Week 5: February 6-10
When the Newcomers started, I pulled my para from all but two classes. In those two classes I reminded her to assist all students as needed - including reading tests aloud. The SpEd department appreciated that and said they would help out in the other class periods. Awesome! …
Wednesday: I received an email from a content teacher, “I just wanted to check in as to your thoughts regarding those ELL students who need to have tests read to them. I know that previously the SpEd staff was helping out, but from my understanding, that is not going to be the case anymore. So I'm just wondering what the next plan of action is? I know there are tests and quizzes always coming up, so as team leader, and a classroom teacher, I want to make sure we are doing right by those students.” I had no clue about this change, and was irritated that this email was sent to me AND our principal. I felt that was totally unfair. I quickly tried to do damage control and found out, from a SpEd teacher the our school psychologist told them that they could not help more than five students at a time; so even if I had one student in a class, they could not help them in the classroom, pull them for tests to be read aloud, etc. I replied to the teacher, “With the SpEd staff taking their students, can you - the classroom teacher, read to the ELL kids in the room? If the classroom teacher isn’t already reading to the other students, I think this would be fine.”
I later received an email from the principal that said, “Brenna - I hate to say this, but I am assuming that some of your students are going to need the accommodation/ modification of having the test read to your students. Obviously, this will be hard because we can not send Tangemann everywhere. But the general education classroom teacher can not be pulled to read to your ELL students. They need to be available to help the students within your classes. At this point, what needs to happen is the general education classroom teacher will need to send the test with the student to your room where Jennifer will have to read to them in the hallway. I know this is not ideal, but this seems like the best solution.I would communicate this to all teachers a list of students who need the test read to them. I would also ask teachers to communicate to you ahead of time when the test will be so you can plan accordingly within your room.”
By the time I read his email, I was pretty hot. I replied that, “The classroom teacher would not need to be pulled from the classroom to read to the students, it could all happen within their four walls. ..I will work on getting a spreadsheet set up with kids’ schedules so Jen and I can try to figure out how to juggle everything.” No one replied to me after that. I did go to the principal’s office after school and express my frustrations. Ultimately he said to do whatever I needed to do to help my kids in the best way possible; that this is entirely new to him too and it’s a huge learning curve.
*** I left his office feeling a little relieved, as he gave me his blessing to spend less time on instruction of my classes, and to focus more on being a case manager. I can’t simply stop teaching to the classes I have, and offer study halls all day, but I will give them more class time to get work done, study for tests, and collaborate. I hope to spend less time worrying about grades as well.
Thursday - Parent/Teacher Conferences: All but three of my Newcomers came. Yay! I will say, having a student all day long in my room certainly creates a LONG conference; there is a lot to talk about!
One particular student, non-Newcomer is a handful. He doesn’t bring what he needs for class, rarely has his homework done -if it is even with him. His mom sounds supportive of the school, but there doesn’t seem to be much follow through on her end of things. I do not believe this is a language issue, but I can’t prove that until other things improve. Tuesday, Mom was supposed to come for her son’s final SAT meeting. She did not come, so I met with her on Wednesday. Ultimately it was decided to have him carry a crate/bin of all of his locker contents so that he always has what he needs. Also, it is up to the individual teacher, but we discussed having him leave his work in each classroom so that nothing went home and didn’t come back, or got lost in transition.
Newcomers in Gym Class: This is the Newcomers’ first full week of having gym class. The gym teacher is very particular about how she runs her classes, has clear expectations and consequences. I reminded her that “my” students are no different than other students in the building when it comes to participation, attendance, behavior, etc. I offered to send my para with the students to help her -initially she declined the support, then demanded it. After the first day, the teacher approached me asking if she was supposed to have the same expectations for my para. Long story short, I simply reminded her that my para is another adult in the building, not a student, and that she is not a teacher, but is there to help reinforce what the teacher is doing, and work with individuals or a small group (“our kids”) as needed. Another complaint was that my kids are “slower than other kids. It’s like working with kindergarteners!” This was quite frustrating for me. Cognitively, my students should not have any issue in gym class. Understanding the rules of a game, however, they will struggle. I explained that most students have played sports, namely soccer, in their native country, but it was probably a street or pick-up game that was less structured than her gym class. Apparently her frustration was in the kids not being able to catch a ball, dribble, run 10 laps around the gym without walking, or do sit-ups fast enough. I gently reminded her (like I’ve had to remind many other staff members) that these students have only been in our building for a month. If they think back to what the beginning of September was like for all of the other students in the school, they would have a good idea about where my students are in their learning of the school rules, expectations, etc.
