Tuesday, August 24, 2010

New Year, New School, New Class

Well, a new year has begun, one week has gone by, and I am excited about this year. I am at a new school, but in the same district. My classroom is comprised of about 1/3 English as a Second language students. Ohio is a refugee friendly state, and Cincinnati is one of the two friendly cities, therefore, refugees are sent to our school after arriving in New York. The students in my class speak Vietnamese, Spanish, Cambodian, Wolof, Soninke, Rundi, and Arabic. A neat thing also is that each student in the school picks a language that they want to learn and go to a language class each day for a half hour. They choose from : Arabic, Russian, Japanese, or China.

It has only been a week so far in my classroom, but I am enjoying it. I have TRULY learned how to be patient, and calm as I teach and every step. I would say that I have always considered myself a patient teacher, but this year, I am completely conscience of every word I speak, and the tone that I speak it in. Moving to a new country is scary enough; all I want to do is give these students a loving environment in which to learn. Several of the ESL kids hardly speak at all. Most are capable, but not confident enough. However, every once in a while one of them will share a story with the class in their ever so quiet voices, and my heart just beams with joy. Every morning, sweet little Jessica from cambodian, the size of a 4 year old walks in first every morning with her two beautiful long braids-- she's so quiet that I almost forget she's there! Her sweet face and demeanor show me that I am in the right classroom.

I don't have a built in webcam on my computer, but I plan to get a new one soon, and when I do we are going to be "virtual" penpals with a friend of mine from San Diego who is from Peru, and now living there. I thought that it would be fun for the kids to ask him questions about what kids do in his country. I am always looking for new ideas, so if you have one, please send it my way!

I will keep you updated on the year as it goes by!