Chapter XIV: Conference and English Languae Learners (ELL)

Conference week. A week that parents meet with their child's teachers and talk about their accomplishment, goals, and goals to accomplish. I met with my host teacher, Mrs. Dearly, for this eventful day. She invited me to one of the conferences which involved: a translator, a student, and the student's mother. Mrs. Dearly's student is an ELL (English Language Learner) and is quite a bright young girl.

(I walked in a little late thanks to a very minor incident at home: my boy is still in a cast so he needed potty-help which put me back by a few minutes.)

It was a very short and sweet conference. What I found most intriguing was the translation between the parties. This is ELL at work. The student, "Yasmin", was busily having some snack while her mom and Mrs. Dearly had their conference. I have found out a lot of interesting things with an ELL child. It may be typical and it may be true. In one of my classes, it has been founded that ELL children's reading/writing scores are lower than those who are not an ELL student. BUT....their scores in other areas are high. Yasmin's reading/writing scores were a little low; her math is impressively high.

In my spring classes, I remembered that we talked about "gifted" children. During my time 70's-80's -- gifted meant someone who had a high IQ. Now, the term "gifted" is being used loosely. In fact, a gifted child may now belong to a sub-group. My 10 year old daughter would probably fit in many areas: art, writing, reading, (and just recently) math (but we're watching that closely -- math's her weakness).

Having said that, Yasmin could be considered to be gifted in the math area. She's really good and her math scores are very high. Due to her minimum English speaking skills, her reading/writing scores are unsurprisingly low. It's sad but true that this very fact affect many of our kids in Title I schools, hence, the low reading/writing scores.

Due to high immigration everywhere, our nation has been affected with reading and writing. BUT...and I say this with a big BUT...if you were to score children from MY generation -- that's right, ME -- we were very, very, very low in all academic areas. In my Social Order class, we watched a film on "American Public Education" and an interviewer asked a high school kid (from the mid 80's) who was the first man who landed on the moon. This kid answered with a ??? look on his face that said "Someone landed on the moon?" Another kid was asked if she can name at least one president that was assassinated. She didn't get it right. Funny? More like embarassing. I grew up in that era -- that generation. I can attest to so many things that today many professionals say about our failing schools, most especially during that time. It has been founded that we are actually doing a lot better than ever before, but our nation's leaders say it is not enough.

We are going through another cyclical increase in immigration (the first was pre WWII) which means overcrowded classrooms. This results in discipline problems, low classroom parental involvement (for many reasons: two jobs, dual working parents, language barriers, etc.), and inexperienced teachers, just to name a few. Although this has been a controversial issue, over the last two decades or so, immigrants still come to America to gain a better life and/or a better education for their children. Of course, this eats up our economy and we feel that we, Americans, are being taken advantage of, but teachers of today still have to face these realities, accept them and conform to the changes.

As I sat there observing Mrs. Dearly having a conference with Yasmin's mother (via translator), Yasmin's face lit up whenever Mrs. Dearly spoke of how well she does which is way beyond expectations in comparison to her peers. Yasmin, is mathematically "talented". I can see this child succeeding in perhaps, engineering. Forget her reading/writing level. She'll "get it" in time. Like most parents who immigrated from another country, Yasmin's parents are helping to preserve their culture through language. As I have seen with many, many ELL children from my previous job, their parents DO try to speak our nation's language -- American English. Because of the minimal and limited skills they have in English, their children will certainly pick up grammatical and spelling errors. It is inside our classrooms where we -- the teachers -- provide the necessary lessons to help these children succeed in areas such as reading and writing.

I believe -- with time -- Yasmin will soon catch up to her American peers. After I left Mrs. Dearly's classroom, I felt a sense of optimism because Yasmin is very fortunate to have so many people help her succeed academically. She has the resources and most of all, she has a lot of caring people who will give her the chance to become successful on American soil.

Chapter XVIII: End of Spring Qtr. 2010

WHEW!!! I am at the last week of this quarter. It's been quite a ride, and a positive ride that is. Last week, I officially taught a small group of second graders at Roosevelt Elementary. My host teacher has been such a splendid model for me that when I took over for only 20minutes, the children were engrossed in what we were talking about. Yes, that's me in the picture and the back of their heads. I've marked this day my first official day of formal instruction. We were reading about fossils and a little bit about parts of a book (content, index, etc.). My initial intention was to spell out the word FOSSIL, in a vertical fashion, on that white board you see on my left. The students were to come up with different words that relate to the book starting with each of those letters.

