First Week of Real School

So this past week was my very first week as a High School Math teacher. I must say it went pretty darn good. So far I have not had any big behavior problems which is something I really struggled with this summer teaching Chemistry. The biggest struggle I will be facing this year is the language barrier at my school. I just looked at my roster last night and figured out that I have 7 different languages spoken in one of my Algebra classes ( English, Spanish, French, Farsi, Somali, Urdu, and Other). Not sure what the Other means.... My Geometry class has 5 different languages spoken (English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Other) and I am not sure yet about my other Algebra class. And believe it or not some of these students do not understand anything that comes out of my mouth. As you can imagine it is really hard to teach someone anything in English if they do not understand English. I am working on finding ways to communicate with these students the best I can in hopes that they learn Algebra. Though this may seem like a discouraging situation I am confident that God will equip me with what I need to communicate with these students. I am excited to see how far we come by the end of the year.

My inspiration for the week and probably for the week is a girl named Vanessa. So on Thursday I was feeling really stressed and down. I was asking myself and God "How am I going to do this? Especially if no one comes in after or before school to get help." Then by the grace of God, Vanessa comes in to get some extra help on what we were learning in class. I help her with what she came for and then started talking to her. She began to tell me about what she wanted to do in life and about why she was in 11th grade and only in Algebra 1. Apparently she is considered "special education" (SPED) because she at one time had a hard time reading English. Now if this is the case I want to know why all my students are not classified "special education"? So because she is SPED she had been placed in Fundamentals of Math classes for her first two years of High School. Do you want to know what they teach in that class? They teach addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and they go all the way up to FRACTIONS!! From what she told me, they taught her the same stuff every year and she would fly through it with high A's. She told me that people at the school were telling her parents that she would be able to go to college with these Math classes but teachers were telling her that she wouldnt be able to with these classes. She began asking around more and finally found out that she would not be able to go to college if she continued taking the classes she was taking. So she got herself into Algebra 1 and now plans to take Geometry in the summer and Algebra 2 next school year so she can go to college and become a Math Teacher! She wants to help the students that are in situations like hers. She has so much motivation, passion, and determination. I told her I will help her with whatever she wants. So she came in on Friday morning 1 hour early to begin working out of the book, which is something we don't really do. I have her reading through the book and doing the problems and if she has any trouble she can ask me questions. EVEN BETTER she came in after school on Friday and spent 1.5 hours helping a student in my class that just moved here from Cuba and doesnt know a lick of English. Now he is also determined to learn Algebra and she is going to help him. I did tell him though that he is going to need to work really hard to learn English so that he can at least somewhat understand me in class. These are the students that make me love my job! I am so excited for this school year and working with students just like these. From the looks of it many of my students want to learn and are willing to work hard to overcome the language barrier, as am I. Please pray that we will be able to overcome all the obstacles that are ahead of us.

Sorry that this is the first post in almost a month. I feel like I need to continue to record these successes that I encounter and the struggles that I face. I miss you all and hope that you are enjoying the long weekend!

Peace,
MO