In my search to find what was next on the horizon after a couple of career changes, I embarked upon the career path of “alternative teacher”. There are many programs out there and I embraced one with all the gusto I give any project, 110%. After completing all the required courses, I found the schools in the area I live are flooded with recent eager graduates filled with all the wisdom of the four universities that already have their teaching degrees and their student teaching under their belt. In order to be “certified”, a school would have to hire me “uncertified” and allow me to teach a year, then I would be “certified”. Needless to say, I am deemed “highly qualified”, but unemployable. I have no problem getting lots of substitute teaching jobs and I rarely see the same young teachers in their heels and pencil skirts that are hired straight out of college from one year to the next. After interviewing and applying for over two years, I found the alternative teaching school had dropped me from the program citing that I have failed to complete the program by not finding a teaching job in 2 years! The only option offered to me was to start their program all over again! I said, “No thanks.”
Since that time, I have substitute taught in the public schools and pretty much given up on my “dream” of becoming a teacher. But in my heart, I know I am a teacher, whether I have the piece of paper that says I am or not. When I am able to explain something to a child in a classroom regarding fractions and see the light come on in her face for the first time or how decimals work and equate it to money and make that connection to a middle schooler, I know that I can teach. When a I listen to a child explain to me in an essay how the word “sacrifice” means taking the rap so your little brother won’t go to juvenile detention, I know I am making a difference.
About two months ago, I volunteered to teach English to Spanish speakers in my hometown. This is a stretch for me, because I don’t speak Spanish. I was told I didn’t have to, it would help, but wasn’t necessary. Since that time, I have learned how to see just how difficult English really is and how much I have to learn. I am learning Spanish from a web site, but it is formal Spanish, so my students often give me the Tex-Mex version of their Spanish and very curious looks when I try to say something for the first time. It is a learning experience for both of us! I am learning how hard they work and I am ashamed to say how invisible they were to me. I am falling in love with the language and with my students. They come after working all day to learn English. They come with their children or their spouses who do speak English so they can attend parent conferences, get better jobs, and move up into a different socio-econonmic class.
Some of my students love the computer, some have very little computer skills. I have made flash cards for them, and we have work books, work sheets, and the Rosetta stone. However, the best learning skill for beginning speakers is to bring objects and let the students pick something that looks interesting out of the pile and then “talk” about it. By that I mean, I say simple sentences about the object and pass it to the next student who then repeats it and passes it to the next student and passes it on back to me. We do this over and over. The theory is that a language is learned by hearing before you see it written.
In my quest to become a teacher I attended a Sally Ride conference at NASA about 2 years ago. My sweet husband even went with me and attended the classes I couldn’t. One of the goodies I got from the conference was an earth pillow with a little moon that was tucked inside. I took that last week along with other objects. Of course, that is what the students wanted to use, so we talked about the earth, the colors on the earth, where the United States is, where Mexico is, etc. As we passed the earth pillow around with its blues, greens, reds and yellows it was as if we were realizing how small this little world really is. And how we are all one part of it.
One of the statements was “I like to look at the moon” and the last was “the moon is round”. Sounds simple. It should be. These are students that don’t speak English. My instructor says “You need to give them one thing they can leave with, that they can own and say and practice”.
It was getting close to closing time and I had left them with some work sheets and was checking on some other students and then they were packed up and ready to go. I said goodnight and looked over to Juanna and Lorenzo and he smiled at me as he said “the moon is round”.
