test in, my roster is essentially the same. I'm excited to think of starting the year off knowing all of my kids and what they need. For example Brandley, Marco and Fernando need systematic phonics instruction from day one if they are going to improve their reading levels. Heidy made 1.5 years reading growth this year and is now at a mid-first grade level (she is a second grader). She's being held back and I know that if we work just as hard next year as we did this year she'll make another 1.5 years of growth and start the third grade on grade level.

I'm starting to get excited about next year already though I am definitely looking forward to the summer. There might be a trip to Central America in my near future. I haven't been abroad in two years now so a trip is definitely long overdue!

One step closer to certification

I finally finished the last of my certification exams. Eight hours of being at the testing sight on a Saturday was not my idea of a relaxing weekend but at least I am finished. I took the ATS (assessment of teaching skills) and the content specialty test (CST) for ESL. The ESL test I didn't even know that I had to take until a few months ago. Before I started teaching I had to take the multi-subject CST and I thought I was done. Then a few months ago Pace, my masters program, sent out an email saying ESL people had an additional test to take. Now I thought that there was just one CST per license area but I could be wrong. Either that or Pace made us take the wrong test two years ago and now they are having us take this test without telling us that we wasted our time and $88 by taking the other test.

Now I think all I need for my certification is to complete one more year of teaching.

Come On!

I got a really good workout today. I spent 50 minutes on the treadmill and elliptical machines today while watching the Republican Presidential Debate. So many things infuriated me that I think it got my feet moving faster than usual. Now, I'm not one who usually blogs about politics (others can word their opinions much more concisely and eloquently than I can) but there was one topic that does pertain to this blog that actually caused me to say aloud (under my breath) 'fuck you' to the T.V. while I was running.

Now, I'll say right away that I wish I could quote this more accurately but I couldn't find it in my Google search and I didn't catch the candidate's name during the debate (he wasn't one of the top 3 or 4 candidates). Anyway . . . in debating the new immigration reform that is currently being considered, he said that the real issue with that wasn't people overcrowding schools, the health care system, etc., but protecting English as the dominate language in this country (again I'm paraphrasing as I don't remember the exact words). He said that the country is moving towards being bilingual and that is "not good." (That part I do remember.) He was in favor of making English the official language of the U.S. Especially as an ESL teacher it is so frustrating to me that people think like this!

Wake up! Bilingualism does not threaten the status of English in this country, nor is it a handicap to be overcome. Bilingualism is a great resource that contributes to national productivity, diplomacy, competitiveness in the world economy, and (as a Republican should not overlook) and national security. As a teacher and a lover of languages, I strongly believe that knowledge of another language is enriching and fosters understanding of other cultures and can even help in perfecting a first language.

With these sorts of negative attitudes towards bilingualism, I can only imagine what that would mean for education policy. Already states such as Arizona have outlawed bilingual education while NCLB now requires students in the country one year and one day to take the the English Language Arts exam along with native speakers.

I believe that rather than try to eliminate bilingualism we should be trying to promote it. Early on in elementary school students should begin learning a second language. Classes should be offered to help students improve their home languages. (Most of my students speak a broken Spanish and can not read or write in the language although they speak it at home with their parents. They could greatly benefit for a "Spanish for Spanish speakers" class.) Literacy skills are transferable and what is learned in one language can be applied to another. More ESL classes should be offered for parents of students who are English Language Learners (ELLs). Everyone should remember that the goal of bilingual education is to become proficient in TWO languages, not to quickly learn English and then discard the first language. (In NYC this type of program is called "Dual Language" while bilingual education is meant as a transitional stage until students become proficient in English).

While I am on this rant, here are some myths about language learning that really get me going.

*Bilingualism confuses students and handicaps their cognitive growth.
*Young English learners will "pick up" English quickly if they are "totally immersed in it"
*Bilingual education sends the message to immigrants that they can get by in the U.S. without learning English.
*And the worst . . . "My great-grandfather came to this country without a word of English and he succeeded without bilingual education."

Don't get me wrong. I think it is incredibly important to learn English. It is essential to getting a good paying job. What I feel like people don't always understand is that making English the "official language" of the U.S. isn't just about symbolically declaring that English is our dominant language. These types of bills are usually include many policy ramifications. One such bill was proposed in 1981 which proposed to forbid government agencies--federal, state, or local--from adopting or enforcing "laws, ordinances, regulations, orders, programs, [or] policies" requiring the use of any language other than English. Similarly, the "English Language Empowerment Act" of 1996 would have limited the Federal government's ability to communicate in languages other than English and repealed bilingual voting requirements.

Back to the Republican Debate. My take is that the opposition to bilingualism is more sue to a hostility or resentment towards immigrants that being against speaking two languages in order to be a more cultured or well-rounded person. Do you think it would be such an issue if people in the U.S. were becoming increasingly bilingual in Italian and French for example?

I for one would like to learn as many languages as possible. I majored in Italian in college and have studied some French, Arabic and Spanish. When I have kids they too will become bi- or even tri-lingual either through a bilingual program at school or, if the case may be, by learning English from me and (insert language here) from my (future) husband.

Please weigh in on your thoughts. Bilingual Education? What do you think?

Also, for more info check out this site.

