Poems about #13 lives of multilingual children in public #12 school

Luz Ortega

Class: EDBL 603

Prof: Dr. Zahra Saleh-Johnson

November 30, 2018

               My Philosophy Statement as Educator (Fall 2018)

            My philosophy as an educator and what I have learned from Foundation 1: Principles and Practice in Bilingual Education is that each student is unique and my responsibility is to provide educational environment to help the student’s grow physically, mentally, emotionally and socially in the classroom and the school community. I will also provide a safe place where the students are free to share ideas and able to take risks as well.
            For instance, I had the opportunity to work with a student who parents came from Mexico and even though they came to this country when they young they could not go to school to learn the English language, so it is very difficult for them to help Alexa and her siblings with their school work. I feel that it is my job to provide support and apply the tools I’ve learned so this family to excel. There are many students in the same position as Alexa, there are many ELL that come from different culture and they are invisible to the education system politics.
            I am currently working in a school where ELLs make up about 1/3 of the student body, population is mix of different culture and languages and I am seeing the struggle the bilingual students are going through in the school community. As an educator, I will provide professional development and information to teachers in order to clarify misconceptions as well as provide support to teachers such as language access for parents, translation/interpretation for students, along with providing resources of research based best practices for instruction of ELLs including how to ensure all assessments are valid.       

            There are so many misconceptions about ELLs by many educators and the politic system, such as thinking that bilingual students have low IQ compare to monolingual students. This comes from the use of invalid assessments, since they are using standardized tests to base their opinions of the intellectual capacity of ELLs, instead of using valid assessment methods for language learners such as oral interview, observation and drawing etc. to determine how much they know.   Bilingual students have so much cultural values and knowledge that can be use in the classroom to promote their education not only to the bilingual students but monolingual as well.

       I believe that culture plays an important role in Bilingual Education and how we as educators include them. Celebrating important day in the students’ culture, is important because educators are helping the students to expand their knowledge and also teaching students to respect each other’s values. Celebrating a students’ culture can be something as simple as: decorating the classroom or hall way, wear traditional clothes or food from their culture. I also understand that cultural competence is a priority when working with a diverse populations and behaviors, norms, and expectations may differ from one culture to the next. What one culture views as a sign of respect, others can find offensive. Families may also have different views of what is considered acceptable behavior, which may not necessarily be acceptable behavior.

        I will celebrate cultural diversity in a classroom and school’s community, and support teachers in doing the same. I will make sure that teachers practice culturally responsive pedagogy and are considering students experience and prior knowledge when planning lessons.

      Teachers will learn about strategic pairing (data driven, homogeneous vs. heterogeneous, language proficiency, home language, etc.), the ways they can pair who are English learners to maximize their discussion time and provide students the opportunity to support each other’s learning. I will use observations and discussion to consider students’ strengths such as expert knowledge about their culture, and I will use it as resource to help other students to learn about different cultures and to reinforce bilingual skills to ensure future job opportunities and college career possibilities. 

    Teaching is a process where educators are always learning and adapting, whether it’s from students, colleagues, parents or the community. As an educator I am learning new ideas and strategies that I can use in the classroom to help my students succeed in their education and their adulthood as well.