As an ESL push-in teacher, I go to other teachers’ classrooms and support my students. I saw some great classes, and others were more hard to work in. This one is  tricky, but let me be honest: not everything that happens in the public school system is perfect. I  was in the class when there was no structure or what we call teaching and learning were not happening. Misbehavior was the consequence of students not knowing what to do, struggling, feeling confused. I did certain things that didn’t work and certain things that I thought would help me survive until the end of the school year. From that experience, I…

In talking to ESL (often Bilingual) teachers about the tasks they find themselves doing over and over again, I often hear complains and concerns about translation and modification. I understand the pain although I never ever translated because, although I’m bilingual, I don’t speak Spanish, and most teachers who complain about the tasks of translating are Bilingual English-Spanish/ Spanish – English teachers. Starting my second year in a public schools system, I have been religiously creating procedures, formulas, strategies that place the boundaries between my work and personal time as well as alleviate the pressure to do everything. The most valuable thing I understood in my first years of teaching…

The new year brings new hopes that this year will be easier, less stressful and more efficient. In fact, less overwhelm comes not only with efficiency but also with the ability to put things in perspective and focus only on things that matter. Indeed, we can work all day long, and it will never seem enough, especially in planning and putting resources together. In this post, I am sharing my list of 8 things that matter to me this year as an ESL push-in model teacher. 1.    Don’t try to save the world and everyone in it. Providing in-class push-in services can make your head spin if you think you…

When you are an ESL push-in teacher and go to different content area classes, you need to put yourself out there, talk to other teachers, co-teach, co-plan, cooperate, co-everything. And guess what? If you an introvert like me, it’s going to be tough to be in the limelight. It can be overwhelming and exhausting. So I know what you feel. However, I can give you a few principles you can stick to to alleviate the pressure of the responsibility to be everything and everywhere as well as avoid some major mistakes that will cost you time and energy. 1. Don’t volunteer to take on the responsibilities of others and don’t…

I’ve been on both sides of the dilemma. I remember struggling to keep up with planning what would be considered an excellent lesson (according to my understanding then), drained after a long day of talking (over the students sometimes), anxious about what to teach next, having that tugging pain in my stomach, and realizing that today’s planning will drag into midnight. My first year of teaching I remember coming home, my throat aching and my head buzzing as if I was chased by a bee colony. Sure, there were days when I had no choice but survive at my table, trying to catch some needed emotional distress and hoping no…

I’ve recently changed jobs, and my biggest fear was to be as overwhelmed and lost as a felt during my first year of teaching. Besides, I transitioned from being a classroom ESL teacher and having 25-28 students to an ESL push-in model teacher, and that was very new to me. Apart from traveling to different classes to service language learners, the biggest challenge is to figure out what to do with 3-15 English learners of different levels scatteredin different areas, like Social Studies, Math, Science, Writing. Because the kids are in different grades and are at a variety of language levels, I ended up with 7 different content areas and…