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| Day 11 of 31 at Two Writing Teachers! |
Sure, you know that I teach ELLs, and you know some of their stories. You've read about some of their daily struggles, their tragedies, and their home countries. This month, you might have even stopped by our class blog to hear some of their stories in their own words!
Even so, you've never met my students. You don't see them every day, and I've never written about all of them. This introduction is a little bit overdue, I guess, but sometimes it's easiest to forget to explain what's right in front of us each day!
Thus, it's my pleasure to introduce to you: my students this school year. They are high school ELLs who range in age from freshmen to 19- and 20-year old seniors. A few of them were born in the U.S. but speak another language at home, while others just moved here several months ago.
They come from: Bangladesh, Canada (with Somali heritage), China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Estonia, India, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Mexico, Russia, South Korea, Sudan, Syria, Taiwan, Uzbekistan, and the United States (with Mexican heritage)
They speak: Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, French, Gujarati, Hindi, Japanese, Kikongo, Korean, Lingala, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Tamil, Telugu, and Uzbek
All that, and these are just the students in my classes. There are even more countries and languages represented in our school!
We truly are a microcosm of the world, and we learn with each other, from each other, and about each other every day. We work together, we laugh together, and we support each other. Our diversity makes all of us better learners, better teachers, and better people. This is why I love my ELLs!
What a wonderful introduction. You're right- diversity makes us better. It's awesome that you're using technology to connect with your students.
ReplyDeleteI'm enjoying reading their writing. It must be so interesting to come to work each day. Do you have some of them for more than one year?
ReplyDeleteIt's fascinating, Donna! I love to hear their stories and learn about their cultures. Potentially, I could have them all four years of high school (if they don't exit ELL and they end up in my classes instead of the other ELL teacher's classes) and it's very likely that I'll have many of them for at least several years. I'm looking forward to that, because I'll get to know them really well and I'll get to really see their growth!
DeleteYou do have a global community and this is just within your school. You have named languages I have never heard of, so thanks for the education. I love to travel and visit countries, but this is getting to visit without ever leaving home. If only everyone would look to how we are the same, there would be less fighting in the world.
ReplyDeleteIt's so wonderful, Elsie! Sometimes I look around my classroom (Catholic and Muslim girls giggling and talking, Hispanic and Korean boys working together, a blonde Russian girl and an African boy buddy-reading...), I think that if every kid learned in a classroom like this, there would be no war.
DeleteJennifer, beautiful slice about your students! You have so many of the same reason as I for loving teaching ELLs! Which students could be better???
ReplyDeleteWonderful to hear you write, & the additional words in your comments, Jennifer. I had no idea you would have such a broad range of kids in the classroom. Perhaps that's what many ELL classes are like? Thanks for telling about them.
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