**** The gym teacher prints out the instructions or rules for class and my para pulls it up in Spanish (all of our students are Spanish speakers). We give them class time to look it over, watch Youtube videos and ask us questions about it.
Week 6: February 13-17
One Newcomer started ‘normal’ classes this week. He is seriously struggling. It seems that he does not have strong study habits. He is failing every class; even mine. Sometimes he simply doesn’t do the work at home. There are two of my other students who have the same schedule as him, who are helping him as needed, but I think he is using them as a crutch -and it’s not fair for them to spend their time helping him understand when they too are learning the material. --- After talking to him later this week I helped him think through how to better use his work time at school and home.
Maybe I can use NEWSELA for the fall. All staff have a PRO membership, but the lowest Lexile is 560 (second grade) -even with the Elementary version. However, there is a Spanish (text) option -for my Spanish speakers. I found a story about tornados, at the lowest lexile, which I think would be a good thing for them to read about being in the Midwest, but one of the first words was thunderstorm. Nowhere in the reading does it explain what a thunderstorm is. Ugh. Thankfully, I can digitally annotate on the document to provide definitions, but I may have to just suggest students use a dictionary. Maybe have them flip back and forth between the English and Spanish texts?
I had to rearrange seats again. There was some bullying going on at the group on the left of my classroom. I pulled the desks apart and put them into two rows with everyone facing one direction. So far, so good. I moved the tables that were in the back to the front. This allows for all of the students in my classes to sit near the board. By moving the desks to the back, that allowed for more flexibility in seating arrangements for the Newcomers.
I spent a lot of time after school this week trying to get caught up. I bring things home to work on, but never pull them out. I want to, but the few hours a day I have with my children take priority. Some of the things I need to do are easy enough for my para, or another adult, to do. I already stretch her so thin, I don’t know when I could have her help me do these things. (Simple grading, copies, update curriculum materials for each student, etc.) Once some of these things are done, they won’t need to be done again; it’s just time consuming at the beginning.
*** I updated some of the documents and scanned them to myself. Now I have a nice, clean digital copy. Yes!
Week 7: February 20-24
No school on Monday (Presidents’ Day/Teacher compensation day) or Friday (snow day).
The non-Newcomer who carries his locker contents with him is showing improvement. It is very minimal, but it is there. Hallelujah! However, more concerns are surfacing. I’m afraid he may have a memory issue. I need to talk to our school Psychologist about it.
I’m concerned about one of my Newcomers. He seems to not understand simple instructions - even when there is an example for him to follow. I had another Spanish speaking student explain everything to him, in her own words even, and he did okay for a few days, but is in a slump again. This students WAS in attendance at the previous Newcomer location at the high school. That teacher had nothing valuable to offer when I asked her about him. The student’s brother says he understands him just fine when speaking in Spanish, but my non-Newcomer students all say they often have no idea what he is saying to them.
*** I need to talk to my supervisor, Josh, about this kiddo.
Wednesday: I had a SAT meeting for another non-Newcomer. She works her tail off but still struggles. She is now in my room one period a day as a study hall. I do not teach a class that period, but do have the Newcomers. I can read tests to her, review for tests, allow for work time, etc. She was quite excited and thankful to be in there Thursday. She’s been in the US since kindergarten, but the district she attended had no ELL program. She came to Ralston halfway through 5th grade, where she finally received language intervention and support.
*** She is also coming to my room at any point during the day to have tests read aloud - just like all of the other students.
