Blog #2- Teacher Interview

Welcome CUIN 4361 Peers!

 For my interview, I decided to interview one of the teachers at the campus where I do my student teaching. Ms. Garcia is a third-year teacher; who is currently teaching 3rd grade ELA and Social Studies. Ms. Garcia's passion is teaching and helping students, and is very big on ensuring that every child is getting the appropriate support and accommodations to be successful inside her classroom. 

Ms. Garcia is not new to working with ELL students inside her classroom. With her previous years of teaching, she has gained more knowledge and practice/experience working with ELL students. She stated that she has a variety of ELL students ranging from early emergent readers to fluent readers and some in between those. Ms. Garica expressed that challenges arise when working with ELL students, but she finds solutions to those challenges. Some challenges she faces are getting the students to make personal connections to the classroom and curriculum. Another challenge is working with their native language and comparing words or phrases to English. She takes into consideration if the student(s) are only speaking in their native language at home, or if they are speaking and learning English at home as well, this can cause challenges because they might not be as advanced and requires extra in-class support.  Wright states, "teachers must get to know their students by obtaining information about their sociocultural background. This information will help teachers make the best possible decisions for providing effective instruction for their ELLs" (2019, p.26). 

Inside her classroom, Ms.Garcia uses a variety of approaches for her ELL students. Ms.Garcia shared that since she can be a fast talker, one approach she takes with her ELLs students is to slow her speech down and be very articulated. She also uses their native language and finds commonalities between their native language and English to help them find those pathways and make connections. She uses a lot of visual representations like pictures, sentence stems,  and models. Wright stated, "teachers need to find ways to make their instruction comprehensible for ELLs, and they need to provide ample opportunities for meaningful interactions in the classroom" (2019, p.66) 

Interviewing Ms.Garcia was such a wonderful thing to do, and I'm thankful I got the experience to do it. I was able to learn and gain insight from an experienced teacher. I left this interview with knowledge on some techniques I can use inside my classroom one day to help support my Ells. My biggest takeaway from this interview was learning about the approaches she uses to ensure her ells are getting the support they need to be successful not only in her class but in their everyday life. She is focused on using their background to help build those personal connections to the lesson or content.

References:

Wright, W. E. (2019). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice (3rd ed.). Caslon Publishing

Vblog Entry 1: Introduction

 Welcome CUIN 4361 Class!

First, I would like to say hello and welcome you to my blog. My name is Davereon Freeney. I'm currently a senior at the University of Houston, and my major is in Education. I will be graduating with the certification to teach EC-6. I will be graduating this coming May, and I am so excited! I cannot wait to see what the future has in store for me as I begin my journey as a teacher! 

Growing up, I wasn't exposed to a lot of diversity (at first), so English was the only language I heard because everyone around me spoke English. It wasn’t until I moved cities in the 6th grade and transferred to a School with diversity. I began to hear people speak Spanish around me so this was a new experience. I took Spanish in middle school and my last two years in high school. All the classes were structured the same way; I just learned a little bit more each year. The teacher would start by having a lesson over some words or a topic for that day. We would start by learning the basic things like numbers, months of the year, vocabulary, and simple phrases in each class. We would get a worksheet and complete it, and that would be it. As I got older and began working at places with people who spoke different languages; I have gain more experience with learning and speaking Spanish by talking to my co-workers and learning from them. 

As a future educator, my teaching philosophy will center around ensuring that; I am building positive relationships will each of my students and creating a safe and comfortable learning environment for every student. I am passionate about diversity and equity, so my classroom will reflect that. I can do this by getting to know my students and their background so I can know what their individual needs are so they can be successful (Wright, 2019, p. 25). I know I will have a variety of students, and every student learns differently, so I will have to use various strategies that will benefit every child. Wright stated, “ELLs formulate, reformulate, and negotiate their identities as they deal with and attempt to resolve the conflicts between what they encounter at home, in school, and in the dominant social culture"(2019, p.21). Keeping that in mind as a teacher, I will celebrate my ELLs students' differences and culture and use it as a teaching moment for my students to learn more about diversity and create that comfortable learning space for us all. I will make sure they receive the appropriate accommodations and extra support they may need. They should feel comfortable and should be able to embrace their native language and culture even inside of school. 

References:

Wright, W. E. (2019). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice (3rd ed.). Caslon Publishing.