AHHHHH ESL

I ALWAYS knew I wanted to be a teacher, a kindergarten teacher! I had never even thought twice about ESL until my junior year of college. I did some tutoring hours in a regular 3rd grade classroom and the classroom teacher was talking to me about her experiences. She was currently going back to school to get her Master in English as a Second Language and had nothing but wonderful things to say about it! Her school practiced the pull-out method of ESL and as a regular classroom teacher, she hated it. She felt so unprepared to deal with the ELL during the majority of the day because she had no experience or training in that area. All she talked about the whole time I was in her classroom was how important it is for teachers in this day and age to be educated on ESL policies and strategies. She advised me that even if I don’t want to be an ESL instructor, taking courses to learn more about the program would be beneficial to me since I will most likely encounter these students at some point in my educational career. This encounter sparked a curiosity in me to learn more about ESL.

It just so happened that the summer after that I had the opportunity to study abroad for a month in Costa Rica. I was the outsider, the newcomer, surrounded by Spanish-only speaking peers. I visited many schools in the area and learned about their culture. I began to think about what it would be like to have these students in an English-only speaking classroom back in the US. They would be surrounded by English-only speaking peers, who not only talked differently but dressed, acted, looked, ate, and lived completely differently.

AHHHHHH ESL!!!!

Having no experience in the area, this was my first thought. How can I help these students become comfortable in their new environment? How can I make their learning experience a positive one? This is my new goal. Whether I am an inclusion, pull-out, self-contained classroom, or regular education classroom teacher, I need to know the answers to these questions to be an effective teacher. I know I don’t have a lot of experience with ESL but I am really excited about being a future teacher and all the wonderful ESL teaching methods I will learn.

YAY ESL : )