Ready for a Change

Today I talked to my principal about getting my own class next year (as opposed to the K-5 pull out that I do right now). I think the exact words that I used were "If there's any way possible, I desperately want my own class next year." (I think I even clasped my hands for emphasis.) I'd already mentioned this to her once and put it on my preference sheet but I wanted to really make my case for why I wanted it. Luckily she said that she wanted to know my reasoning and we sat down for a conversation on her office sofa to talk about it. I told her that while I do like ESL (the kids, the strategies, the philosophies, etc.) it wasn't my choice to teach ESL, TFA placed me there. What I've always wanted to to is have my own class of kids, particularly the lower grades, K-2. Some of the reasons for wanting to have my own class are, 1) having a group of teachers to work with as a team, plan together, etc., 2) to get to really know a group of kids (now I have 40 kids and some of them I barely know even at the end of the year), 3) to focus my instruction on one grade (right now with 6 grades I'm all over the place). I'd like to become really proficient in teaching one grade and be able to improve upon it each year. And, 4) to be able to have some routines and consistency with the kids. Now, I never know if I am going to have a coverage, not be able to pick up the kids due to a special event or trip, etc.

I also told her that I know that being a classroom teacher is not easy. There are different responsibilities like report cards, cumulative folders, testing, etc. If the kids are driving you crazy one day you are stuck with them for the entire day you can't just send them back to their class after 45 minutes. Now, I am lucky to have a lot of freedom to plan my own schedule, move around the building, to go outside the building for workshops and PD, skip a teaching period to work on the yearbook, etc. There are many teachers that would kill to have an out of the classroom position. Considering all of this I still really want my own classroom.

We had a really good conversation and the principal agreed with all of my pros and cons for each position. She said I had good reasoning for wanting to make a switch. Having said that, however, she said there were considerations such as my license area (ESL, not common branch), if there would be a vacancy, and one other thing . . . my classroom management. She said that she has seen me briefly (never for extended times) with my small groups and I am good with them but the few time she has seen me doing a coverage I'm not as good with the larger groups. I said that it's hard when you are covering and you don't know the kids and they know they're not going to see you again. She agreed but said that there was a certain (positive) aggression that a teacher needs to have. I tried to assure her that starting at the beginning of the year with a group of kids I'd have time to teach them routines and procedures so that everything would run smoothly. She also suggested that maybe I do some reading on the subject over the summer. At the end of the conversation I kind of got the feeling that she was saying, not for sure that I wouldn't be able to handle it, but maybe.

I also told her that whoever the new ESL teacher was (if I got my own class) I'd be happy to help them with things such as reports, compliance issues, testing, reports, and all of the other administrative tasks that can be so daunting when you don't know how the system works.

Overall, I think the conversation went well. I'm glad that she at least sat down to hear my thoughts on the matter. Still, I give it about a 10% chance I'll actually get my own class. In the meantime, I busy with June Planning trying to map out a long term plan for next year.

The last few weeks . . .

I am finally back at school after a week of test scoring. Add that to the two weeks of testing and it's been a whole three weeks since I've taught anything. And, man, it is so hard to get back into the swing of things. Especially after the three day weekend and all of the kids acting like summer break starts next week. I am looking forward to next week's half day. My school is doing a dance festival outside on the playground and the weather is supposed to be great so it should be a wonderful day.

* * *

The school drama I mentioned in the last two posts ended with the petition to recall our chapter leader being sent in to the UFT office. It had the required 1/3 of the staff signatures so a rep was sent to hold a vote to determine if our chapter leader would be recalled. There weren't enough votes so our chapter leader stays. End of that drama for now.

* * *

Our principal gave out copies of our school's quality review. It is such a joke. We scored proficient. Reading through all of the comments written about our school I just kept thinking "Seriously? How can you know that after just a day and a half at our school?" It seems like most of the things written had to have been based on the comments of one or two people. It really made our school look much better than it is. What is the point of going through this whole review process if the schools are not going to be accurately evaluated?

* * *

I have my Masters!! I graduated on Wednesday. I'm so glad to be done with it all.

Update

It turns out that the negative comment posted online was on the UFT website in the Grapevine. A teacher posted a comment about how the school is not a good place to work and other negative comments about the administration. The principal got her "team" of teachers who are on her side (and against our chapter leader) to go on the site and post positive comments to out weigh the one negative. Now there are several comments on the Grapevine saying what a wonderful school we have, that the administrators work hard and are supportive, and that it is just one person trying to spread negativity. The thing is, any intelligent person reading these comments will be able to see through a comment that in on line says the school is a great place to work and in another says "it's not the administration that makes the working conditions unpleasant." At our UFT chapter meeting today one teacher said that he posted a positive comment on the site to balance the negative one. His reasoning was that we want good teachers to come to our school and if we post negative comments no one will want to work at our school. He is one of the teachers on the side of the administration and it wouldn't surprise me if he was the one who showed the principal the original negative comment (which was posted on a UFT member only section of the website).

Overheard Today in the Office

My Principal to the AP: No matter what we do it's never enough. Now there is stuff written online. I just can't believe someone would do this. After everything we do.

I'm not really sure what they were talking about (and the words I wrote are not verbatim) but it was referring to something that had been written online about the school that the principal had printed out to show the AP. The situation was very odd as they were having this conversation in muffled voices right next to about 12 teachers waiting to punch out after a PD. The principal, who had started the conversation, kept telling the AP to stop talking about it as it wasn't the place. I don't know what the online posting or comment said, but the thing that really baffles me is how astonished she was that something bad could be said about her or the school. She has made comments like this before: How could the staff possibly file a grievance against me after everything that I do for you. She really is that delusional. As if we don't notice that everything she does is for show. As if we should overlook the harassment and intimidation of teachers she decides to pick on. None of the teachers in the school are happy. Fifty teachers have left since she started six years ago. Really? She doesn't get it??

Almost Done

I just submitted my last assignment for grad school! Whee! Now all I have to do is attend my last class this Saturday and then I graduate on the 23rd.

The End is Near . . .

