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You Can Do It Only In Summer!..
“Why would the school have immigrant teachers who can’t really tell much about American life? I’m talking about baseball, football,” – an exchange student of 15 years old was grilling me in the classroom in front of other ten anxious teenagers who came to the US mostly to experience American YOLO type of life. My face was red, I was sweating in a conditioned room stacked with apple computers for smarts kiddos. “Why did I get this group? Why did I agree to teach this summer school?!” – I wanted to disappear into the oblivion. That happened about four years ago. Back then, I was eager to experiment, get more…
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The Power Of “Why Not?!”
“I’m selling my Etsy store. I don’t think I feel it anymore,” – my voice sounded firm for a second. “What are you talking about?” – my husband doesn’t mind my “whims.” Etsy store was out of his realm of understanding. “Why so fast?” – the question came unexpectedly after a moment of pause. “H-m, you know, it’s just time to try something else.” I had no idea what “something else” would mean for my future. Thirteen years ago, my hometown of Rechitsa in Belarus was the place I returned to after graduating with a degree in teaching. No expectations of excitement, no new adventures or independence became part of…
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Brainwashing For Teachers or What Not To Do in Summer.
Flip furniture! Drive Uber and Lift! Offer cleaning home services! Run a delivery service! Make meals for others! Weed of mow lawns! Become a real estate agent! Do a medical study! Become a drone pilot! Open up an Etsy shop! Be a pet sitter! Be a nanny! “You are out of your mind! …” My eyes are running through the list of odd jobs offered as a side hustle for teachers to make extra money in summer. “If I could, I would punch you in the face, whoever wrote this post!”- I laughed at my own dismay. I’m a teacher who can afford to stay home in summer because I…
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How To Become an Irreplaceable Teacher in Your School.
Someone told me once if I wanted to avoid tribulations and uncertainty in your position, you need to become an irreplaceable professional. Well, “nothing is irreplaceable,” you might think. I feel the idea of irreplaceability can be interpreted differently based on the work circumstances and the school culture in general. In my new school district where I started working as an ESL push-in teacher, I’ve been struggling with understanding my purpose in the classroom, figuring out ways to collaborate with content area teachers, providing quality support for my English language learners within time and space restrictions. My district has become infamous for moving the teachers around to different schools, and…
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5 Things I Have Learned as an ESL Push-in Model Teacher That I’m Taking into the Next School Year.
1) The importance of the lesson flow routines Everyone knows about that, don’t they? Routines and procedures are the backbones of any lesson, and they determine the success of it to a great extent. You might ask, “what routines are you talking about if you are in an ESL push-in model?” The reality is you don’t control the flow of the lesson, which is controlled by the content area teacher. On some occasions when you do pull out your English language learners (see one of my posts here), there IS a place for lesson routines and procedures. However, when you push-in your language learners in math, science, social studies, or…
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5 Things an ESL Push-in Teacher Should Consider Doing Differently or Start Doing.
The last couple of months as I continue my work as an ESL push-in teacher, I have grown, have started and given up a bunch of projects and ideas, have discovered things I ought to have or do to be efficient and avoid being desperate about having no classroom of my own and being a nomad in my own school. With lack comes innovation and a better understanding of essentials I need in my profession, the tools that make my work productive, with no time wasted. What I also have learned is that evaluating administrators of ESL push-in teachers do not become more lenient or permissive of mistakes just because…
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My Honestly Vain and Egotistical Desire To Be a Student at TC Columbia University.
I want to be honest to say that Columbia University admission was a plan in the making for more than 10 years. Back then I lived in Belarus. One of my mom’s friends had her daughter immigrate to the United States and getting her education at Columbia University. Apart from my fascination about the greener grass on the other coast, I’ve always kept an idea that one’s value is determined by education one receives, or rather the name of the school one gets written down in the diploma. I felt insecure and unworthy most of my life despite being an A student, getting into a top university in my home…
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My Biggest Vulnerability.
After the period of squelching across the “new teacher” life stage, dreading the unexpected, mastering the bases while adjusting to “no one- told-me-about-that-in-college” experiences, I’ve learned to be efficient and gained my confidence. This helped me avoid vulnerability and spillage of work and stress into my life. Being vulnerable does not, in my mind, go with teaching. As a teacher, you model excellent behavior and spirit, you are to demonstrate leadership and show strength in your decisions. Vulnerability would jeopardize many processes and routines, generate a crack in your belief about the value you bring to the society by educating students and creating the atmosphere for them to grow as…
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A Minimalist ESL Teacher.
After my first year of being a teacher in a high school, I’ve decided to make a transformation in my thinking and my behavior which I hoped would help me undo my perception of the teaching profession as unsustainable. The necessity of this transformation came from my inability to understand why things that I love to do would take a toll on my life and health. I already wrote about being depressed and anxious during my first month of teaching, and while a lot of anxiety and depression have left, I am still learning to balance the work and my “after-work-life” by creating strict boundaries, developing procedures, and creating tools…
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How NOT To Create Dependent ESL Learners.
If you are an ESL teacher who pushes in students in other content area classes, you might sometimes ask yourself a question whether you create dependability of students on you. This is a tricky question because I personally believe there is nothing wrong if L1 and L2 students perceive me as the source of the language, feedback, and correct information. L3s and L4s might stick to me sometimes just because they feel with me they do things easily while I do provide a lot of support in a language. With higher levels, however, I tend to be a much feistier “mom” than with my beginner learners. And yet, I think…
