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…

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…

Teachers grow. They do. And I am not talking about professional development and conferences and workshops. Teachers grow into or out of their profession. When teachers grow into their profession, they find their sweet spot in it. They develop the level of comfort, efficiency, and happiness that make them feel they are in the right place. It might take a year or 5, but usually, 5 years is said to be the period when a young or enter-level teacher decides on staying in or leaving the profession. Some teachers grow out of their profession, literally. There are those professionals who, after trying to adjust and find whether they belong, come…

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…