(Of grad school, that is)

In 25 days I will graduate and finally be free of Pace. It really can't come soon enough. Just one research paper and two lesson plans/reflection papers to go.

Real Teaching Today

Today was slightly better than the last two days.

The poetry lesson that I did with my first graders went much better with the kindergartners today. Just like yesterday I read the kids three poems about rain. This time we made a web about all of the things that they think about when I say rain BEFORE we read the poems. The kids touched on pretty much all of the things that the poets did. This got them ready to imagine what they were hearing in the poetry. Then, I had them write their own poems about rain (which I didn't do with the first graders).

For K and 1 we have "poetry paper" which is paper with lines centered on the page that are only about a third of the width of the paper. The students wrote their poems on these lines. Although my kindergartners don't understand the rhythms and line breaks in poetry yet, their writing sounds like poetry because they don't always write in complete thoughts anyway. The lines force them to write with line breaks so it looks like poetry too.

* * *

The last two periods of they day I had a coverage of fifth grade. I've covered them before and they can be quite a handful. Today I went in armed with a plan. I gave each student a post-it to earn tally marks for a treat at the end of the period. This worked well for me as I've always struggled with behavior management on coverages. As for the lesson, I did a poetry lesson that I've done both this year and last year with various grades. First we read a poem called "Winter Eyes" that looks at winter through the senses. (I Do) Then, we brainstormed our own ideas for looking at winter through each of the five senses. Next, we re-write the poem about winter using the first two lines of each stanza and changing the last two. (We Do) Finally, the students choose a season other then winter and make a graphic organizer and then write their own poem in the same style of the poet. (You Do). The kids did really well on the assignment and it was fun working with them.

Two full periods of teaching! Too bad I couldn't have spent it with my own students.

Why I'm Not Crazy About Teaching at the Moment

Here's a quick rundown on what I've done at school since we got back from spring break.

Wednesday:
-First period(prep): I had to move all of the furniture in my room back to its proper place after it was scattered all over the place for our second floor waxing of the year.
-Twenty minutes with my newcomer group.
-I administered the NYSESLAT Interim Assessment to my fourth and fifth graders.
-Lunch
-We had an hour-long AIS meeting as part of our quality review process.
-Last period of the day: I taught a poetry lesson to my fourth/fifth special ed. group.
-37.5 minutes. (Essentially I baby-sit for a kindergarten class while the teacher dismisses the half of the class that goes home, then I take half of the kids that are left to my room for a fifteen minute lesson before packing up to go home again.)

Thursday
-First period (prep): I got organized for the day, including making posters on chart paper for my first grade class.
-Spent 45 minutes packaging interim assessments and field tests and having them shipped.
-Twenty minutes with my fourth/fifth grade special ed. (We finished the poems from the day before.)
-45 minute PPT meeting as part of our quality review process.
-Lunch
-Poetry lesson with first grade class. (Went horribly, need to take a new angle.)
-Grammar lesson with second/third graders that is part of my action-research project for grad school. (Also went horribly. I need to do better tomorrow.)
-37.5 minutes. (Essentially I baby-sit for a kindergarten class while the teacher dismisses the half of the class that goes home, then I take half of the kids that are left to my room for a fifteen minute lesson before packing up to go home again.)

See what I'm getting at? There's really not a whole lot of teaching going on at the moment. I really hate days like these because I feel like I am not doing anything. It's days like these that I really wish that I was a classroom teacher so at least I could be with my kids all of the time. The end of the year starts to get more and more like this as I have the NYSESLAT to administer, classes are taking field trips left and right, graduation practices, assemblies, etc. All of this is not to mention the tons of meetings I get sent to. Before break I had one per week for five weeks! According to my program director for TFA the next few weeks should be the final push to achieve significant gains but I just feel like there's no time at all!

The End of Break

Spring Break is almost over. At the moment I feel like there's still a little bit of time but soon it will be tomorrow and that feeling will be gone. Thankfully we only have three days to get through before the weekend. And, my school is having our Quality Review so that should be interesting.

Well, my break started out very productive. I got up and went to the early classes at the gym and then came home and marveled at how much I could accomplish around the house before noon. I even went to some museums and FINALLY went to Zibetto. If you love good espresso even half as much as I do you have to check it out.

The second half of my break--not so productive. I slept in impossibly late several days and caught up on some movies on HBO On Demand. I'm on break though so it's allowed right? Hopefully tomorrow I'll make the early class at the gym and feel productive once again before going back to school. And, I should probably plan something for the kids to learn when we get back.

What's Next?

It's hard to believe that my two years as a TFA corps member are almost over. When I decided to apply back in February of 2005 (when I was living in Sardegna) two years seemed like such a long time. (How could I commit to living in the states for two whole years?) Soon after arriving in New York I started thinking that maybe I would teach a third year too. Living in New York City, though not a foreign country, is certainly more exciting than living on a small island--even if that island is in Italy. Now that the two years have flown by, who knows, maybe I'll even start thinking about a fourth.

So, I am definitely committed to staying in New York and teaching next year. There are a lot of reasons teaching another year makes sense. First, I feel like I'm just getting started when it comes to being a good teacher. I still have so much room for improvement in my teaching, I don't want to quit before I have a chance to realize my potential. Also, and I just learned this, I need to teach a third year in order to get my professional teaching certificate. Last, when I finally do decide to get that international school job abroad, I want to have a little bit more experience under my belt.

