There are alot of walls here. Every house is enclosed with an extra set of walls around it, but those aren't the walls I'm really thinking about right now. It's the big wall that separates me from my students - the language barrier - that is so ominously before me. Today was frustrating because I was teaching a simple math lesson on patterns, and I knew the kids could do it, but they just could not follow along with me. My first instinct was to drag them along and push through it, but afterwards I realized it's not their fault and I need to meet them where they are. It would be so hard to go to a school where the main instruction is in a language you don't really know. And they're only six! I've been reading about ideas for helping build the students' oral language, which is where it all begins. I'm hoping to integrate those ideas into my curriculum.
For now, I am reminded of the story of Joshua and the walls of Jericho. The Israelites marched quietly around the city for days as the priests blew trumpets, and on the seventh day God made the walls come tumbling down. So, perhaps my job now is to look a little crazy like the Israelites did, march around my classroom repeating myself, making giant gestures, and randomly bursting into song at the hopes of pasting an English vocabulary in their memories. Then eventually maybe that wall will fall down. But probably not in seven days.
Wow, how tough!! We have a lot of accent barriers at work and particularly when we're working with people who don't live here, their english skills might be a little rusty - or sometimes I just have trouble hearing over a bad phone connection. nothing like what you're dealing with! But sometimes we try to do things like draw or write a word we mean while we say it (when we are able) to clarify...
ReplyDeletegood luck learning and keep us in the loop about how it goes! Aside from being all kinds of fascinating to us, maybe a first year teacher will benefit incredibly from reading this next year ;)