The lesson DID NOT turn out as planned. The children did like the pictures and some of the words they've never heard of before (paleontologist, museum, etc.), but they were more interested in the parts of the book. One of the children actually stood up, took one of the books from behind the shelf (behind me) and started to dissect the parts of the book for me. I was really impressed! This is the first time the group has read the book, so I thought that we were going to talk about the book a little more. To go further into the parts of the book lesson, they started looking at the page numbers in the Contents-area and in the Index as well. They had fun doing that as an activity. We were so engrossed in what we were doing, that I lost track of time -- my host teacher kept glancing at the clock, so I knew that it was time. I went 10 minutes over! Wow.

It was quite a pivotal moment for me. Last chapter, which briefly talked about my practice lesson in front of my adult classmates, was totally and completely different. Nothing like the real thing that beats anything like that. Because it was a mock lesson, it was difficult to emulate a real classroom. When I taught the second graders, they were really engaged and full of questions (and answers). In our class-mock-presentations, it wasn't engaging at all. I felt like I was trying to make a speech rather than teach. But not to say that it wasn't worth it! It was well-worth it to practice. I think the next time I practice, I will assume that the real presenation-time (in front of children) will be doubled. It was one thing I was very worried about when I presented in front of the second graders.

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Last week was my last week of IT (technology) and Social Order classes. I think I'm gonna have a hard time detaching myself from my Social Order class. In reading my past postings here, it seems that that has been my favorite class. There is one comment that one of my classmates made -- to which I agreed to -- that it doesn't seem like we needed it. I think for some, they may not, but for others they do. It has just made us more aware of the realities of what goes on inside a classroom and in our public school system -- social-wise. It has come to my attention that there are so many things in our nation that needs to be fixed.

The other night after dinner with my family, we stopped by Borders. I was browsing through the magazines when something huge caught my eye. It was by Time's magazine and on it was a big fat red letter "F". Guess anyone smart would know what that is. That's right, our public education -- more like an F for teachers. It was an embarassment. I wanted to hide under Border's stairwell. An F for teachers?! Can't say that's not true. Because, it is.

It has come to my attention, a former high school classmate of mine is experiencing this type of letter-grade for her son's teacher. The teacher so happens to be one of those ignorant so-called professionals that her sole intention is to teach only those who are "smart" and leave the others behind deliberately to other "specialists". Yes, I know, I know. There are specialists out there, but they can have only a certain amount of kids under their care; the schools are limited with these specialists. So what happened? Her son took an ADHD child under his wing. The child with learning disabilities all of a sudden thrived inside his own classroom without being pulled out.

One more thing about the school this child is in -- teachers there do not stay past 2:45pm! Isn't that what our taxpayer monies go to? I know that we don't earn as much as doctors or lawyers, but the commitment to be in this profession is huge. My professors reminded us time and time again -- "You didn't become a teacher to be out when the children are out. You're becoming one to BE a teacher, not an elementary student." That little statement encompasses everything that's included in this "teacher-package". I found it to be true at Roosevelt -- my host teacher along with the entire school, do not leave the school grounds until an hour after the students leave; they're also there at least an hour before school starts. Added up, it's like a regular 40 hour week. So, imagine my shock when my friend told me that her child's teacher and the teachers in that school are in when the bell rings and out by the time the students are out.

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I'm so glad to be in this program. I've never been as exposed to our public education as ever before. It's no wonder Time's magazine rated our teachers with an "F". It's no wonder my cohort and I are going through an intensive program. It's no wonder why Western Washington's education program is very picky about their future teachers. We need to turn this nation into an "A". We are the ones to do it.

Chapter XVII: Almost there

Things have settled around here at home, at least for the time being. My son is pretty much back to normal, but with a cast on his arm. He is adjusting quite nicely and he likes that he's not as immobile as he was before. No pain. Just itching inside the cast. That's a good sign. It means that his arm is healing.

In the past couple weeks, my classes and practicum are becoming more and more hands on and surreal to being a teacher. For my Essentials of Teaching class, we delved more into lesson planning and prepared for our 10 minutes presentations. For my Teaching and the Social Order class, I'm becoming more and more aware of classroom cultural diversity (and of my skin color; I'll explain later). Lastly, for my IT class (Instructional Technical skill), we are learning to make charts and forms that you normally would find inside classrooms (such as attendance sheets, data base, etc.).