So where does that leave me for next year? When I switched schools last year I wanted a school that I could stick with for two years. I made the switch and my school is 100% better than my first year and I am a lot happier with my program. Still, things aren't perfect. The administration is terrible. I spent most of the year on what I call "the bad list" though it seems like things have recently turned around and I might just be back on "the good list." The staff is so much better than at my previous school and there are a lot of good teachers here that I can learn from but most of them are talking about "getting out" next year. While my school definitely isn't the worst, I long to work in a school with a supportive environment where the staff works together and teachers rave about the good things going on at their school. (This really happens, I have been to a lot of PDs at schools where this is the case).

Being that it is the end of my two years in TFA, I have started getting a lot of recruitment emails and such from the charter schools. Today I went to a career fair-type event sponsored by TFA that had many charter schools and some public schools there in addition to other non-profits. I didn't see any school that I was totally in love with but a few that I might look into some more. I'm not sure that I want to make the switch to a charter school (partly because I can hardly fathom the hours of their school days. Selfish?) Even so, I think ideally, I'd like to be at a really great public school. And, even if I did find that, I don't know how I feel about working at a third school in three years.

I mentioned to my principal recently that I would really like to teach a self-contained K,1, or 2 class next year (technically out of my license area). She said to put that down on my end of the year preference sheet. If she gave me that, I might be convinced to stay as that is what I've really wanted all along.

In any case, I'm definitely teaching in NYC next year.

Back, I Think

Ok, so here is my excuse.

When I moved into my new apartment (back in October) we didn't have internet so I barely had time to do the essential stuff let alone blog. Believe it or not, we only got internet and cable about three weeks ago. Now it seems like it's been so long since I last posted and the year is almost over. I feel like I don't even know what to write anymore. Well, I'll use this sad little post as a starting point and hopefully get back into the swing of things.

A Sad Goodbye

This afternoon I found out that I am loosing six of my students. I am so bummed!

Last week at out Pupil Personnel meeting my Principal and AP brought up getting four of our fifth grade students into a bilingual class at a nearby school. Two of the students are boys who have been in the school for three years now and speak English pretty well but are very low in both math and reading. While this is expected with students still learning English I talked with their teacher and it seems as if they should be evaluated for special education. One boy can't remember basic sight words such as 'the' or letter sounds. (Just to compare, my two fifth grade newcomers are already reading long preprimer books that have repeated words and structures and they have only been in the country two months). The other two students are my fifth grade newcomers. Although they have been doing well with me learning a lot of language they are in the fifth grade and not gaining any content.

So I looked into a school to send them to and our school made some phone calls to parents and as of tomorrow they no longer go to my school.

First, I am really sad to see my newcomers go. (The family decided to move the two younger brothers of the fifth grade girls so I no longer have a 'newcomer group'). That was my favorite group and I looked forward to seeing them every day. (Several times a day in fact). It is so exciting to teach them new language structures and vocabulary and then see the light bulb go off when they get it. It's even more exciting when the next day they are using the language. I just realized today how much conversation we have now compared to the first days of school. Everyday I know exactly what I have taught them and whether they got it or not. And, they are just great kids. I really loved them.

Second, I'm not sure that the boys need a bilingual class. It is pretty apparent that at least one if not both need special education (or at least an evaluation). If they get special education and bilingual classes at their new school that would be best. I just hope that they aren't at the bottom of the "to-do list" at their new school or that it takes ages for the new school to realize what they need. Already it has taken three years for them to get any consideration. Their teacher told me yesterday that he was so grateful to be having the conversation with me and the school psychologist about them because he has been trying for three years to get them extra help but because they speak Spanish they have been pushed aside because they were perceived to be in need of language acquisition rather than an IEP.

So while I am really sad to see my kids go I hope that it works out for the best. I actually went to the school that they are going to for a PD a few weeks ago and it is a good school. I observed the bilingual class that they are going to be in and the teacher is good (at least the math lesson I saw him do). Hopefully they will be happy there.

My Kids Love Centers

I haven't been able to post lately because I still don't have internet (or cable) in my new apartment. I wanted to post this last week . . .

So I recently started centers with my second graders and one of the centers is the Writing Center. Students can choose what they want to do at the center as long as they are writing. One of the things they can do it write a letter to someone. We were brainstorming who they could write to and one of the girls suggested their old ESL teacher. All of the kids chimed in that they were going to write to her too. Here are some of the letters they wrote.

I miss you so much. Even when you write to me I feel real sad because I want to see you. Ms. G I want to see you in school again because your the only ESl teacher that's funny and The only esL teacher who likes to play with her students.

We want you to come back. I wish I was with you.

I have been learning alot but it's not so much fun to learn aney more please come back

You would think that my feelings would be hurt that "learning isn't fun aney more" or that Ms. G is the only "funny" (fun??)teacher. I have heard from other teachers that Ms. G was really good. I can tell by the things that she left in her room for me and the organization that she must have been. The kids really loved her and I think that is great. Last week I thought to myself that I know the kids do like my class they just haven't gotten to know me for long enough to really love me. The next day one of the students wrote a letter to me telling me that there are so many fun things to do in my class. (They really love centers.) The real proof that they enjoy ESL though was today when I picked up the students all of them were in different "special classes" (gym, library, computers) and all of the kids came running when they saw me at the door. They didn't care at all that they were missing their "fun" classes.

New Apartment!!

I spent all weekend moving. My new roommate and I didn't have much to fill our new place so we went to Target and filled up two carts. The next day we went to Bed, Bath and Beyond and filled up another two carts. We got so much stuff. It a lot easier when two people are splitting the cost of everything.

