In reflection, I think my time with my ELL student was a great success.  It was really an advantage that she was also in my cooperating teacher’s class; this gave us more time together and a better opportunity to have a relationship.  It also gave us a lot of information to review together.

In reflection, it all goes back to what Mr. Raymond talked about in the beginning. . . relationships and rapport!  My time with M was so successful because we developed such a bond.  When we were finished today, M gave me a note; in this note she told me that she trusted me and I listened to her whenever bad things happened to her.  Trust is so important in the teacher-student relationship.  M trusted me and that helped her to listen to me and to apply herself even more.  I think we began on the right foot whenever I read her introductory letter to her in Spanish.  This helped her to see that I was willing to be a learner too and in turn she gave more of herself to the learning process.

I am so glad we had the opportunity to work with the ELL students.  It helped me so much because I was able to gain a better understanding of how difficult it is to be a young person who does not know the language. . .this will help me to be a better more compassionate teacher.

In reflection, I now see how important it is to listen to what the students want.  Today a student said group work would be eaiser if the students were allowed to choose their own groups.  I wish I could teach another lesson so that I could give the students an opportunity to choose their own groups and an opportunity to show that they can be responsible when they are given the privilege of choosing their own groups.

Today we said goodbye.  It made me feel so good when one student wrote that she would miss me.  I put a lot of effort into encouraging this particular student and I think the effort paid off.  In the beginning, she would rarely participate in class question/answer sessions, and now she feels more empowered to raise her hand and attempt answers!  This makes me feel good.  I wanted to teach because I loved my subject. . .  it was my passion.  I now want to teach because I love the kids!  I can learn so much from these students.

When I sat down today I realized immediately that something was going on with M.  I asked if she wanted to talk about what had happened and she said it would be good for her to share her experience with someone.  She told me a story about her families trip to HEB.  She told me about security guards grabbing her mother by the arm and telling her and her sister to shut up.  She told me about how she tried to be strong for her entire family since she was the one person who spoke the best English.  They took her family into the office at HEB and accussed her mother of stealing.  M said her mother did not take anything, but they threatened to call the police and they repeatedly told the girls to shut up.  They asked if the family had papers and when M said they did not; they said the police were going to come and deport them.  After two hours, and after M’s mother signed an omission of guilt they let the family leave and asked them never to return.  The police never came.

I would have a hard time concentrating on my school work too.  I imagine the powerlessness that M must have felt and the humiliation.  It makes me angry.  This semester at Akins I feel as if I have been exposed to a different world; a world were racial hatered and intolerance are still alive and well.  What is the first step in helping to solve these problems?  How can I help to change attitudes in the classroom?  How can I help students who fear that their family may be deported or students who go away from school and experience these type of injustices.

I listened to M today.  I cannot go back and change what has happened, but I can listen to her.  We began our reading lesson after we spent time talking about what heppened to her.  She did really well with her reading.  I helped her with words she did not understand and we discussed difficult Cold War concepts.  Ms. R says she can makeup the work she has missed.  Hopefully she will!

In reflection, students are going through so much outside the classroom.  The challenge for todays teachers is to provide the kind of safe learning environment where students can come and be free to study and learn without fear!

In analyzing this teach, I think it went really well.  I think the students definitely learned some new information and were exposed to new ideas about how different people lived in different parts of the world.

In reflection, there was so much that can be improved apon.  It was great to switch groups, but the time was so quick that each time the students would begin to understand what to do in the group they were in . . . it would be time to switch groups.  Another issue I had was the lights being on made it hard to show my video in the East African group.  I wish I would have shown the video in the beginning with my powerpoint because the lights would have been off and it may have been more powerful!

In closing, I see how important it is to tie the information I am teaching back to the lives of the students.  I had some information on what the Maasai children did and the students loved that.  I talked about Rwand and the Tutsi and the Hutu and one student refered to gand violence in his own life.  I wish I could have developed that more and I definitely will in the future.

I think it was a good way to review new material.  The class has just finished with World War II and has not begun their study of the Cold War; this will help my student to have an edge on understanding this material.  However, I did not realize how difficult it would be for me to explain words that I use everyday but rarely have to define for others.  This kind of activity is definitely good for me because it will help me to increase my own understanding of these topics and become a better teacher.

In reflection, next time I work with an ELL on reading a piece of academic text, I want to review all the words I think may pose a problem and think of ways to explain the words that are interesting and revelant to a high school student.  I also realize more and more how powerful relationships are in helping students to learn.  I can tell that the student I am working with really enjoys our time together; this allows her to have more patience with me while I work on trying to figure out the best ways to promote more understanding.  I think developing positive relationships is central to wroking with all students but especially effective when working with ELL.