TAMU Meeting 1

Had a really good- one-hour long - meeting with students from Texas A&M.  We discussed everything from identifying ESL students to teaching them in an inclusion setting.  The students were very engaging and offered good ideas as well as concerns about their role in the larger picture of teaching while splitting time between regular planning and "special case" planning.  We also discussed differentiation within the class room and the advantages and pitfalls.

In the role of facilitator,  I did find myself steering the conversation a little as I could.  The Participants were very willing to offer comments and I mostly just had to move us on to other topics.  We agreed that SL was a good forum for conversation, but we also agreed that to use it with students in a high school setting does present inherent dangers to teachers and we were not sure how to get around them. In particular, SL has areas that are of questionable content, and once on the site, there is no way to stop students from finding these areas and it seems likely that the teacher who directed them to SL would be mentioned as being to blame.

A a group, we weren't sure about some aspects of ESL.  In particular what, if any, status they shared with other Special Ed students legally.  We found ourselves becoming overwhelmed with all of the possibilities that a teacher of these types of students would face, and we found no relief in the fact that we would likely only have a couple in any one class.  In fact, this almost seemed more difficult from a planning perspective.

There was a moment for me when I realized that I don;t actually have a simple question on my First Day Questionnaire that asks students if English is the primary language spoken by them or in their home.  I offered no excuse for this last night, and do not do so now.

In the end, I complimented them on their dedication to education as demonstrated by their agreement to meet at a late hour on a Monday night three times in a month.  I thanked them for their time and came away, with a little opening in the window of my mind about taking a fresh look at myself and my teaching practices; especially as it pertains to addressing culture and language in my classroom.