I abolutely love our new place. After living in a big building last year with many issues, it's nice to live in an apartment that doesn't have a ton of people living in it. The owners (a family) live on the bottom two floors) and we have the top floor. It feels more like a house than an apartment. And the best part, we have a washer and dryer in our kitchen! I am seriously in heaven. I've done about five or six small loads over the course of the weekend. (No big deal. No big project or hassle. Just throw in a load. Put it in the dryer when you're good and ready.) Oh, and we have a dishwasher too. (If only we had a garbage disposal I wouldn't know what else to ask for.)

I'll post pictures just as soon as we get everything looking pretty.

Our First Day of Literacy Centers

Things are finally coming together. This week I've been picking up most of my kids and by next week my program should be in full swing.

And I am sooo ready. This week I did running records on all of my kids to get their reading level. Then I made up guided reading groups and schedules. I'm now putting the final touches on my centers so that I can start guided reading as soon as possible. Resources that I've read say to wait about six weeks before starting guided reading so that students know the procedures for centers, how to rotate, what to do, who to go to for help, etc. While I am doing guided reading the students have to be able to do centers and rotate with minimal direction. I know this is a huge task but I don't have six weeks to wait to start helping my students grow their reading levels (I have 5th graders on a kindergarten level!!). So, I'm going to teach centers procedures and routines as quickly as possible. (Two weeks maybe?) I'm thinking that with only 10-12 kids (not a full class of 30) it should be manageable.

I got started with the process today. I'm so excited to have "opened" my first center. I did it with the second grade group. First we did our morning message which talked about how exciting it was to open our first center--the Drama Center. Then I read aloud The Little Red Hen (for the second time). I involved the students in the story by giving them character puppets (color photo copies from the book) to hold up when I read their characters part. Students chimed in when I read "'Not I,' said the dog." Then next step was to have two students come up to the front and demonstrate what to do when they went to the Drama Center. First they had to decide who would be the Hen and who would be the other three characters. Then, they retold the story using the cut outs. Next, I moved the cut-outs to the Drama Center and let students try it out two at a time. While they were doing that they rest of us stayed in the Library (or the "Reading Center") reading books. (Later, when I officially open the Reading Center, I'll show them all of the stuff they can do there such as using the whisper phones, how to share pillows and chairs, using our "Book Talk" wall, etc.) I also had two students at the writing center drawing a picture about the story and writing something about it. (Again, I didn't show them everything they could do at the center just yet. For now the focus is on learning the Drama Center).

So now all of the students know how to use our first center (we'll have to review procedures of course). I'll open centers one by one until they know the main centers that we'll be using. Finally, we'll practice rotating, working in the centers, and using the management board for a few days before I pull guided reading groups. I'm so excited that I started the first step in this process today. And it went really well. The kids were excited about starting centers and they were well behaved.

(As a side story, I have one kid, Jose, who had been asking me when we would start centers every day this week. After we went through this whole process he asked "Now are we going to do centers?" "We were just doing centers," I told him. "No, I mean centers with the pillows. And we get cookies." Right, I did tell him that when we started Centers we would get to use the pillows--not during Message Time and not today because we were leaning the Drama Center. As for the cookies, it sounds as if the old ESL teacher used to give them cookies on their way out the door. And here I thought he was so thrilled to do centers.)

A few things about the Drama Center . . . Another name for it would be the "Story Retelling Center." That's really what the kids are getting ot of it. They are practicing sequencing the story, remembering the parts, the characters, the beginning/middle/end of the story etc. For my ELLs I think it is great because it gives them the chance to practice oral language skills too. And, another thing I'm so excited about is that my student in the group who is a real newcomer (speaks no English) was able to successfully participate in the center. I paired him with a more advanced student who did the part of the Little Red Hen while he did the other three characters. All he had to do was hold each one up and say "Not I, said the cat," "Not I, said the dog, "Not I, said the mouse." He'd heard those lines so many times during the read aloud (and participated as well) that he was able to be successful in the center.

The next center to open is the "Writing Center." Bernie the Bear (a stuffed animal who lives at the Writing Center) has written the class a letter and invited them to write back. That and other fun activities are in store for them next time.

Check Her Out!

After a crazy fight that ended up with blood yesterday, Ms. G bounced back with a "mad calm" classroom today.

If you haven't already checked out my new favorite teacher blogger, go on over. She also happens to be roommates with one of my best friends in the city. I had been reading her blog for a few months when she posted a picture of the outside of her new apartment and I recognized it as the building my friend lives in. The unmistakable picture of a half boarded up building along with her description of her new roommate was too perfect.

Very random. And a great coincidence.

When in Rome . . .

Today I picked up my fifth graders for the first time. They are a pretty good group of kids for the most part. Today we just did some get to know you activities. First we played a name game and then we made name tags with pictures of their favorite foods, activites, sports, and school subject. Finally we practiced doing "Round Robin" conversations. It was a little tricky because some groups had to use English and Spanish for the newcomers. Toward the end a couple of kids started getting a little rowdy. The newcomer girls joined in. (They're pretty chatty and silly at times). I finally had a conversation with the boys responsible for instigating (well to the whole class actually) about how they need to be good models for the girls who are new to the school and the country because they are looking to them to see how they should behave and what they should do. I gave them an example from when I lived in Italy. I said that even though I spoke some Italian when I first got there I still had to observe what the Italians were doing to know how to act and what to do in the country which was new to me. For example here it is normal to walk down the street eating a slice of pizza or a sandwich but in Italy it isn't. I noticed that the first time I did it and people looked at me like I was crazy. Then I started paying attention to what others were doing and I realized that Italians don't do that. So in the same way, they need to be models for these girls so they can know what to do and what not to do. Especially since they don't understand English yet. They can't understand me telling everyone to sit down and get started but they can observe their classmates and follow their lead. The class nodded in agreement with what I was saying but just afterwards I had to speak to one of the boys again. That's OK. I plan to keep on this theme of them being models for the other students.

