>>What do I hope to gain from the Teacher Leadership program?
What I hope to gain is a better understanding of what is required as both a teacher and as a leader. To date, my experience in the classroom has been in one of two roles, neither of which allow for much experience as a leader.
First, I have been an ESL teacher in the Far East. In that role, my purpose is to impart the lessons and meaning of language to people who speak a language other than English. For total immersion purposes, the lessons are always in English; those who have lesser abilities either struggle to keep up or are helped along by their friends. I give aid whenever I can. But the students naturally look to me; I do not lead so much as I shepherd. No one questions my position as head of the class, nor is there much give and take; I must be the fount of all wisdom and experience. Unsurprisingly, teaching ESL overseas is an exhausting venue.
Second, my work in classrooms is as a Substitute Teacher. In that role, I am confined to following the lesson plan of the person whom I am subbing for. The rules and the plans for the day are laid out in black and white, and I cannot deviate from that plan. Both the teacher and the school are counting on me to do what I am told and stick to the course provided. Moreover, the students themselves will correct me right away if I don't do things the way their teacher requests. Since I hope to gain the regular teacher's approval (and hopefully return again at their request), I must follow their guideline.
So, I am hoping to learn how to lead properly. It is something that I haven't had much experience with at all.
Lawrence Burdick
lawrenceburdick@hotmail.com
San Francisco Bay Area
Lawarence you say that working with ESL children is a difficult task. Do you enjoy working with the ESL Students? I know when I would substitute teach I love working with the ESL and bilingual students.For this reason I am working to become a certified bi-lingual teacher.
ReplyDeleteESL students are probably the most difficult students of all to teach because they will try your patience in so many ways. Many of them truly want to learn, but there are the "coasters" who will try to usurp your command of the class. They are worse than the usual classroom slackers because they believe they can get along in their home community on their own language; and they have friends or relatives who tell them how to game the system to get by. You must use all your cleverness in order to first gain their attention and then you must gain their respect. If you cannot, then they will chew you up and spit you out with ripe disdain.
DeleteAnd yet, they must learn if they want to succeed. If not English, then Mandarin or German, for that is the world that we live in. In a way, the pendulum has swung back. In Shakespeare's England, the average man spoke four languages: English, French, Latin, and a fourth language that could have been Dutch but might also have been Spanish or Italian. This was not for convenience but for economic necessity. English was spoken in the streets and in many ports; Latin was the language of scholars and most of the learned including the clergy; French was spoken in France and in most Royal circles; and Spanish, Dutch, and Italian navigators were found in ports across the world.
The days of one-language countries are long gone, but getting students to realize that is the task of every teacher, and it's not easy.