Reflection 3-Reflection on Mini-Conference

Sarah E. Findlay

Gwinnett County ESOL Endorsement Program

29 September 2012

Review-What did I learn?

            The Saturday mini-conference was informative and helpful.  The panel discussion in the morning gave me great insight into different cultures and how I can best interact with these cultures without offending them.  Some of these cultures I was more familiar with than others but all of the interpreters presented great information.  I also learned some things about how to bridge the gap between school and home culture and what picture books I can use to do this. 

            The first to speak was Vesna Vujinovic, from Bosnia, Herzegovina.  I have not had the opportunity to teach any students from this country however, I do work with several custodians from this area.  I learned that parents from this country don’t value education at the same level as Americans but do expect more contact.  I also learned that when speaking to them, not making eye contact could be viewed as disrespectful or may portray that you are hiding something. 

            Next Beatriz Uribe spoke about the Hispanic culture.  I have always wondered which term was politically correct: Latino or Hispanic.  Knowing that Latino is anyone from Latin America and Hispanic is anyone who speaks Spanish makes me more comfortable using these terms.  I do have the opportunity to work with mostly Hispanic students at my school so this information may help in referring to them.

            I feel that I learned the most from Eunsook Lee, the translator from Korea.  I have only had 1 student from Korea in my 7 years of teaching.  The parents of this child were very involved with school and didn’t have the same issues that Eunsook explained; however, they are very helpful tips to know.  Some of the cultural differences stood out to me.  Being aware of these will be very helpful when interacting with parents and students from Korea.  I did not know that writing student names in red pen was offensive or that they had trouble reading in cursive.  I also learned about some cultural differences that I had noticed but was not aware of why they happened.  For example, the ideas of “Pajama Day, Hat Day, and the Opportunity Room, are confusing to them because they do not participate in these types of activities in Korean schools. 

            Next to speak was Yisu Brasel, an ESOL teacher from China.  Yisu also mentioned that school functions were confusing for Chinese parents.  The most important thing that I learned from Yisu was the reason behind students from China leaving off the suffixes, articles, and prepositions in their writing and speaking.  I never realized that these words didn’t exist in Chinese.

            Lastly, Lan Schlecht spoke about the term “Asian” and how it doesn’t really give credit to the individual countries, languages, or cultures.  She was taken aback the first time she was called this and I now understand why.  He mentioned too, that most of the cultural differences that Eunsook and Yisu spoke about apply to Vietnamese too. 

            The two breakout sessions that I attended also provided me with helpful information that I can take back to my classroom.  Elizabeth Webb spoke about the culture of Gwinnett County Public School vs. the culture of our English Language Learner’s families.  She explained culture as perspectives, practices, and products.  The Immigration through picture books session gave me the opportunity to explore various books that portray different cultures and tell stories of people and families who have immigrated.  The website that Suzie Kipling developed was also interesting to see.  I enjoyed taking the quiz on immigration.             

Reflect-What does it mean to me?

            My goal for this program is to become an ESOL certified classroom teacher.    Before the mini-conference, I thought that to do that all I had to learn was how to teach them to speak, write and read in English.  I now realize that before I can do that, I must understand the students’ culture, language, and background.  These things have so much to do with how they learn and how I must teach them that I cannot be a successful ESOL teacher without doing this. 

            I also now realize the difficulties these students and their families face when immigrating to the United States.  The cultural differences from their home counties and ours can be confusing, strange, and intimidating.  The students often do not have parents at home that are capable of helping them academically although they have made an enormous sacrifice to give their children a better education and life.  I feel that I need to be more patient and sensitive to them and understand that they are still learning the American culture and the English language.               

Refine-How will I use this information in the classroom?

            I would like to take the things I learned from the mini-conference and use them so that I can develop more of a relationship with my students and get to know their cultural backgrounds.  I have 22 students.  Two are African Americans and speak English at home.  Two are from African countries and speak a language other than English at home.  The other 18 are Hispanic but from various countries.  I have 17 direct served ESOL students and 2 monitored ESOL students.  Each child in my classroom comes from a different cultural background than I do.  I used to lump all of my Hispanic students into one mental category but now realize that they are from various countries and have completely different cultural upbringings.  Completing the interview for the case study allowed me to further get to know one particular student whose family comes from the Dominican Republic.  I know that I also have students from Ghana, El Salvador, and Mexico.  I would love to use the interview worksheet with every student and every parent.  However, for the sake of time, I can simply ask the students themselves about their family culture.  Just like I am, they are proud of their heritage and will most likely want to share with me more of who they are.  After this, I can take that information and use it to help me develop lessons that make sense to them because I know more of what schema they bring to school with them.

            I do not have any students from Bosnia, Korea, China, or Vietnam but may one day.  The information that I learned from the translators will help me communicate with the parents and students in a more clear and impactful way.  Like I said earlier, I do work with custodians from
Bosnia.  I will definitely use the information that Vesna Vujinovic presented when speaking to them.   I feel bad because I often don’t make eye contact with the woman who vacuums my classroom daily, even when I speak to her.  I hope that I have not offended her in any way, but I will make a more conscious effort to look at her and speak to her when she comes to my classroom. 

Bibliography

Brasel, Y. (2012, September 29). ESOL Endorsement Mini Conference. Suwanee, Georgia, USA.

Lee, E. (2012, September 29). ESOL Endorsement Mini Conference. Suwanee, Georgia, USA.

Schlecht, L. (2012, September 29). ESOL Endorsemnt Mini Conference. Suwanee, Georgia, USA.

Uribe, B. (2012, September 29). ESOL Endorsement Mini Conference. Suwanee, Georgia, USA.

Vujinovic, V. (2012, September 29). ESOL Endorsement Mini Conference. Suwanee, Georgia, USA.

Webb, E. (2012, September 29). ESOL Endorsement Mini Conference. Suwanee, Georgia, USA.