A Complete Roster?

Friday I got a memo from the D!vision of Assessment and Accountab!l!ty saying that they would be updating the NYSESL@T test results rosters and to check ATS (the school computer system) on Monday. Today I pulled up the report and saw I gained 7 students. I'm not sure what the problem was but hopefully everything is complete now. We didn't even get the first roster until a week and a half into school. Funny how a department with the word accountability in the title doesn't seem to be very accountable. Are last year's reading and math scores even in yet? And readers of Ms. Frizzle will remember she had to wait more than a year for her science scores.

Anyway . . .

So now I have a total of 39 students. I pick them up in groups of about 8-12. Then I also have the newcomers in a group of 4. Tomorrow I should start seeing some of my groups. I was ready to pick up my fifth graders today and then I had to cover a second grade class. I'm just ready to get started already.

To Speak The Students' Native Language (Or Not)

Last summer during training for TFA many of the Corps Members assigned to teach ESL were concerned that they didn't speak Spanish (or the numerous other languages our students may speak for that matter). They were always asking how crucial it was that they speak the native language of their students. Some of the speakers (second year CMs) would say that it definitely helps but for ESL it is not required. I always spoke up and was adamant about not needing to speak Spanish to teach Spanish speaking students. EVEN newcomers who don't speak a word of English. I had trained the previous summer in a TEFL course that stressed teaching only in the target language (English) and then worked for a year teaching English at a school in Italy where there were big signs on the wall that said NO ITALIAN! Many language schools that I know of prefer if the teachers don't speak the native language of the students. Many of the CMs still remained skeptical.

So far I have worked with my newcomer group three times this week and I am still committed to the idea of not speaking the students' first language. I think that the whole atmosphere of the classroom changes because I have to try to explain things in simple English. For example when the students first come in my room I tell the to take off their backpacks and put them on the floor. I have to say this fairly slowly and demonstrate also. Then we sit on the rug and I tell them how they should sit demonstrating and again using simple language. We quickly begin the lesson and soon a student has to use the bathroom. He says a sentence completely in Spanish but uses the English word 'bathroom' in the sentence. I take this as an opportunity to teach him how to say the phrase "Can I go to the bathroom?" After the lesson is over I tell the students how they are going to walk in line. I say the are going to line up from shortest to tallest. I show this by demonstrating their different heights. Then I use the comparative to talk about who is taller or shorter in the line.

If I spoke Spanish, the environment would have probably been much different. We probably would have come in speaking Spanish. I would give all of my "important directions" that I want to make sure the students understand in Spanish so there is no confusion. Then the lesson would start and we'd switch to English. At best there would be no Spanish during this time. At the end of the lesson we'd probably go back to Spanish to close the lesson and line students up, etc. This is just one scenario but what I'm saying is that when you have no other way to communicate than to speak in the target language you make it work. Some of the ESL teachers I know speak Spanish but don't let their students know that the students can't rely on speaking their native language.

Now, all of the classes that these students are in have a teacher that also speaks Spanish (some as a native language, some as a second). I think that this is really beneficial to the students. When they are in an environment where they are being spoken at all day long in English (that is not tailored to ELLs) it is nice to have the teacher be able to give additional instructions or explanations. The students can also make their needs known this way. As an English teacher though, I think all English is the way to go.

I will say though that it is nice to speak the native language of you students when it comes to communicating with parents. It's so much easier if you don't have to use a translator.

English Lesson #1

Today I met with my newcomers (i.e. students who just moved to the U.S. and don't speak any English) for the first time. The four students are all brothers/sisters/cousins. The two girls are in the fifth grade and the boys are in first and second.

I picked them up for the 37.5 minutes. We sat in a circle on the rug in my library and I introduced myself saying "Hi. My name is Ms. M." Then I gestured and encouraged one of the girls to introduce herself. We had to say "Hi. My name is" a few times together before she got it. Then the other sister tried. By this time the younger ones had caught on to what we were doing and introduced themselves. (I had previously tried to do this with just the first grader alone and he just looked at me with a scared, confused look on his face.) Next, we practiced going around the circle introducing ourselves and then shaking hands saying "Nice to meet you." It took a couple of times to get that we only shake hands when saying "Nice to meet you" and not "My name is."

Next I showed them a book and said "book." They each repeated the word quite easily. Then, I shrugged my shoulders and turned both of my palms up and asked with a confused look on my face, "What is this?" I answered myself "This is a book." After modeling a few times, I finally was able to ask the students "What is this" and have them respond "This is a book." Then they took turns asking and answering about a pencil and a paper.

And that was the end of our time.

This method of teaching English is what I learned teaching in Italy at a private language school called Inlingua. It works really well for learning English from zero because students start speaking right away. Slowly the vocabulary builds up until they can make sentences on their own.

I was really pleased with how today went. I wasn't exactly sure how it would work out having not only family members together but such a difference in grade level. It actually was a good combination because the older ones catch on more quickly to what we are doing and the little ones can follow their lead. When they are really confused the older ones can give an explanation in Spanish ("No. Don't repeat what she said. Answer the question. 'This is a book.'"). Also, all four of them were so happy to see each other at the end of the day. After spending six and a half hours in a room with strangers and being spoken to in mostly English all day I can imagine that it must have been a relief to see familiar (Spanish speaking) faces. They did get quite a case of the giggles during the last five minutes so I'll have to watch out for that.

I'll be seeing these four together for thirty minutes each morning and then after school for 37.5 minutes. I'll also see them with their grade level groups throughout the day.

