Mistakes ESL Push – In Teacher Might Make (Very Personal Reflection).
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 feel responsible for someone being unprepared.
Recently, I’ve made a colossal mistake, and I still regret it. In one of my classes, the majority of students are English language learners. The content area teacher has no training in working with ELL, and that’s why I am in the classroom. However, the teacher is still responsible for teaching the class as much as I am responsible for my ELLs to understand the material of the lesson.
After a few weeks of passive observation and a desperate attempt to help all my students at the same time, I concluded that students are not ready to complete tasks because they don’t receive appropriate instruction (b
Since the majority of students are of my interest, I volunteered a task of teaching the whole class. Although I think my classes went well (I’m always very critical of my own teaching, once again I don’t want to be an annoying teacher here), I don’t think now I should have been teaching the class.
It made me feel I did the work I was not supposed to do and didn’t need to do. What happened is I failed to explain to the content area teacher that my job is co-teach and help the content teacher in creating resources that would help ELLs thrive in the classroom.
I took on the role that was not mine. I should have cooperated with the content area teacher and worked out the plan for co-teaching. The moral of the story: don’t volunteer to do the things that are not your responsibility. Don’t take on extra stress. I’m happy this happened to me. I’m wiser now!
2. Don’t focus on how other teachers see you. You are who you think you are.
I’m sometimes concerned about how content area teachers see me. Do they think I’m doing enough in the classroom? Do they see changes in the way my students perform? Am I stepping on someone’s toes? Am I enough?
This thinking comes from the mentality of self-deficiency. And this is something I’ve been working on for quite some time. You probably know that feeling when you assume that other teachers are much more experienced than you are, and other teachers’ classes are much better than yours? Maybe you can also call it impostor syndrome. Whatever it is, it’s not going to get you far. It’s crippling, and it doesn’t work.
Instead, what I’ve tried to do is to mentally isolate from what others think of me. It actually should not be relevant tome ta all. I’m the only expert in my area of teaching, I know my job in the classroom, and I do what I am qualified to do best: teach ELLs.
Whatever the relationships with other content area teachers are, and whatever your territories in the classroom are, be who you are and focus on what you do right for your students.
Remember, your perception of how others see you does not matter and is most likely wrong. Most teachers do want to support you and do appreciate your presence in the classroom as an ESL push-in teacher.
3. You don’t teach teachers, you teach students.
Although theories pertaining to ESL teaching have been around for a long time, in the public school system, not everyone is familiar with practices used by ESL teachers as well as the role of ESL teachers in content area classes.
What you need to remember though is that you don’t teach teachers – you teach students. Don’t try to alter, innovate, or persuade anyone in how things should be for ELL students. It’s not your job. Alter, innovate for your students when you help them to perform successfully in the content area classroom.
Be the change for the students, not the teachers. If you do your job right, the content area teachers will eventually pick up on your approaches and give you leverage in the classroom you need.
4. Stay in your experience zone but not in your comfort zone.
Since ESL push in teachers work with ELLs in a variety of content area classes, it’s easy to become uncomfortable and start thinking you are not qualified enough to do your job. How?
ESL push-in teachers deal with subject areas that are not always our forte. Calculus? History? Algebra? Chemistry? What?!! And while you are not there to teach content, you need to be able to navigate in it to help your students with the language development. It doesn’t come easy, but it’s getting better with experience.
Remember, you are an expert in teaching a language, not math or any other subject area. Don’t think you need to know the answers to all the questions your students might have in history, or algebra or calculus. Many might say it’s not possible to teach the language without knowing the content, and that’s a legitimate claim.
How can you explain something you don’t understand? But that’s where we fool ourselves. We don’t need to explain the content, we need to explain the concepts necessary for students to navigate the content material.
Stay in your zone of expertise – language, and let students conquer the content area – math , history, etc. with your support.
5. Don’t try to build what’s not there.
I already wrote about my frustration with packets that are common in many classrooms. I hear you! And although you might want to be the one to change the status quo in your school district or vent to your administration (bad choice), I encourage you not to take on the task of catching a rolling stone from the mountain. It will kill you. Know your job!
You are an expert in language teaching. Whatever you need to work with, let it be a packet that covers 2 hundred years of Roman history, your job is to help your students within the time limit of that particular class to work with the material given and reach the content
If you only have 25 minutes with your students and 5 pages of materials, generate a plan that will allow you to be helpful and provide them with tools to probably complete a task on their own. As soon as you leave the classroom after the bell ring, your job is done. Don’t dwell on it, don’t complain, be professional and work smart.
6. Build your presence gradually.
You don’t need to be the star teacher as you come into the new district. In fact, many teachers whose classes you visit might be unaware of what your role is even after you introduced yourself and your responsibilities. You might be looked at as additional help to all students or to one or two of them.
Many teachers will not be willing to share the space with you or give you any leverage in the classroom, and that’s ok. You don’t need to convince anyone to do anything for you, and you don’t need to explain yourself.
Just focus on being with students and provide help in the field of your expertise.
As time passes, the content area teacher will have more chances to get to know the area of your work and what you do with students. There will be a lesson where you can offer expertise to teach a mini-lesson.
For example, even in math and social studies classes they practice writing RACE model responses (R-restate, A-answer, C-cite, E-explain). This is the time for you to have your tools ready and deliver a mini-lesson on how to do RACE using examples. And that’s where your presence will start building.
7. Stick to your job title and stand your ground.
Stand your ground and claim your rights when you start in a new place. Educators, you will work with might not be familiar with the responsibilities of an ESL teacher. They might feel uncomfortable at first, or try to give you the extra hustle like making copies for them.
Be firm in explaining why you are in the classroom and be clear with what your job title is. You are not a copy maker or anything else. You are a teacher with the same purpose as the content area teacher you work with. Be professional, perform your responsibilities, be the help for ELL students.
