ESL

This is, by far, the most exciting thing that happened this week.

After being covered in snow and ice for a month,

We had a heat wave and I can see my road again.

I am very happy about that even if it is covered in snow as I write this.

We have had some college students working with us at school.

They are from a small college in Washington and as part of their ESL training,

they had to do some field experience. 

Their teacher used to work with us, and she arranged for them to come for a visit.

I have grown to love and abuse these students.

I will miss them when they are gone, okay, mostly, because they have been so much help.

Here a few things they have learned.

1.  Sometimes when a student is new from Mexico, the teacher will think they are retarded.

--- that is their language, not mine ---
I am also shocked by this, because one of the first things I tell teachers is that new students block out everything, because it is overwhelming to them.

2.  The difference in expectations from one teacher to another.

We have two 4th grade girls -- both from Mexico in the last year.

One teacher has an AR goal of 26 points for her student, while the other has a goal of 2.

??????????

Often the ESL teachers are an advocate for the child.

3.  There is so much to teach a newbie -- and we have two that came the same day the college students came.

vocab - phonics - math vocab - reading - writing - life skills

4.  You have to factor culture into teaching.  

It is impossible to teach ESL without understanding where they have come from.

5.  Playing games is essential to learning.

Life is not always about worksheets and testing.

6.  I hope that they have learned to have some fun with it.

It has been fun having them around,

but I still think it is funny that them came to Wendell Idaho for field experience. 

Talk about culture shock.