In Transition 678: First Week of School Reflection

School is in full swing.

The countries represented in my classroom this year are:

Argentina

Bangladesh

Brazil

China

Colombia

Cuba

Guatemala

Haiti

Iran

Nicaragua

Panama

Puerto Rico

Romania

Ukraine

Spain

Switzerland

Venezuela

Awesome! They are a lovely group of kids,

anxious to learn English.

When they first walk in my classroom, there's a look, a look of fear and anticipation altogether. I imagine they are wondering: What will this new experience be like? Who are these people? Will they like me? Will I like them? How am I going to do this? What are they saying?

My heart breaks for the students who come at "hello".

Their trek will not be easy.

All I can do is hope that I will be able to assist their transition in a loving and effective way. When a teacher receives a new student from their own district, at least he or she has an idea of what skills they should have been exposed to. In my case, it's very difficult to know what skills each child has in their own language. We don't have multi-lingual assessments to measure these things. So, what do I do? Adapt, accomodate, modify and google translate. We don't have time to go back to Kindergarten level. It's way too late for that. My students have to learn in 2-4 years what an American student does in 15 years.

Every year I get overwhelmed and daunted by the enormity of the task. But, each year, one day at time, we take out our tool belt and lay one brick onto the other. The project is sometimes slow, but most of the time steady. Next year another teacher will come and add another layer, another floor. Eventually, the building begins to take form and it's no longer just a hope, it's real. This ELL who came at hello, is graduating from High School. And, that's what I'm talking about.

I posted a while back on Worksheet Wednesday the Student Profile Sheet I used last year for the first week of school. Being that I have many returning students, we use something new every year.

Click here to download this year's B.O.Y. activity.