Italian Observations

My friend Matteo is visiting from Italy. Friday night he arrived and we went out to eat. As we were looking over the menu our waiter came by and set down two glasses of water.

"What's this??" Matteo asks as if this is the most shocking thing ever.

"Water."

"With ice???"

I just started laughing and said, "Welcome to America!"

If you've been to Italy before this is probably more amusing as you've probably gotten a dirty look from a waiter after having asked for ice with your water.

* * *

Another comment from Matteo was, "There's so much space here."

"Here? In New York? If you think this is a lot of space you should see Arizona."

* * *

Stay tuned. I'm sure there will be more funny observations from my Italian friend. He's staying with me for a MONTH!

The View From My Apartment

Real ELLs

Thee last two days I started the process of identifying an testing the new students at my school to see if they are eligible for ESL. Luckily the school secretary is very nice and helpful since I rely on her for a lot of reports and paper work. I am surprised to find that there really weren't very many new students and most of them won't be getting ESL. I guess that most of my population will come from students that have been at the school for a while. I do know of at least three students that enrolled that speak no English at all. One in first grade and two in fifth. I really should know what to do with these students since I *am* the ESL teacher but last year all of my students spoke English. I'm thinking to myself so this is what teaching ESL is all about. I'm excited to start working with these students. I'm now trying to recall all of the lessons that I taught to my English 1 students who didn't speak any English when I taught in Italy. We had to speak only in English for instruction and they learned. By the end of the semester they were getting along in English. Of course they only had to worry about speaking conversational English twice a week. These kids have to learn how to speak English and learn in the content areas AND prepapre for the ELA in just one year (that is craziness).

Today I was coming out of my room and a student asked me if I was the new ESL teacher. I said yes and he said "I'm going to be with you." I asked what grade he was in and he said fifth. I asked if he had met the two new girls who don't speak any English. He said they were in his class. I asked if he was helping them and he smiled really big and said yes. Later when the students were being dismissed I saw him again in line with his class. He came up to me and said "these are the girls" as he pointed one finger on each of them. I said hi to them and then whispered in his ear that it was rude to point. He seems like a sweet kid and very eager to help his new classmates. The girls seem in good spirits. I want to talk to their teacher and see how they are doing in class so far. And then I want to hurry up and get this administrative stuff out of the way so I can start seeing my kids!

New School, New Situation

So far my new school is a dream compared to my old one. Things are so much more organized. For example last Thursday the administration handed out the prep schedule, a rotation for AIS, they introduced a new system for managing the 37.5 minutes, and they have a plan for helping classroom teachers get the e-class done. Seriously? Is this place for real? Then the best part. We were told the supply room would be open that day and to go down and get whatever we needed. This place was unreal. It was fully stocked with composition books, folders, paper, markers, chart paper (even the post-it kind), sentence strips, calendars, butcher paper, staplers, electric pencil sharpeners, dry erase markers . . . and on and on. I couldn't believe it. I didn't have to buy anything! (Well, apart from some indulgence stuff from Barclay's). Also in the supply room were some enormous boxes. I inquired as to what was in them. The supply lady said, "Book shelves. Do you need any?" I said, "Sure." She asked how many I wanted. "Can I have two?" "Sure." In less than five minutes a janitor delivered them to my room. Wow.

Now, I'm sure that there are plenty of problems that will make themselves apparent at a later time but so far, so good. I have heard a few teachers grumble here and there but I just keep thinking that it is nothing compared to my old school.

As for the first two days (I feel like it has been so much longer) they have pretty much been the usual ESL routine. I've been going through cumulative folders, pulling up reports and fixing up my room in between. Tomorrow I will start testing. Friday I have a meeting. Meetings are generally pretty boring but there is good news. The meeting is at a school just one block from my house! Yeah!

Now I have to pour over the new "Student Achievement Toolkit" from TFA because there are "Big Goals" to be written and "Significant Academic Gains" to be achieved.

We have to go to school tomorrow??

So I did go into my classroom everyday this week. (Sorry to those of you who suggested that I not, but I am still a very new teacher going to a new school and I needed the chance to sort through a retired teacher's things, organize furniture, and just get a sense of the place. I'm sure that when I've been teaching for ten years I won't need to do that anymore. And just in case you were wondering, no I certainly did not do it to kiss up to the administration.) Having said that, I didn't spend nearly as much time in my room as I had hoped to. Monday was the biggest day I arrived around 11:00 and stayed until 5:30. It took me ages to set up the furniture just how I wanted it with centers and the library as the focus of the room, etc. Tuesday I showed up in the afternoon and only stayed about an hour and a half because I had to run to my event at the Heritage House. Today I decided to take care of some last minute things before going into school. I also wanted to take my last opportunity to sleep in on a weekday so I didn't get the early start I had hoped for. I had to go to my old school and load up my stuff and bring it to the new one. I saw my TFA friends there. I thought I would be really sad to leave them but seeing my old room I was just sooooo happy that I don't have to spend another year in there. Seriously. So. Happy. By the time I got to my new school it was 4pm and the principal had already left so the janitor would only let me put my stuff in the auditorium. I really wanted to get a few hours of work in but I guess it will have to wait for tomorrow.

I am very much in denial that school is starting tomorrow. I mean seriously, I have to set my alarm tonight? I have to get up at 6am? I know that I am going to school tomorrow but it doesn't feel like school is starting.

Free Stuff!