My practicum is becoming very routine and I'm fully prepared to present formal lessons in front of second graders. Thanks to tonight's presentation in my (adult) EOT class, I feel ready to stand in front of a classroom full of real second graders.


Prior to my pres., I practiced it on my three children. It helped -- a little bit. When I first practiced on them, they laughed and acted like very naughty little children. Then after making a few observations on classroom behavioral management at my practicum site, I tried those techniques on my own kids while practicing my presentation on them. It worked. As long as I kept putting my foot down on their smart-aleck remarks, they kept quiet, listened, and participated. It was all in good fun; so, in a way, it was seriously-fun.


The subject I taught was on "brainstorming". When it was time to present to my EOT class, I was semi-prepared. I thought I brought my dry-erase marker with me, so I ended up using the school's. The darn thing barely worked, so I made do with what I got. Then at the end of my presentation, I realized I forgot to do a couple of things with the class. I was complimented by many of my classmates, but I felt that it wasn't good enough and I know that I could've done better.


My Social Order class in the last couple weeks was very interesting. It deals with multi cultural controversial issues facing American schools today. It is hard to fathom the idea that it still exist...and it still does. I'm not talking about African Americans. The controversy exist among children of immigrants, American-minorities, gender-differences, and those with sexual "preferences". I have looked at myself and others in a whole new different way than ever before. I always grew up never thinking, or being conscious, about my ethnicity. Things that were brought up in class are now beginning to surface that I've never noticed before. I told my professor that I never have experienced any kind of prejudice. Now that I think about it, I did, but it was done in a subtle way that no one has ever noticed it in class.


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I had this one math teacher in high school. She was of a different Asiatic group, which I will not mention to prevent stereotypes. What I DID NOT notice was that I was the only Filipino in my math class...everyone else was this other Asian-group. I failed that class. It was the only math class I failed in high school. I've always wondered why she looked at me like she was going to eat me alive. I seriously thought that it was her fluctuating hormones. I tried everything to impress her: studied hard, raised my hand in class to volunteer answers (she has never called me; she'll call me when I didn't know the answer), and even hung out with those who she favored in class.

This is the grand-salami that made me now realize that she was prejudice: there was this one kid -- class clown -- in my class who said something in a Filipino accent (i.e. he was making fun of Filipino accents), when he did that, my teacher laughed. Next thing I knew, the entire class started making jokes about Filipinos and my teacher stopped her lesson mid-way to join them. Dummy me thought it was funny, too, as it was the norm in Hawaii to joke around about other Asian ethnic groups. What really bothers me, though, in this present time, is that she's someone who preferred a quiet class that stayed on task. This was the first time she stopped in the middle of the lesson to listen to and be involved in jokes. When this same boy joked around about other things, she immediately stopped him. She did not stop him when he made fun of Filipinos.

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Looking back, I now know why I got that bad grade and why she gave me dirty looks (she always smiled at her "other " Asian-counterparts). She graded me according to the color of my skin. Although I had a lot of answers right -- and HOW can you get math problems wrong if you have a 50-50 chance -- my papers would always come back with comments such as "can't understand your handwriting", "write clearly", (for Algebra theories) "this doesn't make sense", "your 1's look like 7's" (wtf? I wrote my 7s like a backwards "F" to indicate CLEARLY that it was a seven), etc. The right answers rarely counted. She merely wrote her comments in bright red ink and whenever she returned my paper to me, she would give me this look. Seriously, a look like she was -- oh, I don't know -- it seemed like she was threatened by me.

So what happened? I got sent home a note to my parents about my bad grades. Because I saw how unfair her grading was, I was really pissed off, and ended up forging my father's name on the note. Yes, I got caught -- she called my father to see if he received it. She never told him WHY I got that (final) grade, "D". She was just checking to see if I gave him that note. My father had the reputation of coming down hard on his kids when it pertains to education; my teacher knew this and she used it against me. I know it is some serious accusation, but when a teacher stops midway in her lesson to make fun of Filipinos, then it was a strong indicator that she was (and probably still is) a bigot. Again, she's not white. She is Asian.

By the way, I was the only full-blooded Filipino in that high-math class level. I guess she never thought, in her years of teaching, that someone like me would end up "there".


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That was my story share-time here on this blog. In my classes we always share stories and we learn from them. Our ideas on what is really out there, what we must face is a reality. It would help our society -- a multi culturual society to start seeing that although we are different, we are all Americans.

Teachers of Cohort 32...we are almost ready.