This week I started my new summer school classes. I have two classes-Speaking A and Writing A. They are supposed to be higher than my PreLevel class that I taught in Spring. First NONE of the students had the free wifi access that the college offers. I don't understand why teachers don't help students get this access. It really is very easy. It seems unfair to students. I mean NONE of the students in either class. That is about 50 persons.
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This really has nothing to do with my class directly. I spent the week attending an un-conference called NOTATISTE. You can find the link to the google group here-https://plus.google.com/communities/102762507417207490264
It consists of a group of educators from across the educational spectrum who can't attend the annual ISTE conference. There are selfie challenges (you need to know someone at ISTE to participate in these.) Daily challenges, twitter challenges, live sessions from the actual conferences, presentations by other NOATISTE members. I did not even realize that I have participated in this from its beginning. The first year I just followed. The second year I participated by doing an Ignite session. The third time (this year) I did a lot. I did a presentation, an ignite session and participated heavily in the selfie challenge with my friends Blair, Branka, Joyce and Penny from OTAN. I learned from the first keynote that if you don't struggle with something, you lose a part of the story that needs to be told. I connected with this because the first time I did an IGNITE session (this is 25 slides in 5 minutes) I almost lost my sanity. This year I had a lot less stress and was even asked to help someone else with their session. Wow! I learned in the second keynote that we all need to be adventurers and not give up on trying to make a difference in student lives. I participated in my first ever Twitter chat and felt empowered. NOTATISTE 18 will happen next year. Will you be there with me? As class wound up two weeks ago, it was bitter sweet. I had one on one appointments with all the students to go over their progress. One however sticks in my mind. He came in and really tried to describe what he wanted to say in English but said he had to use Spanish to get his point across. (Mind you my Spanish is not great, but I listen pretty well.) Here is the gist of what he said. He had tried to study a few times before but had failed. He indicated that it was at other schools. He said that he thought some of his problem was that he could not get along with other Spanish speakers. However, when he walked in the room that first day (he came a few weeks late) he felt a certain ambiance that he couldn't describe that made him feel comfortable. He had a girlfriend with him. She broke up with him within a week and this just cemented the idea that he was not going to be successful. However when she stopped coming, he did not. He felt that certain ambience which he could not describe. He sat at a table with Chinese students (one of my highest and two of my lowest students in the class) for two reasons he said.
1) He did not want to speak Spanish 2) He was afraid to get into some argument with the other Spanish speakers. He said that every day he woke up and the only part of his day that he looked forward to was class. When he came to class, he knew he would learn a lot and have a great time. He repeated that a few times and I could see tears starting to well up in his eyes. He said over time, he started to mingle with some of the Spanish speakers and even felt a bit comfortable to talk with them. He said I was very special to him and for that he was so thankful. Tears were starting to well up in my eyes as well. I wished him well and sent hi on his way. Saying thank you to him all the way out. So this week it is a new beginning. I have a high beginning Speaking class and a high beginning writing class. My speaking class was last night. None of the students are on the Portal from their last class...sigh...so I will have to get them all on the portal for Wifi access. I went over the syllabus with them and pointed to the sentence, "I use your phones. Please bring them charged." They looked at me in disbelief. I said does every one has a phone? They gave the look like (Yes of course we do). They don't have wifi though. All students except for 1 could use their own wifi for the time being. I will bring in my hotspot for those who have no access. I need to make a reservation in the lab to get them on the portal. I wish all teachers would get them this access. It helps with retention because they might just come more often if they can access the wifi on campus freely.
As the semester winds down, I realize how much I have learned. First, it almost seems like beginning level students are more eager to use technology or more easily persauded to use technology than my advanced learners. I am not sure why this is. Maybe it was just this particular class. I plan on using more things this summer with a speaking/writing high beginning group. We shall see how that goes. I made a story sphere of old town puerto rico that has no relationship to my class. I do want to embed it here so I don't forget about it. I will continue blogging until my retirement in December.
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Susan Gaer
A veteran teacher tackling the lowest levels of ESL instruction. Archives
August 2017
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