I was walking home from the subway tonight and saw a sign that said "Free Books and Games." I grabbed an armful of stuff to take home with me. Look at everything I got. Nice books all in good condition and two colorful shapes games. I can definitely use this stuff in my classroom. I think I am going to go back tomorrow and leave a little note on the door thanking whomever left this stuff on the curb for the donation and letting them know that their books will be put to good use! I'm most excited about Chicka Chicka 123. My kindergarteners loved Chicka Chicka Boom Boom last year.

Getting Ready for the Year

Wednesday I finished my grad school classes for the summer. Yippee! Only 19 days until classes start again.

I still haven't had time to really work on stuff for my classroom. I did spend most of today working on a packet that I am going to present to new TFA teachers going into Region 5. A group of about ten corps members who just completed their first year got together and thought about what they wished they had know or had explained to them about Region 5 expectations. (It really is a crazy region). We came up with the idea of a packet detailing all of the logistics about the classroom environment, portfolios, exit projects, report cards, basically everything we were just expected to know (without being told). Everyone wrote a part of the packet and then another teacher and I synthesized all of the information into one packet. Tuesday evening were having a gathering at the Brownsville Heritage House where we are going to present the information. Also, the director of the Heritage House is going to talk about the history of the community, the people who live there, the cultural heritage, etc. The first time you step into Brownsville you can get a bit of culture shock. The director said she wanted to let all of the new teachers know things about the community beyond what is reported on in the news everyday. That is true. I told her though that honestly, all of these teachers are from all over the country (not from here) so they most likely don't even know anything about Brownsville (good or bad) at this point. The walk from the subway to their school interview is all they know. And as I said, that can be a very new (and shocking) experience for most. So, I think this event will be really great.

Tomorrow I'm presenting another packet that I wrote (all alone this time) on how to be an ESL coordinator. Many of the new ESL teachers are the only ones in their buildings. In NYC there is so much paper work and so many reports involved with ESL that it can be really confusing if you don't have anyone to explain it to you. My administration last year certainly didn't have any clue as to what I was supposed to do. For the entire first week they kept saying they were going to give me a class list only to find out later that I had to check cumulative records and test scores and administer an entrance exam to find out which students were mine. Hopefully by giving them this information up front the new teachers will be able to speed up the whole process and start TEACHING sooner.

After the meeting in the afternoon I'm going to the teacher store. And then, seriously, I am going to start planning everything that I need to do for September and beyond.

Procrastination

Instead of working on my last paper for grad school yesterday, I met my friend Amanda for a late lunch at Bar Toto on Sixth Avenue. Afterall, she's only in town for one day between trips to Austin and Toronto and I still have three days to whip up that ten page paper.

We both drank Campari and Soda--a nice reminder of aperitivo in Italy but certainly not an every day drink for me. She had a mixed bruschetta plate and I had rigatoni with eggplant and smoked mozzarella. The food was great (definitely better than Tutta Pasta we both agreed). We had a long lunch catching up on our summer travels and then said goodbye until she returns on the 28th.

Now I'm still procrastinating on getting started. I have to get this paper out of the way so that I can focus on planning for next year.

Last Weeks of Summer

So it's now the home stretch until school starts. I must admit, I haven't really done much to prepare for the upcoming year. The two workshops that I attended did put some ideas in my head so I kind of know where I want to go but I haven't really had time to think things through and get some real planning done. My excuse is that I've had a lot of grad school work to do. (Online courses are much more labor intensive than the in person classes). I just have two papers left to finish, one due Sunday and the other Wednesday. After that, I'm free to focus on next year.

This year I feel like I am starting all over. Not only am I going to a new school so I don't know entirely what to expect, but I plan on doing things a lot differently than last year. I had such small groups last year that I could get away with minimal planning. A lot of what I did in class was actually working one on one with students. Next year that won't be the case. My main structures for class next year are going to be read alouds, centers, writing workshop, and something I learned at the CLI institute called Message Time Plus. I will put those elements together to form a sort of literacy block. There is still so much to think about and plan though. And, I've never done writer's workshop so I am kind of worried about that.

Next week I hope to sketch out some ideas for routines, organization and planning. The week of the 28th I plan to be in my classroom getting set up the whole week. Then the next week school starts. Seriously, where did the summer go??

We'll Call These The Before Pictures

Two weeks ago I went to my new school to get a better look at my new classroom. I was excited about it when I went for my interview but now I am thrilled. I really lucked out on this room. At the interview I was excited about the rug, the cabinets, the windows and the computers. I didn't even notice that the room had THREE computers (with a printer! Hmm, I wonder if I have internet?), tons of great picture books (in English and Spanish), all kinds of manipulatives, and an air conditioner!! The teacher who left the position retired and left sooo much stuff in the closets and in the filing cabinets. Good stuff. I seriously have everything I can think of in terms of supplies: pencils, paper, index cards, chart paper, slates, felt boards, white boards, you name it. I was in the teacher store last week with another teacher friend and she kept seeing things she wanted for her room and I'd say, "I have that in my classroom!" The best part is, this teacher was super organized so I wont have to spend a lot of time digging through junk. Everything is organized and labeled (just the way I like it). There are a few things I can see that'll need to be thrown out but nothing too out of control.

I can't wait to get in there and organize the furniture and decorate the walls and set up my library. So here are the before pictures . . .

The left side of the room.


The right side of the room. Already I can see there are way too many desks. I don't think I'll have more than twelve students at a time so I'd like to get rid of the ones I don't need and keep only matching ones if possible.


The library. This is going to be my favorite part. I already got some pillows, a comfy chair, and some stuffed animals to make this a cozy space. I can't wait to fix it up.


OK, well that is the sneak preview for now. I'll post the after pictures in a few weeks.

Overheard in Arizona

What a gorgeous day! And the temperature is perfect.

Note: The temperature was 103 degrees.